doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com This is why a good gunsmith is worth every penny

oh, to have hands that are that steady....and always a pleasure to watch a craftsman move from one thing to the next - with no wasted motions.

I find that disassembly interesting.

It would seem that the slots are cut in sets so that all of the action screws that would come out in sequence, use the same turn screw.

I found the excess torque on the top lever pin disturbing.

I think I would have chucked it up under a drill press, set the down pressure with the stops, and then used the drillpress with a pipe wrench around the Chuck to take that pin out.
Me being a complete bodger, I would’ve used a torque wrench to determine the specifications for each one of the pins prior to disassembly.
I’m sure he knows what they feel like when right.
I will bet a number of gunsmiths got to that top lever pin and decided to stop.

First time I disassembled a Tobin, I measured every slot and then polished every return screw for a perfect fit, including the side to side, to accomplish exactly what this young man was doing as he took it apart.

You can learn as much on a Syracuse arms or a Tobin or a Crescent when it comes to basic skills as you can on a fantastic Purdey.

Without the anxiety.

I’m sitting here at the beach at six in the morning, drinking coffee, and that spindle pin still bothers me.

My father told me “there are 2 kinds of people that work on watches, jewelers and idiots”

I find that to be true in all manner of fine repairing…

It doesn’t hurt to start working on junk when you are very young. You can build the synaptic connections in a child through tedious fine work. And they will benefit from it their whole life.

The video was interesting, but it only covered a bit of the most basic goal of gunsmithing... to be able to properly remove screws (or pins) and disassemble a gun without doing any damage.

Clapper Zapper is correct, these techniques, and learning correct tool selection, are best learned on cheaper guns than a Purdey. I'd probably also resort to the drill press method rather than the brace for removing the very tight top lever screw. Actually, I was kind of surprised he applied that much force with the brace before first resorting to a penetrating oil soak. I'd also guess that more people have a drill press at their disposal nowadays than a carpenters brace, and the correct hollow ground bits for it. I have my grandfather's old carpenter's brace and a lot of wood boring bits, but only a few wood screwdriver bits that would need to be reground for gun screws.

I doubt you would find a torque wrench or torque driver on the bench of a Purdey trained gunsmith either. Experience teaches you how much force you should apply to a given screw without stripping threads or wringing the head off. One also learns if their screwdrivers are soft or brittle, and prone to cause slippage or gouging. CZ is also correct in saying that these skills can be learned by starting at a very young age, but some never learn. I had one coworker who was very often seen hard at work with drills, E-Z Outs, and punches removing screws and bolts he broke. But usually, he twisted them off by over tightening when he was reinstalling them after a job. Most of his "T" Handle Allen wrenches looked like licorice twists.

We've all heard the term, "never a screw turned" to describe a gun with perfect screw slots. When I bought my first D.M. Lefever cross bolt shotgun, it looked like none of the screws were ever turned. But while reading an article on them in the Double Gun Journal by Oregon gunsmith Keith Kearcher, the 4 digit serial number of a gun he had all disassembled looked very familiar. I checked, and was surprised to see that he had once owned the gun I had. He had taken it apart and reassembled it with perfect screw slot timing, and not a mark on any screw. Some people can't seem to manage removing a single screw without doing major damage to the screw and surrounding metal.