What size pin.

[Red Owl]

If you wanted to use a pin rather than a wedge (for the barrel), what size is used? 3/32"? 1/8"?  I'm thinking of using a plate for the pin so I won't scratch the stock if I remove the pin.  I am assuming a pin can be removed and replaced numerous times- same as a wedge.  Is that correct?

[Nate McKenzie]

A #4 or a #6 finishing nail works great. Taper one end and slightly round the other. Always put it in the same way and remove back the other direction.  I like to put them in the same direction as the lock screw so I remember which way to go. Rounded end helps keep them from chipping the wood on removal.

[Don Getz]

I use a 6 penny finishing nail....it mikes out at .070..........Don

[Dphariss]

If you wanted to use a pin rather than a wedge (for the barrel), what size is used? 3/32"? 1/8"?  I'm thinking of using a plate for the pin so I won't scratch the stock if I remove the pin.  I am assuming a pin can be removed and replaced numerous times- same as a wedge.  Is that correct?

3/32 piano wire for the barrel pins.
Smaller piano wire for others stuff.
Piano wire is a soft sping temper and will not beat up or bend easily.
Hobby stores have it in sizes from about 1/4" to under .020" in most cases.
I round both ends.

Dan

[David Rase]

I use 1/16" steel welding wire.
DMR

[Bucksnort]

Red Owl I use drill rod for pins cheap and holds up well. A piece of 3ft. drill rod is about $3.00 and you got leftover stock to make your assembly pins a piece about 2in. long with a 90 bent on one end so you can pull they out, as you will about a hundred times in the prosses of building the gun. As for size I use some thing around .080 that way the finished pins can be driven out with a 1/16" punch witch has clearence in the hole. To answer your queston yes they can be taken out like a wedge. Duane

[Mike Brooks]

I use 1/16 " welding rod and never remover them once the gun is done.

[Benedict]

Another thing to use as pins are bicycle spokes.  Your local bicycle repair shop throws the old ones away.

Bruce

[Acer Saccharum]

Great idea on bike spokes.

I use drill rod, which can be had in many diameters. Same sizes as number drills, and fractional sizes by sixty fourths in the smaller sizes.

If I drill with a 5/64 drill(.078), and the hole is too loose or too tight, I have the option of the pin sizes below. This is precision ground rod, easy to cut, and can be hardened if you like. They will never mushroom once hardened.
Drill rod can be had in .075, .077, .079, and .081

5/64 is more substantial than 1/16, and easy to tap in and out with a 1/16 drift without chewing up the wood. I round the pin ends to prevent the pin from cutting the hole bigger.

[B.Habermehl]

I don't like finishing nails for pins for two reasons, they are soft and will burr over, and the tolerence on their diameters is quite broad.  If  I follow up on a project started by some one else and a pin is missing I wind up going through the local hardware stores nail bin with micromerers to find a replacement.  Or I replace all the pins.  I use 5/64 dia music wire.  Nice stuff and it is reasonably hard and will not mushroom the ends. One drawback is you are best off cutting it with a abraisive wheel on a Dremel type tool.

[roundball]

If I drill with a 5/64 drill(.078), and the hole is too loose or too tight, I have the option of the pin sizes below. This is precision ground rod, easy to cut, and can be hardened if you like. They will never mushroom once hardened.
Drill rod can be had in .075, .077, .079, and .081

5/64 is more substantial than 1/16, and easy to tap in and out with a 1/16 drift without chewing up the wood. I round the pin ends to prevent the pin from cutting the hole bigger.

Would caliber / recoil enter into the size decision too?

[Jim Filipski]

I use drill rod  .073 # 49 drill

[George F.]

I use to use 3/32" pins, then I tried finishing nails. I now use 1/16" pin stock/ music wire. Looks neater and more petite. I leave just a whisker showing.   ...Geo.

[Roger Fisher]

If I drill with a 5/64 drill(.078), and the hole is too loose or too tight, I have the option of the pin sizes below. This is precision ground rod, easy to cut, and can be hardened if you like. They will never mushroom once hardened.
Drill rod can be had in .075, .077, .079, and .081

5/64 is more substantial than 1/16, and easy to tap in and out with a 1/16 drift without chewing up the wood. I round the pin ends to prevent the pin from cutting the hole bigger.

Would caliber / recoil enter into the size decision too?

Your last question begs this response!  Remember to file your pin holes in the lug oblong due to wood shrinkage over the centuries!

[J Shingler]

Would caliber / recoil enter into the size decision too?
No not really. All the pin is doing is holding a very fragile pc of wood to a barrel. Your lugs should be slotted parallel to the barrel for expansion and contraction. 1/16 is plenty strong. If you want a slightly larger pin that is fine as well. I highly recommend to slightly Chamfer the edge of both ends of the pin to help reduce chipping taking them in and out.  Do not taper or point the end as that just makes it hard for the punch to push it out at a later date. If things go askew in the hole and the pointed end becomes a nail making its own new hole ... it is very difficult to remove.

The exception is in the 4 bore wall gun project I used 1/8 welding rod for pins
Jeff

[Red Owl]

I'm surprised at all the folks that use 1/16" diameter material- I would have thought that might not be strong enough. If 1/16th is fine then what about the lug- either steel or brass? It seems brass ought to be okay if the 1/16th pin is strong enough.

[Mike Brooks]

I use brass lugs all the time...or steel, what ever is handy. All the pins do is hold the stock to the barrel, they don't need to bee 16 penny nails.

[Jim Filipski]

I have done a few Track of the Wolf kits for folks who bought them & sent them to me. In the parts kits they supply 3/32" pins. Ignoring my better judgment, I used them once for one of the builds and man they looked like escutcheons! Way too big!

[Red Owl]

What about this slotting in the lugs for the pins (to accommodate the expansion of metal if the barrel heats up) I was unaware of that. How much of a slot? Also, I have the lugs inlet tightly into the barrel channel, should there also be some extra room in the inlet to compensate for metal expansion? Thanks.

[Karl Kunkel]

I believe the "slot" only needs to be about a pin diameter long, in front of and behind the actual pin.  I also think some builders leave a little inlet room fore and aft of the lug.  This is more to accomodate movement of the stock wood, rather than barrel expansion/contraction.  But it accomplishes both.

[J Shingler]

I agree with Karl. I usually make mine about two pin diameters long. half in front half in back of the pin hole. So yes a little extra length in the lug mortise is needed too. I try for a 1/16 front and back of the actual lug size.  An example of this was a 13/16 36 cal squirrel rife I built 25 years or so ago. One day it would shoot dime sized groups and I thought everything was fine. The next weekend they would be opened up to a $.50 pc size and this was off the bench at 25 yards. An oldtimer told me about slotting the lugs on that long 42" thin barrel. I went home and slotted them and from then on it has been the nice tight groups all the time. No more good days and bad days. And the bad days happened more than once so it was not just me. I have also had the lug closest to the muzzle pop off on thin smoothbore barrels if they were not slotted.
Jeff

[Robert Wolfe]

I use surveyors pin flags. I find them for free. They're about 1/16" and pretty tough. Clip to length and file. up the ends.

[Dphariss]

3/32 or 5/64s is easier to get in and out. Also small diameter drills are more likely to wander.

So I would not use 1/16 though its certainly strong enough if fairly hard stuff.


Dan