Home gunsmithing booboos

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BLACKHAWKNJ

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1. Working on a firearm without proper lighting.
2. Working on a firearm using a lapboard as a work surface while sitting on a recliner chair, a sofa-or a bed.
3. Working on a firearm without proper manuals. Hey, I did this once before-20 years ago.
4. Working on a firearm over a rug-Hey, where'd that little spring/screw/part go?
5. Working on a firearm without proper tools-a Leatherman or Gerber MultiPlier doesn't quite work.
 
Guilty of almost every one of those. I'm young, still learning and I sometimes have to make due when I don't have a garage or workbench handy.

Like just a few minutes ago I installed my dual dovetail rings and had the proper tools except for something to twist the rings into place. After some digging I used a cheapo hunting knife and everything is good to go. Knew I forgot something at the hardware store.

I liked when my friend and I spilled a little bit of Hoppe's #9 on the carpet while watching TV and cleaning guns, the towel got most of it but the room had this nice manly aroma for a few days.
 
Three people, six hands to immobilize a gun barrel while drilling out a broken screw with a drill press and accidently going entirely through the screw AND through the barrel. Everyone had a job and careful focus, except no one was noticing how deep the drill was.

Damn!
 
try assembling a M1 Carbine bolt sitting on the kitchen floor without the special GI tool :) Then finding the springs and detents when the bounce around the kitchen off each wall once. Ended up using my case trimmer for a vise of sorts and spent carbine shell in the trimmer holding the ejector in the bolt face while i put the rest together only took a hour or so though. Them little tiny springs can really fly.
 
...with kids playing toss-the-puppy...and the TV blaring...and the Dog barking...and having misplaced one's see-close Glasses...and the little lady running the Vaccuum cleaner next to you, that needs new Bearings...under flickering flourescent Lights...on a sunday night...with acid reflux from those frozen eye-talian dinner tray things that got microwaved earlier...and the mother in law walks in from the 'guest room' where the Ping Pong Table is leaning against the wall, and is looking for a rumble again...
 
Oh mine is pretty simple, "do it yourself" crown job on a Mosin M44 with a dremel. Luckily that mosin is WAAAY harder than that of the dremel bits so I just destroyed a few dremel parts and kinda polished the muzzle.
 
Hammering roll pins back in without a vise, bench, or really any firm surface for the gun to rest on, instead using your thigh/knee--just because your complete AR kit came in the mail and I didn't feel like waiting until morning to start putting it together after a long day at work and getting back to the apartment at 10pm after the neighbors have all gone to bed. :rolleyes:

Hammering roll pins in with a ball peen hammer, finish and deformation of pins be damned! :banghead:

Removing old finish with a Dremel and "re-bluing" with cheap do-it-yourself cold blue. :barf:

Press in detent... pull lever out slow-*PING as spring 1/4" long and 1/16" diameter flies into oblivion* :cuss:

"To re-insert hammer strut, apply considerable force on retaining plate until the ridged portion engages the grooves." Considerable = 45,000 ft/lbs over the course of an hour and a half :fire:
 
Taking my Marlin 1894C down for cleaning in the garden just on the grass. Never did find that screw :(
 
Hello friends and neighbors // Yep all 6 are common here, I do lay a big towel on my lap and on the floor in front of me.

Without searching the web I don't think I would have gotten some parts back in. *Some parts fall out differently then they are intended to go in.:scrutiny:

I'm looking for a screw for a scope right now, but I saw it bounce.

I mostly buy used, sooo.. thanks to all of you that have posted disassembly instructions on the web.
Today I hope to find a breakdown manual or video of my Remington Model 31, just in case it is different than an 870, the web is priceless for a shade tree gunsmith.

I read a post once of a guy who works on firearms in a large cardboard box, sounds good but I'd need a mighty big box.

Dremels are great for many things but not for that final shaping of your grips (while they are still on the handgun). I think the scratch will buff out with the same dermel if I ever get to it.

Nothing like a recliner smelling of hoppes#9, gun oil and coffee to get a comment, along with the marks on the wall next to it. I have a small drop top desk, set up 5 feet away, with good light and tools.....if I need it.:D
 
"just where do all those little springs and pins go when they fly away, never to be found again"?
Click to expand...
They end up in the sock that goes into the dryer with its mate, but only the mate comes out. :)
 
Just one question guys, "just where do all those little springs and pins go when they fly away, never to be found again"?
Click to expand...

Under my couch.

Honestly, I was putting a trigger kit into my XDm when a tiny little spring rolled off the coffee table and under my couch. (Not your typical coffee table. Mine is a heavy duty work bench with shortened legs which I use as a coffee table.......with a vise. Being a single guy is great.)

I moved my couch to find it and came up with no less than three similar, but not identical, springs...........

......hmmmmmm. Which one?
 
Just one question guys, "just where do all those little springs and pins go when they fly away, never to be found again"?
Click to expand...

There are a few variables that go into the "where in god's name did that go?" If it is an expensive to replace part, it will show up right after the UPS man drops off the replacement; if it is for a gun you plan to use NOW, you'll find it tomorrow; recoil plugs are in another room; roll pins are just gone forever; screws will turn up when they get bored, sometimes days, sometimes years later; sharp edged parts make their presence known on Sunday mornings when you are barefooted; and a few manage to breach your perimeter and make good on their escape but can be found pouring down a couple of cold ones in the 'Missing Sock Bar and Grill' laughing over the look on your face when you got down on the floor to look for it and knelt on that grip screw bushing you dropped last week.
 
Trying to find a AR dust cover pin e-clip with a magnet, and sucking all of the metal parts up and scrambling so that you can't remember which way you took them out. Thank god for the internet, and manual. But, at least I found that microscopic freeking clip.
 
Don't forget the classic "I'll make it fit!" Those engineers at the factory obviously didn't know what they were doing when they made parts so they wouldn't go in backwards or in the wrong location.

Somewhere in my kitchen is a Glock firing pin safety and spring.
 
what about those parts that you put up in a safe place so you can find them later, only to forget where you put them!
 
I'm also someone who let a recoil spring plug on a 1911 take off like a bat out of hell in my basement workshop. That was about a year ago. Still haven't found it. Had someone recommend I try to recreate the mishap to see where it might have gone. Yeah sure, then I'd be looking for two plugs.
 
I went all over God's creation looking for an action screw for a rem 700. I finally found a guy that had an extra one, and I mean 1. It was a little to long, so i got out the old reliable dremel tool, so as to make short work on grinding off the excess length. With one quick slip of the hand, old reliable eat all the threads off of my one and only action screw. They should outlaw dremel tools, and put the idoits that use them in jail. lol
 
Let's see...

Shot myself in the face with a 1911 recoil spring. In my defense, it was my first time and I was frustrated after installing the idiot scratch.

I have successfully disassembled a Ruger MkIII, cleaned it and reassembled it. Having been through that ordeal, I will sell it before I ever clean it again. It's gunscrubber only from here on out.
 
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