Shop-Made Tools, Fixtures, Parts

Every gunsmith in the shop has wished there was a tool or fixture to assist them with a particular firearm repair or alteration. The following is an accumulation of 34 years of tools and fixtures made to do the job easier, or just to do a job at hand. Making your own tools, fixtures, and parts will allow you to offer more to your customers without having to turn work down or pay someone else to do it for you. Sometime in your career you will be faced with deciding on making something or passing on the work.

Being able to produce inhouse is paramount as there will always be that one job demanding it. There are several companies carrying gunsmithing tools but they focus on the most popular items. When that particular firearm comes in, how best to determine if it’s worth devoting time to design and make the necessary tool for that one job? There are countless task where a special tool will make it easier.

For example, changing out the firing pin spring on a Winchester 37 is best served with a shop-made tool, but it’s a simple one consisting of apiece of pipe nipple with two relief cuts at 90 degrees from each other. The firing pin spring is held captive on the firing pin with a thin washer and small cross pin.

By mounting the firing pin in a drill press vise and using the small pipe nipple in a chuck, push down with the relief cuts lined up with the cross pin, removing the pin and slowly raising the drill chuck to remove the spring. Installation of the spring is just the reverse. It seems I’m always looking to either improve something or fabricating a tool or fixture to get a job done. Sometimes there isn’t a specific tool available so making it makes sense.

I have designed or co-designed several tools/fixtures over the years to facilitate the ease of repairing firearms. Tools are made because it’s a rarity, the firearm is obsolete, the tool has never been available, or has been discontinued. Most of the tools I’ve had to make, with the exception of the H&R/NEF shotgun and rifle cupped punches for their rounded pins, set idle for months or even years so purchasing an expensive specialty tool for one job wouldn’t make sense. An example is in order.

I once received 18 firearms inside a safe that was damaged in a tornado. One was a Winchester Model 50 which required the buttstock to be replaced. I’ve worked on my share of Winchester 50s but never had to remove the stock. Guess what? It takes a special tool. This customer was a referral from 150 miles away and I wasn’t about to renege on the repair job. Page 945 of Encyclopedia of Modern Firearms from Brownells has an illustration of such a tool, so It o ok some measur ement sand got busy.

Ithaca 37 mainspring tool, Winchester 37 firing pin spring tool, two-prong shotgun firing pin bushing removal tool, Remington 1100/11-87 magazine interceptor latch stud locating fixture, and Winchester 70 firing pin spring tool. From left, Mossberg and H&R/NEF shotguns, extended cross bars for imported shotguns, and Remington shotguns. A shop that does rebluing should have one of these anyway. Another time I had a customer call about silver soldering a magazine interceptor latch stud back on a Remington 11-87.

I was positive I had seen a fixture for this somewhere but when I found it I found out it was discontinued. This guy was driving four hours to have me repair his firearm and I wasn’t going to let him down. I own a 11-87 as well, so I stripped it down and started taking measurements, scrounged some suitable steel, and went to the mill/drill. It took some time but I now have a fixture that properly locates and holds the interceptor latch stud in its proper place to be silver soldered.

Brownells sells a spring kit (080-665-002) for Ruger Mk II .22 pistols. When replacing the mainspring in this kit, a detent ball and mainspring housing latch has to be pushed down along with the mainspring, all while installing a retaining pin. It’s practically impossible to do without some assistance or a fixture. I went to work on designing my own. The first version had a glitch, so I ran it by my machinist friend who offered up a couple of suggestions. After making some revisions, I had a workable fixture.

Another fixture my friend and I designed together is an H&R/NEF forend stud locator. While not a tool needed often, it’s very helpful because replacing replace the forend stud requires removing the old brazing or spot weld, taking away the needed reference point of for installation. This tool locates precisely where to attach the new forend Williams Gun Sight Company sells a scope mount drill and tap fixture and says it can be used on most shotguns.

Maybe so, but it requires changing the setup by moving the fixture up or down the receiver for several types of bases and doing so defeats the purpose of a fixture to drill the holes with consistent spacing. I wanted a fixture for most common scope bases without having to reset the fixture and with three drill bushings so I wouldn’t have to move them around. I made a combo for the Mossberg 500, H&R/NEF receivers and barrels, and Remington 1100 and 11-87 hole spacing.

