Pins And Screws

Pins and screws keep the world and our machines fastened together. Not incidentally, at several points in my life my limbs have been held together by pins and screws working on a similar principle. They served just fine for the intended purpose. We’ll start with pins. Straight pins and threaded screws work well but there is more to firearms than the simple. Tapered pins, with one end larger than the other, take a little more effort to understand.

They are more secure in their position but take more time and effort to deal with. The diameter difference is very small, typically thousandths of an inch, but that difference is pretty important. A cardinal rule with pins is they should not be removed unless absolutely necessary. Some pins area base of movement for other parts, such as those found in the trigger action.

Most often your work may be done without removing these The grip screw at the right was easy enough while the one on the left came out after an overnight soak and considerable effort. pins. If they are not broke, do not fix them, however, if there is corrosion on the parts they may need to be detail stripped. When the task demands pins to come out, start by carefully choosing your punch. A strong, purposedesigned punch, not a cheap flea market unit, is needed.

The punch must smaller diameter than the pin or you may stick the punch into the pin hole with a few strikes of the hammer. Pins are usually driven from left to right as you are look toward the muzzle and down the sights (port to starboard, as the sailors say.) After the pin starts to be driven out, resist the urge to speed things up by grasping it with a pair of pliers. Doing so is almost certain to bend the pin and ruin it. Any torque—left, right, up or down—ruins pins.

After the pin is removed using a punch, tape it to a carefully-marked index card. Mark both orientation (left or right) and the place on the firearm it must be returned to. If you are doing several projects simultaneously or if the firearm has many pins, this is a lifesaver. The pin must be replaced in the appropriate direction. For example, tapered pins must be replaced so the larger diameter end seats on the correct side. Not all pins require hammering for removal.

Some are easily pressed out with finger pressure and a punch head. A good soaking in penetrating oil before attempting to budge a pin is never a bad idea. An overnight soak is a Standard Operating Procedure with pins on my bench. Following that, the firearm or part is clamped in a vise with all precautions in place to prevent marring, such as boards or leather pads. There are occasions when the pin will come out just so far and it seems to refuse to budge further; these are the devil to finish removing.

The pin may be tapered and may have been previously inserted incorrectly. You may attempt to tap in the opposite direction if the pin moves a bit and stops to check for this. It is worth a shot, but be conservative. The pin may have been replaced the wrong way and simply driven home with great force. There is also a chance that the pin and the pin hole are corroded and fused together. No amount of feasible leverage seems to move these.

The solution I use is to apply heat with a small torch, heating primarily the pin. Note, this is

Some of them have flattened heads indicating ten-thumbed handling. Above center: When using a punch be careful to choose one that is smaller than the pin being knocked out of the firearm. Note, this pin would have been driven out the wrong way if the author had continued! Left to right is the rule. This is a parts gun. only attempted after the overnight soak in penetrating oil and force did not work. I heat, tap with the mallet to try to move the pin, then soak, heat, and tap again.

This results in the pin being loosened enough to drive it out and this procedure has never failed. Pins are simple enough to deal with but demand patience. Screws Gun screws also require the correct procedure and may require more elbow grease and effort than pins. Poorly-fitting screwdrivers probably cause more marred screw The parts were actually hard by the standard of the day. Below center: Always properly secure the firearm in a padded vise.

This is a small vise used for lightweight revolvers. heads than corroded screws. Soak the screw and then apply as much turning force as needed with a properly-fit screwdriver. When screws are stuck in place after a soak in penetrating oil, the same heating procedure used with pins (soak, heat, force) may be used. Slightly heating the screw demands care in application. Be aware that applying heat may damage the firearm’s finish. Base metals and plastics will melt and warp so keep heat as a last resort.

If the screw head is heavily corroded it is possible the head can break off. This is another reason why it’s important to use a proper fitting screwdriver. If faced with a worn screw head it is possible to drive a larger screwdriver into a worn, smaller screw head to achieve better leverage. With a solid fit, the screwdriver may be more tightly engaged to the screw and driven out.

Alternately, you may custom grind a screwdriver to properly fit the screw head or file and clean the screw head slot carefully with a file for the larger driver to fit. Consider the difficulty involved and soak the screw head well before the screw head slot is burred in the first place. Often, even a damaged screw head responds well to taking a screwdriver, grinding to a good fit, and applying force as needed. If a screw head breaks off and leaves the screw in the hole, the screw’s body may be drilled out.

Above center: This revolver has been liberally doused with penetrating oil. It helped but not as much as the author had hoped. These are first class parts and the pins are helpful in rebuilding handguns. When doing this type of work, finesse is everything. If the screw head breaks off, carefully clean the area of all parts of the screw head that are larger in diameter than the screw body. Do not nick surrounding wood or metal.

Note, some less expensive firearms have soft screws and the act of simply tightening the screw may result in stripping the head before you realize you are doing so. This results in a buggered up and ugly screw head. A few simple tools are helpful. As an example, when an Allen/hex screw head is broken off, sometime the remaining screw body can catch and allow the screw to be screwed out. Below center: Screws break. This wasn’t as bad a problem to remove the screw as it first seemed.

Repairing Screws First, use a quality, gunsmith-appropriate screwdriver, such as those as offered by Brownells with a hollow grind. Otherwise, the screwdriver will not bottom into the screw and grip the sides of the screw head properly. Given an already-damaged screw, place it in the vise and dress it back up. Get the screw in a small vise, properly padded, and peen the metal back into the screw head by tapping with a small hammer.

Tap the raised burs and get the screw head back into shape by moving the metal with the hammer. Next, beat the metal back into the screw slot. Use a small file and work the metal carefully until you have recreated the original slot. This isn’t difficult, it just takes time. Use good magnification and a properly-cut flat file. A jewelers file is sometimes needed. Once the slot is deemed well shaped, polish the screw head to remove file marks. This isn’t difficult on such a small part if it is secured in a vise.

Polishing rules follow the same as with a frame or slide depending upon whether you are going to go for a matte finish, which doesn’t require as much effort, or a brightly-polished blue finish, which will require more effort. When you are done, use touch up blue, such as Brownells Dicropan T-4 (082-056-004WB) to finish the part. While you may prefer to order and replace some types of screws, this process doesn’t take a lot of time and gives good results.

Some types of screws for older guns are particularly difficult to find. With this process you will be able to save the screws, once you have them removed. AG