Common items that make great gunsmithing tools
- Thread starter RM
- Start date
- Status
Shooter973
Member
Common items that help!!!
I use a regular old drinking straw from the local hamburger joint to spray Wipe out up the barrel of my rifles. Keeps it where it needs to go. I also use an old melon baller as a scoop when cleaning the dross of the top of my lead pot when casting, the little hole in the middle lets all the melted metal slide right back into the pot! Still gets out the dirt etc.
I use a regular old drinking straw from the local hamburger joint to spray Wipe out up the barrel of my rifles. Keeps it where it needs to go. I also use an old melon baller as a scoop when cleaning the dross of the top of my lead pot when casting, the little hole in the middle lets all the melted metal slide right back into the pot! Still gets out the dirt etc.
Small size extruded aluminum angles...say 3/4"x3/4"x1/16" cut down to size 6" long make great polishing sticks.
I use double face tape and wet-dry silicon carbide papers on one inside leg then the other inside face is a safe surface. Great for keeping edges perpendicular on small parts when deburring or polishing. Get a real pro mirror smooth surface in a few minutes of light pressure.
Check for squareness with a machinists square or metal carpenters square. The aluminum is soft enough to bring it easily to square with light pressure and will hold it as little pressure is used for polishing.
I've cut the width of the legs down to 1/4"x1/4" to deburr hand spring channels in my Pietta Remmie NMA frames.
Some of the angles from Lowe's or Home Depot have very slight extrusion ridges... stone these down first if that's the case.
Float glass samples about 8"x8"x 1/4" thick also make great polishing platens with wet dry papers for larger pieces. Get some scraps from your local glass shops.
popsicle sticks or tongue depressors ae handy too.
I use double face tape and wet-dry silicon carbide papers on one inside leg then the other inside face is a safe surface. Great for keeping edges perpendicular on small parts when deburring or polishing. Get a real pro mirror smooth surface in a few minutes of light pressure.
Check for squareness with a machinists square or metal carpenters square. The aluminum is soft enough to bring it easily to square with light pressure and will hold it as little pressure is used for polishing.
I've cut the width of the legs down to 1/4"x1/4" to deburr hand spring channels in my Pietta Remmie NMA frames.
Some of the angles from Lowe's or Home Depot have very slight extrusion ridges... stone these down first if that's the case.
Float glass samples about 8"x8"x 1/4" thick also make great polishing platens with wet dry papers for larger pieces. Get some scraps from your local glass shops.
popsicle sticks or tongue depressors ae handy too.
1911Tuner
Moderator Emeritus
Spring
Not really a tool, but binder clips are a good source of spring steel for flat springs. Some are far better quality spring steel than is used in guns.
Don't forget used 1911 sear springs!
Not really a tool, but binder clips are a good source of spring steel for flat springs. Some are far better quality spring steel than is used in guns.
Don't forget used 1911 sear springs!
JohnBT
Member
A 6" x 6" rubber or cork plumbing gasket cut in half makes good vise pads.
A hard nylon tube about 1.5 inches long from the hardware store drapery rod section allowed me to pound the rear sight out of my Stainless Gold Match.
My dentist gave me a half-dozen or so dental picks that were too worn for him, but looked new to me. Later on I bought a cheap set of plastic picks from Midway, Sinclair or somewhere.
My workbench mat is the retractable vinyl cargo cover from my '86 Subaru wagon. Trim to fit.
JT
A hard nylon tube about 1.5 inches long from the hardware store drapery rod section allowed me to pound the rear sight out of my Stainless Gold Match.
My dentist gave me a half-dozen or so dental picks that were too worn for him, but looked new to me. Later on I bought a cheap set of plastic picks from Midway, Sinclair or somewhere.
My workbench mat is the retractable vinyl cargo cover from my '86 Subaru wagon. Trim to fit.
JT
Used dental burrs work fine in Dremel tools and are harder than the Dremel bits. Pretty far OT, but if you have small children, while you are at the dentist pick up one of those neck chains with the clips on each end that dentists use. They are great for converting any restaurant napkin (serviette for our Brit friends) into a bib. Saves carrying a bib and taking home a dirty one.
Also that aluminum angle material does a good job as soft vise jaws in an emergency, though brass or copper is better over all.
Jim
Also that aluminum angle material does a good job as soft vise jaws in an emergency, though brass or copper is better over all.
Jim
Don Buckbee
Member
There are several things I've incorporated into my too bag of tricks over the years as a knifemaker..
1. Hockey pucks. I cut them in half and shape them to different surfaces, rounded, angled and leave some flat. I use them for doing the falt surfaces on knives, and when sanding stocks.