This works with Weaver 88, 417M, 82, and 429M bases. Because most imported shotgun receivers are wider and these fixtures wouldn’t fit, I made longer cross bar pieces. A simple tool to make is for installing the firing pin spring retainer washer on the Winchester Model 70. Cut a notch 0.275 wide and 0.525 long on apiece of flat stock tool steel measuring 5/32 x 1/2 x 12".

Place the firing pin with bolt shroud secured in a padded vise, install the firing pin spring and spring washer, pull the washer back with your thumb and forefinger back off the tip, and insert the tool over the firing pin while pulling it back to the notch where the retainer washer seats. Install while removing the tool. I don’t know of anyone producing this but it’s handy when reassembling Model 70 bolts.

In addition to the Remington interceptor latch stud fixture being discontinued, another tool that every gunsmith needs has been discontinued as of this writing: The stud on the barrel held in place by a springloaded sight holder. I’m not a machinist by trade but my best friend is and has come to my rescue more than once. Get to know a good machinist if you aren’t one.

410 shotgun forearm tool. 410 shotgun forearm cap. Tom Menck .22 Chamber Ironing Tool. There are millions of .22 rifles out there that potentially need this tool so it’s a great project if you don’t already have one. A firearm becoming obsolete causes tooling to be discontinued. Case in point, the Remington 48 series takes a special tool to remove the carrier release pin if it has a bad carrier release. Its head is hollow with internal threads and the tool is threaded into it to pull upwards for removal.

Another tool I never dreamed of making was for a Noble 70J .410 shotgun. My customer’s gun had a forend support broken and a special tool is required for the forend cap to remove the wooden forearm. Because it was the customer’s childhood shotgun with sentimental value and because he showed up during a slow time, I was able to make the tool to complete the job. Not all special tools are complicated. The Franchi 912 with 3.5" chamber has two carrier springs and the left one is tricky to reinstall. I took a 1/4 O.

D. drill rod, cut a radius on one end, threaded the other end, and installed it on apiece of brass for a handle to assist me with the installation of the spring. There was nothing similar available and fabricating something was the only choice. Fabricating Tools Fabricating tools requires having a variety of metal in stock for various projects, drill rod in sizes 5/32-3/4 O. D., and flat stock in thicknesses of 1/8-3/4" in various widths and lengths.

Tool steel, low-carbon steel, brass, and aluminum can be found at Brownells, Mc Master-Carr Mc- Master.com) and similar places. The Gunsmith Kinks series from Brownells is a great read with lots of good information and has a section on making tools for specific guns. These can be good starter projects for both the beginner and accomplished gunsmith. You’ll also need some type of equipment to fabricate the tools fixtures. Most mine have been made have required a lathe and/or drill/ mill.

Some early fixtures I made with my South Bend 9" lathe with a Palmgren milling attachment and a drill press. With slightly limited options, working 90 degrees off with the milling attachment—slow is the key—can be done. My first piece of equipment was a bench-mounted drill press from Cleveland Industrial some 34 years ago and it’s still running. It would be years after that I was able to pick up my South Bend lathe from a retiring machinist, so keep your eyes open.

New equipment is not required and there are plenty of used options. Sign up for equipment auctions, and search e Bay, Facebook, and use Google to look. Also, getting metal to size can be completed with only a hacksaw, files, and a drill press. Making Parts As with tools and fixtures, manufacturing parts is similar in the relationship of time and money. Time spent making apart could be used on a repair if the part was purchased instead. Like tools, parts can difficult to obtain, especially for obsolete fire-

arms. While some parts suppliers specialize in obsolete brands or models, eventually a job will require an unavailable part. A source which I rely on is Lee Roy Wisner’s Handbook of Hard-to-Find Gun Parts Drawings: Deluxe Edition with 2,901 dimensioned drawings covering 147 guns from 36 manufacturers. The first part I ever made was a trigger for an imported pistol. The trigger connected to a bar with a stud and the hole on the backside of the trigger was broken.

