Brownells Winchester/Rossi '92 screwdriver tip set

[Project355]

Gonna give this set a big thumbs up.

With one very very minor exception, the seven tips fit their respective slots _perfectly_. And I mean perfecto, no wiggle, just slip into the slot.

The tip for the hammer pivot screw was just a very little bit thick, a little wide, and had a small burr at one end. For shame, Brownell's.... I'm kidding. A few seconds on a Dremel "abrasive buff" fixed it, and left a nice finish. Since the tip would start into the slot as it was received, I'm guessing the loss of burr, and maybe a small fraction of a .001 was enough to let it sink to full depth in the slot. I'm sure there are slot to slot variations in production of those screws, so I'm really amazed it all fit as well as it did.

The "abrasive buff" is the sort of stiff, but loose abrasive wheel. It looks/feels like a crusty old worn out muslin wheel, but its loaded with fairly fine abrasive. IT WILL CUT METAL, so you have to go light and slow wherever you're using 'em. Anyway, that's what I thought might be best, because the wheel will somewhat conform to the shape of the surface its against (aka, parallel ground screwdriver tip), and it all turned out ok.

RIght now the tips are in an old pill bottle. I got the hankerin' to make a little wooden caddy for 'em, maybe beat the plastic off a 1/4 hex tip driver and make up a wooden handle for it, make 'em look sort of "antique" to go with the Winchester.

 

[BigBlue 94]

The abrasive buff... Is that the scotchbrite pads? Green, marron, brown fiberglassy stuff with grit?

I have the larger Wheeler bit set. Havent used it much yet, but quality seems above par.

On a side note, i recently picked up a set of roll pin starter punches. How did i ever live before finding them!? So much easier with than these sausage link fingers of mine.

 

[Project355]

Its that thing. They come in a coarser and finer grit (or they used to.. haven't gotten one in a while, so I dunno). They're sort of semi flexible. They are NOT buffing items even though called a "buff". They will throw sparks as they grind down corners and edges. I find 'em good when I want to remove a little metal, not a lot, like rounding an edge on a trigger that's sharp, that sort of thing. The other thing they're great for is getting things all smoothed out, ready for a few passes of a Kratex (aka rubber) wheel, before buffing. That might be like... when you take the spur off a hammer, grind down the root of that spur and want to blend it all into a pleasing to look at, pleasing to feel shape. These work great for that because they'll round out edges and sort of melt thing in pretty well. Not for use on flats where edges have to stay crisp.... not for that at all. In those cases.... good ol' stones, or sandpaper backed up with a block of some sort. For that - check out Stewart MacDonald guitar building stuff. StuMac.com (I think). They have a real nifty little spring tension controlled "sander", that you can put various grit belts on. The thing is the size of a pen, cheap, and you use its various edges to back up the sanding belt, then press with your thumb to rotate a fresh (or worn if you want that) area of the belt over the edge you're using. They're used for smoothing fret ends and other assorted "guitar" stuff, but work great for metal finishing too.