2. X-C Ski waxing corks. I use them for sanding stocks also.
3. 5/16" auto glass. I cut a piece large enough to hold a full sheet of sand paper. Then I glue the glass to a wood board. I then glue a piece of 150 grit paper, rough side up, on it and attach the assembled glass, board and sand papaer to at work bench so it's solid. I then place different grits of sand paper on the 150 grit glued to the board, with the 150 paper holding the working paper by friction. This provides a very falt surface to do any work requiring that the end product is flat, like the flat surfaces of knives. I also use it for gun parts that need to be perfectly flat. I have sand paper of all available grits from 80 down to 2000 that I use for parts finishing.
4' Plastic silverwear. I use spoons and knives, with the edges ground and finished to different shapes and sharpenesses to fit into places needed for stock work. I use a knife sharpened real well for glass bedding stocks to cut through the bedding before it's hardened so as not to harm a blued barrel, at the top of the stock parting line.
5. Leather. I have 8-10 oz leather glued to the jaws of my vise to protect parts when working on them. I also have different thicknesses of leather I use to hold work pieces so as not to harm blued finishes. I use thin leather pieces wrapped around wood dowells to serve as a backing for sand paper while sanding parts that have rounded surfaces. I also have different sizes and shapes of heavy leather, 10 oz stuff, that I use for sand paper backing for sanding parts when the situation dictates.
6. Cans of compressed air. I use them for cleaning out triggers, etc. After spraying gun scrubber in the trigger, I use the compressed air to finish the cleaning job. The cans of compressed air are sold at photo shops for lens cleaning.
7. Wood dowells of every diameter I can find up to 1" and in different lengths to use when need as a sand paper backing, with or without a piece of leather as the situation dictates.
8. Sissors. I keep several pairs for cutting jobs, including an old pair for cutting pieces of sand paper to sizes needed, from 80 grit up.
Plus the things mentiomed above; soda straws, tooth picks on different sizes, paper clips-all kinds, dental picks, old measuring spoons from the kitchen for measuring anything and everthing from powder to epoxy, old popsicle sticks for lots of things. You can use epoxy to serve as a bond for powdered abrasive on the popsicle stick to serve as sanding sticks when the epoxy hardens. Soap to use as a lube for stock screws. Old coffee cups to hold anything from pencils to trigger parts. Old marginine tubs for parts keeping....
Don
1. Hockey pucks. I cut them in half and shape them to different surfaces, rounded, angled and leave some flat. I use them for doing the falt surfaces on knives, and when sanding stocks.
2. X-C Ski waxing corks. I use them for sanding stocks also.
3. 5/16" auto glass. I cut a piece large enough to hold a full sheet of sand paper. Then I glue the glass to a wood board. I then glue a piece of 150 grit paper, rough side up, on it and attach the assembled glass, board and sand papaer to at work bench so it's solid. I then place different grits of sand paper on the 150 grit glued to the board, with the 150 paper holding the working paper by friction. This provides a very falt surface to do any work requiring that the end product is flat, like the flat surfaces of knives. I also use it for gun parts that need to be perfectly flat. I have sand paper of all available grits from 80 down to 2000 that I use for parts finishing.
4' Plastic silverwear. I use spoons and knives, with the edges ground and finished to different shapes and sharpenesses to fit into places needed for stock work. I use a knife sharpened real well for glass bedding stocks to cut through the bedding before it's hardened so as not to harm a blued barrel, at the top of the stock parting line.
5. Leather. I have 8-10 oz leather glued to the jaws of my vise to protect parts when working on them. I also have different thicknesses of leather I use to hold work pieces so as not to harm blued finishes. I use thin leather pieces wrapped around wood dowells to serve as a backing for sand paper while sanding parts that have rounded surfaces. I also have different sizes and shapes of heavy leather, 10 oz stuff, that I use for sand paper backing for sanding parts when the situation dictates.
6. Cans of compressed air. I use them for cleaning out triggers, etc. After spraying gun scrubber in the trigger, I use the compressed air to finish the cleaning job. The cans of compressed air are sold at photo shops for lens cleaning.
7. Wood dowells of every diameter I can find up to 1" and in different lengths to use when need as a sand paper backing, with or without a piece of leather as the situation dictates.
8. Sissors. I keep several pairs for cutting jobs, including an old pair for cutting pieces of sand paper to sizes needed, from 80 grit up.
Plus the things mentiomed above; soda straws, tooth picks on different sizes, paper clips-all kinds, dental picks, old measuring spoons from the kitchen for measuring anything and everthing from powder to epoxy, old popsicle sticks for lots of things. You can use epoxy to serve as a bond for powdered abrasive on the popsicle stick to serve as sanding sticks when the epoxy hardens. Soap to use as a lube for stock screws. Old coffee cups to hold anything from pencils to trigger parts. Old marginine tubs for parts keeping....
Don
Dave Sample
member
Nice Comments.
