Deeply textured plate glass

[Naphtali]

I took delivery Monday of two Ferguson breech-loading flintlock barreled actions. On another thread I asked about regularizing round balls to ensure consistent accuracy. I also asked about how to make sure lubricant applied to an RB would stay on. One responder had a brilliant idea - role RBs between files, their striations creating uniformly random (is there such a thing??) peaks and valleys to retain lubricant.

The only problem with the procedure is that I have not seen a file wider than three inches, or so, this file being an extremely coarse pre-war Czech. I'm guessing such files were used in place of milling machines?

What came to mind is whether anyone knows of plate glass is available with deeply pebbled face? Frosted glass is in the right direction, but frosting is not deep. Since my first RB making will attempt to create "nearly perfect spheres" on the cheap by regularizing as-cast between plate glass, if I can regularize AND texture RBs at the same time, much grief and expense will be avoided.

If deeply textured plate glass is available, please point me in the right direction to find it.

[Walter Laich]

check with a stained glass place. They have many types of glass with different textures.

walt

[runfiverun]

maybe some skateboard tape on a board would suffice.
skateboards come in 6-8" widths and some of the tapes are pretty rough.

[Naphtali]

maybe some skateboard tape on a board would suffice.
skateboards come in 6-8" widths and some of the tapes are pretty rough.
I like this because it blends with the impromptu nature of what I want to try first. I will try to find textured glass first, with my fallback rough tape - skateboard or that used on stairs?

[I'll Make Mine]

I like this because it blends with the impromptu nature of what I want to try first. I will try to find textured glass first, with my fallback rough tape - skateboard or that used on stairs?

Or the stuff sold for boat decks, though anything with "boat" in the product description automatically doubles in price...

[Mal Paso]

Course Sandpaper glued to steel plate.

[longbow]

I would not be using skateboard tape, sandpaper or any other abrasive where "bits' might remain in the ball. It might texture the ball just fine but the abrasive will texture your bore!

I would use the files and just roll in two directions or just tumble the balls to put dimples in them. That will smooth out the sprue and should help hold lube, though LLA should not require a rough surface it that is what you are using.

Is it not possible to place a lubed wad behind the ball?

Longbow

[Griz44mag]

I'm not that up to speed on round ball, but isn't that what paper patching is supposed to do?

[Wayne Smith]

Where did you find Ferguson actions?? Course, I probably shouldn't ask cause I can't afford the price anyway! Since it's a breachloader simply put a lubed wad either in front of or behind the ball. Like one does with a C&B revolver. If you put it behind the ball you might want to lube the barrel lightly before the first shot, but it is probably not necessary.

[timbuck]

Check with a glass shop in your area.
Shower door glass might be textured,
maybe not as much as you need?

[Naphtali]

Fergusons, although breech-loading, load unconventionally. Vertical hole at breech sealed by vertical plug. Unscrew plug downward to open loading port. Drop in RB. Pour in powder. Screw in vertical plug. Prime pan. Cock and shoot.

Patches cannot be used. Lube cookies cannot be used.
***
A man whom I knew casually was selling an unfired [new] Ferguson barreled action he decided he would never complete. I called. During our chat, he mentioned he had a second one a friend was examining. . . . One thing led to another, and I bought both.

I had a matched pair of Fergusons made for me in the early 1990s. Their configuration was [to] emulate the 1803 Harpers Ferry rifle - one of the most beautiful rifles - albeit in .62-caliber. Before they had been completed, but after I enjoyed one for about a week, my Fergusons and another project my gunsmith had been completing were destroyed in his shop fire. I could go on, sounding like Sidney Greenstreet in "The Maltese Falcon" describing his quest, but I think you get the idea.

[Firebird]

I can think of two ways to texture glass, but the problem is that neither will result in the glass surface still being perfectly "flat". The first is to sandblast the glass with a very fine aluminum oxide "sand" (not a quartz sand) at fairly low air pressure, the same way some glass items have a design "etched" into them. The other way is to use hydrofluoric acid etching kits to do real chemical etching into the glass surface, again how some glass items have a design etched into them.
Either way you wouldn't try to mask a design onto the glass, just maybe a small border to help you track how much glass has been removed in each pass of the blaster/acid. The sandblasting will let you control how rough the surface is, finer "sand" will leave a finer surface. But both methods mean the "flatness" of the glass plates will be lost, which may not matter to you with this application.

[bbqncigars]

Another possibility would be to try coating the balls in Rooster Jacket. The stuff is not sticky after it dries. I would think that the only way to easily & uniformly texture a ball would be to use a rotary tumbler that had paddles in it and some suitable metal media (s.s. cubes?).

[geargnasher]

Coarse sanding belts (40 or 60 grit) would work. The flexy coating on top of the abrasive on these particularly coarse belts does a surprisingly good job of adhesion. I would cut the belt into two pieces and glue each piece to a scrap of 2x4 and roll the balls between them. You might consider placing a piece of aluminum foil over each surface to ensure no grit turns loose. That should give you the texture and "safe", clean surface you need.

If you wanted to get really fancy you could glue small strips of wood on the edges of the boards that stuck up slightly less than half a caliber to to keep the balls from rolling out from between the blocks.

Gear

[Shiloh]

Roll em' around on a rasp. That ought to give the desired effect without the potential of picking up damaging grit.

Shiloh

[Naphtali]

Many thanks, guys. Many good-to-excellent ideas to try. I am confident at least one will achieve the result I want. What I do not know is whether a 30:1 .735-inch RB with teat can be scraped and regularized to yield accuracy of which the rifles are capable. If results are disappointing, the next step is to a set of hammer swaging dies. OR if swaging dies that fit my Lee cast iron "O" frame press can swage the RB I mentioned to that essentially perfect sphere.

I hope to avoid having to move to any "Plan B."