doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Off-Face -- When is it bad enough to fix?

A single thickness of "scotch" tape (0,002 inch) does good, but not complete, job of taking out looseness. Two thickness and the foreend latch will not close, although the toplever will close fully with a bit of light pressure. Seems like 0,003 inches will be the target increase.

Niklas

Utah and Chopper,

This a** hole must again disagree. Most hinge pins are hardened, and are not the source of wear. Most often the hook, which is not hardened, is the point of wear. Please note that hinge pins are most often replaced with oversized pins. Do the math yourselves. Inletting a .009 or .010 surface in the hook does not reduce its strength. Finally, I do not do my own work. I employ experts, who most often do not use scotch tape or brass shims.

Phil

A very simple way to get into the 'ballpark' isn't it? And you didn't have to buy anything.

Scotch tape can also be used to check the headspace on a rifle, but that's another topic for another day.

Phil,

This is not meant as a pissing contest, just a difference of opinion. No one ever suggested that Scotch tape was a 'expert' repair. In fact I mentioned employing experts myself when the value of the gun is sufficient.

With todays adhesives, not to mention the old school method of soldering, there really is no purpose to inlet a piece into the hook when you can bond/solder a piece.

Utah,

The problem is that it only take .001 to make a gun off face. Now one is faced with a problem. How to "bond" .001 or.002 to the surface of a worn hook, and allow for adjustment to fit the action. Bonding is a nice theory. But, the practical facts require inletting the hook. BTW try cigarette paper. Its .001.

Phil AKA **S Hole

Phil, I'd like to know just how a .009 piece of metal can be dovetailed into the hook. Doing so would require removal (and very accurately at that) of a few thousandths less than that from the face of the hook while leaving sufficient metal at top and bottom of radius to effect the dovetail. And it'd be a hell of a weak dovetail joint with only that thin of an undercut area. If soldered, why then bother with the intrusive filing away of metal on the hook. Maybe Mike Orlen will chime in on this subject as his opinion is more informed than either of ours. All I know for sure is that a soldered shim works! Chopper

Chopper,

Call Hugh Lomas(H.G. Lomas Gunmakers) in Elkhart Lake, WI and he can explain the entire process.

Phil

Hate to see yOu guys get wOund-up over how to fix a gun that's not worth the price of a case of Scotch tape.

There is more than 1 way to properly tighten a double as I was taught by the same highly respected guild member that taught MC. The Gentleman who taught me explained that not all guns are purdey's and that while replacing the hinge pin is very desirable, not all guns are worth this amount of effort. I have pieced hooks and made new hinge pins in the past, and will most likely make new hinge pins in the future as needed. I usually tig the hook and refit it to the action. All three methods are perfectly acceptable, though higher grade guns do deserve the best fix possible. I personally have never messed with shimming the hook, but it has to be better than shooting it when loose.
Steve

I recently tried the shim method and I works great. Bought a selection (.001 - .005) steel shim stock from MSC Industrial, along with Loctite Black Max adhesive. Experimented with different thicknesses by curling them up and clipping them over the hinge pin (where they remained, even with the barrels removed). When the correct thickness was found (.002 in this case), I simply cut a piece too large for the hook so it stuck out on both sides, top and bottom, glued it in place with the Black Max, carefully trimmed all edges flush. I have asked several friends to look at the barrel lug and tell me if it's been worked on in any way. No one has been able to detect the shim. Total cost was about $60.00 for materials, and I have enough material left to do about 300 more guns. I can't see any drawback to this method. If it works and is invisable, what could be better? Bill