Standing Wolf
Member in memoriam
CCI plastic ammunition boxes are great containers for securing gun parts that have an annoying habit of hopping off work benches and hiding.
If you need to hold something small and sharp, stick it into a cigarette butt.
Pipe cleaners let you clean small, out of the way nooks and crannies, including barrel ports.
Befriend someone who works in a shoe store, and you'll never run out of shoe boxes.
If you need to hold something small and sharp, stick it into a cigarette butt.
Pipe cleaners let you clean small, out of the way nooks and crannies, including barrel ports.
Befriend someone who works in a shoe store, and you'll never run out of shoe boxes.
Quintin Likely
Member
Ziploc bags. I use one to pull the firing pin out of a 1911. Stick the slide in the bag, depress the pin and slide the retainer out. If the pin flies, it won't disappear and more importantly, it won't leave someone minus an eye. Works well for anything else under spring tension that might take to flight.
macavada
Member
Good idea with the bag.
Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
Old tooth brushes last longer in cleaning guns than they do in brushing teeth! Whydat?
No excuse for having a tapered screwdriver, if you have a bench-grinder. Make your own hollow-ground, in whatever width you need. Pliers are dirt cheap at yard sales, and the b-g lets you reshape them for whatever purpose you intend...
Art
No excuse for having a tapered screwdriver, if you have a bench-grinder. Make your own hollow-ground, in whatever width you need. Pliers are dirt cheap at yard sales, and the b-g lets you reshape them for whatever purpose you intend...
Art
1911Tuner
Moderator Emeritus
More
Drill rod! Comes in all sizes and cheap by the foot. Good for making the odd pin
at midnight with a match the next mornin'.
Files clogged and pinning your work surface? Clean'em with a file card and use chalk on'em to make'em cut smooth as butter. Never oil a file.
Worn-out files make good knife blades if you're so inclined and can draw'em back to proper hardness. A worn-out three-cornered file with the cutting teeth removed on a belt sander makes a dandy scrape that'll follow an inside radius.
Works great for cleaning up and reshaping barrel throats.
Drill rod! Comes in all sizes and cheap by the foot. Good for making the odd pin
at midnight with a match the next mornin'.
Files clogged and pinning your work surface? Clean'em with a file card and use chalk on'em to make'em cut smooth as butter. Never oil a file.
Worn-out files make good knife blades if you're so inclined and can draw'em back to proper hardness. A worn-out three-cornered file with the cutting teeth removed on a belt sander makes a dandy scrape that'll follow an inside radius.
Works great for cleaning up and reshaping barrel throats.
Dave Sample
member
Great Tips all the way! We use a lot of "Captain Eagle Cheap Tools" in the Online 1911 Class. I think it's OK to save money wherever you can!
sm
member
I'd be lost without Pipe cleaners and long wooden Q- tips.
Old rulers, yard sticks, and paint sticks to wrap emery paper - emery sticks.
Cylindrical magnet with a hole down the center, run a cord through it and "roll" over the floor , under places to find those parts that ...seem to run off.
Wooden Baseball bats make great mandrels.
Bees Wax , so many uses from picking up small parts to dusting with Talc to make a surface to scribe before cutting, fine tuning the grip on stocks ...
Disposable pipettes, transferring oil and solvents to other containers or patches.
Empty itty bitty Tobasco bottles , and eye drop bottles for lubes.
Secrets [tm] cough drop tins are History...Altoids mint tins to the rescue for small parts storage. These fit into cigar boxes one gets free for the asking at tobacco shops.
Save the Stick from the Popeye's Ear of Corn...punch out trigger groups on a shotgun...or use to scribe on the bees wax and talc surface mentioned earlier.
Zippo lighter fluid cans when empty - refill with solvent or gun oil.
Dr. Scholl's Moleskin pads - to raise the comb on your shotgun .
Old rulers, yard sticks, and paint sticks to wrap emery paper - emery sticks.
Cylindrical magnet with a hole down the center, run a cord through it and "roll" over the floor , under places to find those parts that ...seem to run off.
Wooden Baseball bats make great mandrels.
Bees Wax , so many uses from picking up small parts to dusting with Talc to make a surface to scribe before cutting, fine tuning the grip on stocks ...
Disposable pipettes, transferring oil and solvents to other containers or patches.
Empty itty bitty Tobasco bottles , and eye drop bottles for lubes.
Secrets [tm] cough drop tins are History...Altoids mint tins to the rescue for small parts storage. These fit into cigar boxes one gets free for the asking at tobacco shops.
Save the Stick from the Popeye's Ear of Corn...punch out trigger groups on a shotgun...or use to scribe on the bees wax and talc surface mentioned earlier.
Zippo lighter fluid cans when empty - refill with solvent or gun oil.
Dr. Scholl's Moleskin pads - to raise the comb on your shotgun .
- Status
Similar threads
