Timeing your screws??

[Brian Jordan]

I believe this is what it is called?? I have often wondered how a gun builder can have a completely assembled gun, and have all the screw slots running parallel to one another. I'm sure there is a simple explanation, or maybe it is a difficult task to accomplish. Here is the link to T. Caster's beauty he posted a few days ago. I am refering to the fifth picture.

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=3840.0


Thanks
Brian

[Rich]

I countersink them until they point where I want.

[Jim Filipski]

I countersink them until they point where I want.

Simple as that! (Though not as important to me as it was in my earlier years)
Jim

[Jim Filipski]

heard it called "regulating the screws"

[billd]

You use screws that have overly high heads. Screw them in, mark them and reshape and recut the slots where needed.   Brownells sells them.  For wood screws careful countersinking can get them close.

Bill

[keweenaw]

The standard practice in high end gun building is to make them with high heads, get them seated, mark them and then cut new slots.  Truth is aligned screw heads look a bit artificial on longrifles.

Tom

[Roger Fisher]

Well I'd be happy with thrice a week (or maybe twice)


The devil made me do it!

[keweenaw]

That happens as we get older.

[David Rase]

Truth is aligned screw heads look a bit artificial on longrifles.
Tom

If you are entering a gun at Dixon's "timed screws" are one of the things the judges look for.  Off topic but FYI.
DMR 

[David Rase]

[ (Though not as important to me as it was in my earlier years)
Jim

I too used to make a big deal out of timed screws.  Now I leave them where they lay.
DMR

[Scott Semmel]

I remember a thread on this several years ago and the, should they line up north south or not ?, was hotly debated. If you want to line them up the high head method is probably the most elegant method, increasing the depth of countersink or by chucking screw in a drill taking off material on the down side of the head till they line up the easiest. IMHO

[Roger Fisher]

Well I do in fact attempt to line em up and my projects can no way be called fancy more like low end.  Makes the job look more 'finished' to my eye

[keweenaw]

If you look at all those patch boxes in RCA or Kindig that are attached by multiple screws how many of them are timed?  Essentially none which tells us what colonial era makers thought of that idea.  When I'm building English guns, I line up the screws, not on American pieces.  I'll admit that the temptation is their to align them, especially after I've just build a couple English rifles or a high end centerfire shorter, but I can resist it!

Tom

[t.caster]

Yeah, I measure the length of the screw, divide by the thread pitch, count turns per inch, factor in the inch-pounds of torque required, always start the screw slots in an east-west orientation...... The cock screw alignment is a real problem, you have to grind down your flints to +/-0.0025" once you determine the required thickness for your lock!

WHAT A HOOT!!!! No engineering involved at all!  Just stop turning them when the slots are in line, or back them off till they do. And it's just for the cameras anyway, because there is always someone out there who has to mention it if you don't!
I don't think I ever even thought about the cock screw slot alignment....it just happened

[Stophel]

I like to have the tang screw and the buttplate screws (and the rear triggerguard screw if there is one) aligned, it looks good, it's easy to do, and yes, it was done on lots of old guns, but I don't worry about the lock screws or anything else.

[lew wetzel]

its nice to have all the screws lined up,especially on a patch box with multiple screws....but i think it really doesnt matter...unless your ocd.....lol

[billd]

When I was restocking modern guns I always lined them up, especially careful on the smith and fox doubles. On flintlocks it's a nice touch, but not necessary. PC or not, I don't know.

One problem you'll encounter is on screws that are removed frequently, like the lock bolts. Wood swells and shrinks and you find yourself forcing the screw to line it up resulting is extra tight or not tight enough screws.

Just my amateur opinion,
Bill

[DutchGramps]

My cabinet-making grandfather always had a box full of brass screws, that he tried out one by one until they all 'faced north' as he said.
And lock screws I make from steel bar; after threading and before cutting them off I screw them in real tight, mark the place where I have to saw the slot, cut the head to length and make the slot. Always works

[T*O*F]

If you look at all those patch boxes in RCA or Kindig that are attached by multiple screws how many of them are timed?  Essentially none which tells us what colonial era makers thought of that idea.

When you look at those guns, you have no clue as to how many times they were removed or tightened up during the life of the gun, especially with the wood being air dryed and shrinkage after building evident in most.  What you say may or may not be true, but your reasons are flawed.

[keweenaw]

Each to his own.  If you look at the Eister rifles, and no one used more screws in a patch box than he did, the slots are every which way and it's hard to imagine that by the time Kindig got those rifles in the 30's and 40's that the patch boxes had been out lots of times.

Tom

[T*O*F]

Each to his own.

Tom,
I agree, but it is still assumptive rather than empirical knowledge.  We have no way of knowing.

[Jim Kibler]

Each to his own.  If you look at the Eister rifles, and no one used more screws in a patch box than he did, the slots are every which way and it's hard to imagine that by the time Kindig got those rifles in the 30's and 40's that the patch boxes had been out lots of times.

Tom

I'll agree that most of the screws on Eister boxes don't line up, but if you have Whisker's "Gunsmiths of York County"  check out the Eister box on page 63.  Thirteen out of fourteen line up.  Don't imagine they got there by accident and I also cant imagine someone re-countersinking the box at a later date to align them.