trimming thimbles

[frenchman]

help
 somewhere on this site , somebody had made himself a tool to trim thimbles ,

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

How about a file?  ..a hacksaw?  ...a lathe?  I don't mean to sound factitious, but I can't imagine what difficulty you might be having.

[frenchman]

want to place some bands and would like to make them even , i know it's not major just want to make them the same and maybe save some time for the future ones
thanks

[Mark Elliott]

I just use a triangular needle file to create bands and don't worry if they are not quite even.  I have yet to see originals that were. 

[Acer Saccharum]

Peruse this tutorial, maybe something you can use:

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=687.0

[David Rase]

Frenchman,
I use a small machinists square and a file to square up the ends of my thimble blanks.  After they are square, I use my 6" dial calipers to scribe radial lines on the thimble blanks on the outsides of my bands.  I use the ends of the thimbles as a guide for the calipers.  I don't have any photos of the scribing but I do have a couple of a set of thimbles being made.
David

After scribing the lines I use a jewelers saw to cut some grooves using the scribed lines as a guide.  These grooves define the edges of the bands.  The saw blade also works as a depth gage.


Using a combination of jewelers files, triangle, square, flat with a safe side, I file the bands.


The rough filed blank


The finished set ready for inletting into a pistol stock.
 

[Acer Saccharum]

That's too much work, Dave. Can I buy those from you?

[Acer Saccharum]

Rase, I added your 'mini tutorial' to the thimble tutorial link above. Excellent workmanship.

[David Rase]

That's too much work, Dave. Can I buy those from you?

Sure, but they come attached to a pistol.

[frenchman]

HAAA! HA!! i knew that i saw something about thimble
thank you
 exactly what i was looking for

[Long John]

Frenchman,

Take a block of wood that you can clamp in your vise and install a dowel in it that has the same diameter as your ramrod.

Find some washers that have a hole large enough that your ramrod pipe can go inside.  Select washers that are the thickness of the spacing you want for your rings.

Plop a washer onto the block with the dowel through the hole.  Stick the ramrod pipe over the dowel so it fits into the hole of the washer.  Now take your 3-corner file and hold it against the washer while you file your first ring. When that ring is done add a washer and file the second ring, etc., etc.

A nice ramrod pipe can be made up in 15 to 20 minutes with nice evenly spaced, uniform rings on the ends.



That's how I did the rings on the pipe pictured above.

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[flehto]

To "draw" the lines for the bands onto the pipe bbl, I first just scribe  short lines on the inked pipe bbl  and then push the pipe onto a tight fitting mandrel and chuck in the drill press.  A very sharply pointed pin is held in an adjustable block and the short LO lines are  aligned and the pointed pin is held against the brass pipe bbl and the chuck is rotated by hand.  When a deep groove is achieved, the next short line is picked up and another groove is cut, etc.

These grooves guide a small trianular file  for the  the start of the bands...very uniform spacing is the result. A jeweler's saw sounds good...will have to try that.....Fred

[smallpatch]

Frenchie,
I think you're talking about the mandrel and file guide that Dave Keck from Knob Mountain has available. They work great.

[J. Talbert]

Here's a little gizmo I made a long time ago.  It was posted on the old board.
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t99/jtflintlock/DSCN3631.jpg[/img]]

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t99/jtflintlock/DSCN3630.jpg[/img]]

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t99/jtflintlock/DSCN3627.jpg[/img]]

Jeff