After a fruitless search for a replacement, I decided to expand my offerings and make parts as needed. Without needed part replacement, a customer’s firearm is likely useless. For easily lost parts, I take measurements, draw it up, and file it in a binder as a shop reference. This has gotten me out of jams when something went flying off.

Unlike tools and fixtures, I prefer having either the part itself (even if it’s broken) or an accurate drawing with measurements but have managed to make parts without any of these. A good customer once brought in a Flobert .22 rifle missing the hammer stirrup, hammer stirrup pin, and hammer spring. I had no replacements or drawings but took it as a challenge and put another childhood firearm back in service. Finding pictures helped tremendously in fabricating the parts.

After picking the proper steel, I laid out a center line to establish where to start. I used a piloted end mill without the pilot to cut the legs of the stirrup on center. When using an end mill in this fashion, run at the slowest speed with a slow feed rate using plenty of cutting oil. After the legs were cut, I used a standard end mill to remove the excess material around the legs and to cut the part to the desired thickness.

The hole for the pin was drilled and part was finished to shape with a file, parted off, and finalized fitting to the hammer. Before jumping in, decide on material type, which dictates the heat treating process. Parts that will not be under much stress can be made of low-carbon steel as it’s easier to machine. Use tool steel for hammers, triggers, flat firing pins, and the like. Low-carbon steel is heat treated differently than tool steel and is surfaced hardened.

Brownells offers Surface Hardening Compound (083-000-033) for heat treating low-carbon steel. I heat treat tool steel by heating to red hot, quenching in oil, and tempering in a 350 degree oven for an hour.

I use my oxy-acetylene torch to heat the part and lay it in an aluminum pie pan in my wife’s oven. No, she doesn’t mind and even helps out by removing it from the oven when the timer goes off if I’m busy. A drill press, Dremel tool, and a set of good files is sufficient to fabricate parts. For that broken trigger on the imported pistol, using the broken hole as a reference point, I laid it out on apiece of low-carbon steel.

Using Dykem layout fluid, I placed the part on the steel, marked it, and drilled a hole to create a reference point for tracing an outline and to gauge progress. Lining up the holes, I used an appropriate drill bit and traced the part onto steel. I then placed the steel in a drill press and created a series of holes around the tracing without breaking the outline. I’ve found using anew #31 drill bit works great.

Once drilled completely around the tracing, a Dremel cutting tool completed the cut and finishing was done with files with a progress check as I went. This procedure can be used for most parts and is especially good of there is an existing good part to use as the pattern. For round parts, I use fatigueproof steel rods in sizes from 1/4- 3/8" O. D. (Brownells offers an assortment, 080-531-000.) This material does not require heat treating and is very machinable and tough.

This type of material can be used on firing pins, plungers, and miscellaneous firearm pins. Another type of part to consider are die-stamped parts. No, you don’t have to be a tool and die maker. For such parts I use annealed steel sheets in 0.025, 0.030, and 0.043 thicknesses from Mc Master-Carr. Using layout fluid, trace the part’s outline onto the metal sheet.

Sheet under 0.043 can be cut with aviation shears and thicker is handled with a heavy duty Dremel cutoff wheel and a little water to keep it from work hardening. Older bolt-action shotguns, such as the Mossberg 183 and 185 series, utilize this type of part for extractors.

Here, I use a pointed carbide Dremel bit to cut a groove into apiece of steel to punch out the extractor divot, and then try fit it to the bolt, getting it into final shape, bends etc., without securing it to the major portion of the firearm prior to heat treating. The Stevens Model 62 semi-auto .22 rifle contains a stamped ejector and can be made using the same procedure. The firearm’s owner had tried to unscrew the barrel from the receiver, breaking the ejector in the process. Unable to find one, I made it.

These stamped-part replacements need to be heat treated much like a spring. See my article, "Spring Making Made Easy" in the June 2017 issue. Following those steps yields a correct heat treatment for these parts as well as springs. Our customers depend upon us to repair their firearms and we depend on them to spread the word of their good fortune of finding a good gunsmith. There is nothing more satisfying than anew customer coming in and saying he was referred to you from another customer.

Being able to make critical repairs is a great way for that to occur and is aided by your ability to make tools, fixture, and parts as needed. AG