Making slave pins

S

semi_problomatic

New member
I know many people already know how to do this, but starting out I always heard "make a slave pin" with no directions on how to do it. I even used the plastic shaft of a q-tip in a pinch. This is really easy and a big help on putting guns back together. If it's yours and you're going to be taking it apart a lot, might as well have one that last. This is an easy way I've found to do it.

Buy some round bar stock in the closest diameter to your pins. I was working on a handi rifle so I got 3/16.
Sand paper. I had some 400, 600, and 1000 grit
Flat file. I used a 1"x12"
Electric drill
Vise (not really needed, but handy)
Calipers
Cutting tool. I used an angle grinder with a cutting blade on it, a dremel would've worked a lot better I'd imagine.

So I put the bar stock in a vise and cut off about 3"


Then I chucked that into my trusty electric drill and began to spin it with a file down from .185" to .182" I needed it to be .181"


Then I spun it while using the file to bevel the end.


Spin it in sand paper to smooth it out and get to the final desired diameter.



Then I flipped it over, cut it to the desired length, chamfered and smoothed the other end and blued it just to try and keep it from rusting.


So thats my quick how to make a slave pin guide.
 
Gee, and all those years I spend just clipping a piece off a nail!

Seriously, that amount of effort is fine when you are going to be working on one make of gun and want a set of permanent slave pins. But "one size fits all" doesn't work with slave pins, not even with guns of the same make, so you end up with a lot of work every time you encounter a different kind of gun.

Jim
 
Yep. Thats why I said if it's yours and you're going to be taking it apart a lot.

Saw where a guy was using old drill bits. He'd save any the tips broke off of and cut the shafts down to the size he needed.

If you want to shove nails in your gun, thats cool too. Like I said, I used the plastic shaft of a q-tip before. This was just a way I've found to make pins that are the right size for your gun and will last. Since the pin was exactly the size I needed, smooth, and the ends beveled it made it easy to push out. Didn't have the holes misaligned due to the pin being too small.
 
That looks like it'd work a lot better. My closest store was tractor supply. 3ft piece of the bar stock was around $2.50, but it did take a few minutes to work. I'll have to try and find a where I can buy some of that locally.
 
How you get there does not matter much,its knowing how to use a slave pin that matters.

If you look at Enco or MSC,or maybe E-bay,you can get a set of offshore cheap pin gages,.062 to .250,every .001 for pretty darn cheap.They have a lot of uses.

I used to build plastic injection molds.There are pins called ejector pins that knock the part out of the mold.They are kind of special.They are made of H-13 hotwork tool steel,nitrided to a very hard skin,and OD ground .0004 to .0007 under nominal size,so they will slip fit in a nominal size hole.

Building or servicing a mold,several of these pins may be used,every day,in a mold shop.They come in 6 in,10 and other stock lengths,and get cut to length.So,every day,a mold shop has 2 to 4 in long cutoff ends of these pins.

Grind a taper on one end,they are the ultimate slave pin.

So,look in the yellow pages under plastic injection molds,and inquire if they like beer.

There are also core pins,slightly oversize and through hard.The "C" pins are machinable,but hard.

All these pins are catalogue items at MSC
 
I have sanded down roll pins to use as slave pins
Broken drill bits
Pieces of ejector rod( can be used as punches too)

Even used wooden match sticks
 
I use what ever I can find as close to the size I need and work with that.
Drill bits, wood dowels, match stick, welding rod.
I have a plastic container full of them now.
 
Take a look at HiBC's post on ejector pins in another context. When a part is ejected from the mould, the ejector pins leave a circular mark, usually with a tiny bit of a rim around it. That means the part was made using (metal) injection moulding. If you see those marks on a gun purporting to be made from forged or machined parts, be aware of what they mean.

In one case, a gun that was put up for sale as a Civil War era antique had back and front straps showing ejector pin marks. The prospective buyer was warned and withdrew his five-figure offer for the "antique" gun.

Jim
 
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