Where can I get brass or nylon punches short of ordering them online?

[FIVETWOSEVEN]

I checked a few hardware stores including home depots but none of them had brass or nylon punches. I need them to re-adjust the sights on my Hi Power and remove the mag safety. Where can I buy these tools?

 

[smokey262]

How about your local gun store?

 

[rcmodel]

I make my own.
Almost any hardware store will sell brass rod stock in several sizes.

Just buy a chunk of 1/4" or 5/16" brass bar stock and use a hacksaw to cut punches to length.
Usually 4" works pretty well for most things.

I usually use 3/8" and grind a punch taper on one end on my belt sander for smaller sizes.

I also often see brass pin punch assortments in clear vinyl tool pouches in the Chinese tool bargain bin at the hardware store.

Also, any Sears store should have Craftsman punches in the tool department.

BTW: For a one-time job, hardwood dowel or a section off an oak board works pretty well.

rc

 

[Old Shooter]

Harbor freight sometimes carries quite a selection of punches. I've seen the brass in there, don't recall ever seeing nylon punches anywhere.

Lowes and Home Depot will have the brass rods and a selection of hardwood dowels as well.

 

[rcmodel]

I don't have much luck with nylon punches anyway.

Too much spring to get a tight sight moving.
Usually have to start them with brass anyway, and after I get that far, I just keep going.

rc

 

[Jim Watson]

My 'smith uses a nickel silver bar, leaves less of a track and what there is, is not bright yellow. For stubborn dovetails, he uses a mild steel drift ground out of a scrap of shotgun vent rib.. Softer than most gun parts, it won't mushroom or track.

 

[fecmech]

Too much spring to get a tight sight moving.

I have found if you lay the nylon punch on the sight sideways ( so you just have the 3/8" thickness of the punch) you can move some very tight sights and not leave the brass mark. They are way too springy lengthwise to move anything at all.

 

[JohnBT]

I went to a hardware store - a real hardware store - many years ago and told the old guy that I needed some hard plastics rods or dowels or something to use as a punch with a hammer. He took me over to the drapery rod section and pulled out some odds and ends of hard, white nylon fittings that have worked just fine - 1.5 inches long x .25" and 1.5 or so x .5".

I also bought cork and rubber 6x6" plumbing gaskets to use as vise jaw pads.

 

[Ditchtiger]

Try an auto parts store.

 

[Mac's Precision]

You can avoid leaving brass marks on sights by applying pencil lead to the surface before using the punch. Once the sight is moved the brass marks wipe right off.

That being said...there is nothing nicer than using a proper sight pusher.

Cheers
Mac.

 

[Old Shooter]

^ Somebody had to spoil it!!

If a real sight pusher is available that, of course, is the tool to use.

But a brass rod and a ball-peen hammer is a lot more fun to use!!

 

[Mac's Precision]

I am famous for suggesting solutions that involve equipment that I have

You are correct....a hammer is a LOT more fun to use....but in some sight dovetail situations...even that monster 2 pound hand sledge won't do it...

Ask me sometime about Springfield XD sights. I am pretty sure they install them with a 600 ton hydraulic press. They don't move easily...if at all.



Cheers
Mac.