Screws, drills, taps and reamers for Dolep lockkit

[Rolf]

I 've read through the the Dolep lock tutorial by Hemo, great work!!! I'm in the planing stage on starting on a pair these locks. I've made a tabel of the screws, drills and taps used.
Could I use #4-40 screws for the front bridel screw and the mainspring screw instead of #5-40? That would reduce the number of taps and drills needed.
Best regards
Rolf

[ddoyle]

I'd say go with the OEM fastners. If you are trying to save a few bucks and can wait for them to arrive the taps in the ebay listing number below are top notch.

291652872803

[Rolf]

Thanks for the reply. I find it hard to turn skinny screw blanks. They often bend/break in my lath. To avoid the problem, I buy screw blanks from Brownell. The blanks allow me to custom fit the length of thread on the screws. They don't have #5 blanks, which is why I I'd like to use #4 instead of #5

Best regards
Rolf

[L. Akers]

I'd druther go up in screw size than down.

[Hemo]

Hi, Rolf,

On my Dolep lock, I used the 5-40 screws just because that's what came with Tom Snyder's screw set for this lock. A real honest-to-goodness lockmaker like Bob Roller could probably provide a more authoritative opinion, but I think those 4-40 screws are pretty wimpy. How much stress really goes into the mainspring screw and the front bridle screw? Hard for me to say. If you retain the little round post on the bridle casting, as on the original, rather than filing it off at Tom Snyder suggested, you may get a stronger fixation of the bridle and may be able to use a 4-40.

Good luck!

Gregg