1/16" pins

[Pennsylvania Dutchman]

I picked up from my local Fastenal store today, some 1/16" dowel pins that I ordered for a job I have in the shop. The dowels I bought are carbon steel and have a thru hardness of RC 60-62. The longest ones I bought are 1 1/4" in length. I checked them against my drawing for my Issac Berlin smoothrifle and they look like they may work for all the pins for the barrel and furniture with the exception of the rearmost barrel pin. I bent one of them with a vise and a pair of pliers to see how brittle they are. It bent about 45 degrees before it broke.
I didn't know if this was info anyone here is interested in but I thought I would share it. The Fastenal part number for the 1 1/4" dowels is 26709; the 1" dowels is 26708 and the 7/8" dowels is 26707. The 1 1/4" dowels are $63.00 per 100, while the shorter dowels are about 1/2 that price.
Mark Poley

[WKevinD]

If you have any steel suppliers in your area ask if they have "drill rod" I buy 36" pcs of 3/32"  & 1/6" for around $2.00 ea and clip them off with heavy wire cutters, chuck them in a drill and round the ends on emery cloth stapled to a board. I store them in small prescription pill bottles.

[Clark Badgett]

Bad thing about using dowels is you have to heat them red to trim them. Dulled my hacksaw blade learning this one

[omark]

i use welding rod and finish nails. there isnt that much stress on them, theyre easy to work and cheap. nothing wrong with the better stuff, either.     mark

[mountainman70]

Sometimes I can find 1/16th wire at local hobby shop, in steel,never used brass for barrel pins..Acer has a thing he does with these pins,and that is making several of them for build purposes,bendind them at 90 degree ,like a small handle,and about 2 inches or so long.This works good for all the times you have to take the project apart,and saves the wood from damage.When you do the final assembly,then make your new pins to fit exactlty.Thanks,Tom,for the neat idea.Dave

[flehto]

Ace Hardware has 3' lengths of 1/16 dia  music wire  which is very reasonably priced and works well. It's fairly hard and I have only one very old side cutter that will cut it. I imagine this is a lot cheaper than buying individual dowels....Fred

[jerrywh]

 I use the same thing Fleto does or 1/16" tig rod.

[Stophel]

I like my pins a little bigger than 1/16" (and tapered).  I use nails.  The hardened spring wire is GREAT for pin punches, though!  I don't even try to clip them off, I hit it on the edge of the grinder wheel to "cut" it off.  I have a little tube of various sizes of spring wire from Brownell's that I got probably 15+ years ago.   

[David Rase]

I have been buying 36" lengths of 1/16" steel welding rod to use for pins forever.
David

[Lucky R A]

    Apparently none of you have a Dremel tool in your shop (I have five all chucked w/ various bits, saves time) The cut off wheel will cut the wire neatly to the exact length and then you just round the ends on a 1" belt sander---after burning your fingers....
Ron

[Bob Roller]

 Stophel,
 The 4/0 taper pin would be perfect for your projects.I used them is double set triggers for a while.
 
 Bob Roller

[cmac]

I buy a roll of yard flags/markers at my local hardware for a few bucks. They are 1/16" mild steel but harden up okay and I haven't had any problems

[moleeyes36]

I have some 1/16" stainless steel rod stock I was going to use in my current project to pin the ramrod pipes and front of the trigger guard.  I also bought some 3/32" steel dowel pins hardened to Rc65 from TOW to use in pinning the barrel instead of the finishing nails I usually use.  From what I'm reading in this thread the 3/32" hardened dowel pins may be overkill and I could safely use the 1/16" stainless steel rod stock for pinning the barrel as well.

Mole Eyes

[Pete G.]

    Apparently none of you have a Dremel tool in your shop (I have five all chucked w/ various bits, saves time) The cut off wheel will cut the wire neatly to the exact length and then you just round the ends on a 1" belt sander---after burning your fingers....
Ron

They have a Dremel....they just don't want to say it in public.

[Bill-52]

Mark,

Like others, I use 1/16" music wire in 3' lengths from the hardware store.   The pins are cut to length (with tapered ends) to extend beyond the stock so that they can be easily removed during the building process.  As I progress from square stock to roughed out shape to final shape, I cut the pins shorter.  Once finished, the pins are cut to exact length and fire blued.

And I don't use a Dremel!  But the only wire cutters I have that will cut music wire are the ones I inherited from my grandfather.

Bill

[flehto]

Have this old pliers w/ a side cutter which can cut music wire w/o harming the cutting edges, but just in case I've bought just plain side cutters and all of them will not cut music wire w/o damaging the cutting edges.....most were made in China. Any info on  new sidecutters that will cut music wire w/o damage?.......Fred

[Hungry Horse]

 I learned quite early in my building, that tempered, or stainless steel, pins can be a giant headache if they become bent. So, I use mild steel finish nails tapered by running in a Dremel on a diamond sharpening stone.
  I had a friend inadvertently shoot a trade gun I helped him build, with a shot charge, that had moved forward. If the pins had been 1/16th did., or tempered steel, we would never have gotten the gun apart to repair it. The pins looked like little handlebars. The lock bolts were bent as well. I believe that if the gun had not had the old school upward tang screw it would probably have killed the owner.

                     Hungry Horse

                               

[FDR]

Starret makes a compound leverage nipper that will cut music wire and rod like butter. Expensive but you will never need another.

[Mark Elliott]

I also use music wire in 1/16" and 5/64" diameters that I get from the local Ace Hardware store.    I cut it off using an abrasive cutoff wheel on my Dremel tool.   It is just about the only thing I use the Dremel for.    I keep it sitting on a shelf with an abrasive cutoff wheel on it.   It comes in very handle for cutting small metal parts.   I still use my hacksaw or jewelers saw for most metal cutting. 

[P.W.Berkuta]

I bought a pound each of 1/6" & 3/32" copper plated welding rod for my oxygen acetylene torch a few years back - I have enough to last a life time. I don't see the advantage of using hardened pins in a non load situation to me it is a waste of money - nails work very well also. But I guess a lot of people want to "improve" on simple  !

[P.W.Berkuta]

For those who "REALLY NEED" a dedicated nipper for hard rod up to 1/8" here is what you want. They are carbide jawed compound leveraged cutters - just go to the bank first and make a hefty withdraw- and buy extra replacement cutters which are solid carbide so that when you drop them on the floor you will not cry so much.

[bama]

I use piano wire, it can be bought in a roll from places like Granger. I have been on one rollfor a number of years. I like it because I can cut the wire the lenght that I want, I normally cut my pins long so I can pull them easy during the building process and trim up for final fit. But everyone is right you need good cutters because Piano wire/ music wire is tough on cheaper type wire cutter. I use a good pair of electrican dykes to cut the wire, then file to final fit.

[Pennsylvania Dutchman]

I guess my first post wasn't real clear. I didn't buy these dowels specifically for my smoothrifle. I machine a lot of tooling for the Eaton Aeroquip Hose plant not too far from me. The dowels were ordered for a job that I'm doing for them. I will not be using all of them on the job for Aeroquip so, they looked ideal to use on my gun. As far as cutting them to length, 1/16" pins are very easy to cut to length on a bench grinder or disc sander. I just wanted to share the info in case someone was interested.
Thanks for the replies, Mark