Make pins to dial in barrel?

Mram10

New member
I have made my own pins out of steel and changed over to making them out of brass to slide into the muzzle and also the chamber end for indicating in the barrel. Does anyone else make their own pins for this? If so, out of what materials? Thanks
 
Mram10,

I made a few years ago out of brass for some reason or another. Worked fine.

If you have live-pilot reamers, you can use the correct sized pilot inserted in the bore to indicate on instead of making your own pins or buying pin gages.

Or you can just indicate off the lands or grooves, and sack the pins.

Justin
 
McMaster-Carr

One can buy deltronic pins individually there and other places for a couple of bucks each. I have a .300 pin use in the 30's I do and also have a range rod that I use in the other end. Same can be true with any other caliber. I have a complete set of Pins from .250" down for anything below .250". just a snug pin will or should do ya, IMHO.

Pet
 
I personally do not like tight pins. I buy a set of 25 pins per caliber. Your barrel maker will tell you the mean dimension that they shoot for. Use that as your middle pin and get 12 pins on either side in .0001" increments
.
Pete, I do not believe that you can buy them for $2 ea., they are closer to $4-$5 ea.

Edit: My McMaster Carr catalog list the 25 piece set with roughly a .300 mean for $260. I buy a lot from McMaster Carr and really like the way they do business, but can't buy the pins from them at that price.
 
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I personally do not like tight pins. I buy a set of 25 pins per caliber. Your barrel maker will tell you the mean dimension that they shoot for. Use that as your middle pin and get 12 pins on either side in .0001" increments
.
Pete, I do not believe that you can buy them for $2 ea., they are closer to $4-$5 ea.

Edit: My McMaster Carr catalog list the 25 piece set with roughly a .300 mean for $260. I buy a lot from McMaster Carr and really like the way they do business, but can't buy the pins from them at that price.

I just bought 630 pins for 214 bucks......

190 from .061 to .250
190 from .061 to .250 another (much more expensive) brand, a brand I've had prior experience with
250 from .251 to .500

I don't care who makes 'em..... and when I have 2 identical sets to gage against each other??? I'm Golden.

It's like calipers. I have 50+ dial calipers ranging from 6.00 to 285.00. Easy to gage one against the other.

Just don't ask me if my Mitutoyo or Starrett or Lon'Gisland stuff is "more accurate than my ChiCom junk"
 
Al, they are not Deltronics but gage pin sets Deltronics come in .0001 steps and are held to a much closer tolerance....
 
I just bought 630 pins for 214 bucks......

190 from .061 to .250
190 from .061 to .250 another (much more expensive) brand, a brand I've had prior experience with
250 from .251 to .500

I don't care who makes 'em..... and when I have 2 identical sets to gage against each other??? I'm Golden.

It's like calipers. I have 50+ dial calipers ranging from 6.00 to 285.00. Easy to gage one against the other.

Just don't ask me if my Mitutoyo or Starrett or Lon'Gisland stuff is "more accurate than my ChiCom junk"


Can I ask where you bought those 630 pins from? PM me if you would rather. Thanks.
 
I like the idea of buying pins or indicating off the lands and grooves, but I like indicating where the bullet starts. Normally not an issue, but with the edge and ultras, I need 4” into the barrel. I don’t have any indicators that long. I’ve made pins with an inch tight fitting and the other 6” or so a bit smaller. Makes sense in my mind, but that might be a bad thing :)
 
Can I ask where you bought those 630 pins from? PM me if you would rather. Thanks.

BTW coontz74, I need to be clear. I only use these to get a barrel set up roughly "between centers" and for gaging for slave pins... basically to span the places where drill sizes miss.

It was silly on my part to interject this into a discussion of Deltronic pins.... I don't even use them as described and because I'm a selfish git I tend to initially look at the world only through my personal lens and replied as such. My pin purchase IS partially for barrel setup but it's irrelevant to the discussion..... For me pins are a crude device and the only thing I've ever been able to accomplish with tightly fitted pins in barrels is getting them wedged. I have 60-80 PTG reamer bushing which I use for tight fittages inside barrels. They are about the same price as Deltronics at around 12.00 each


edited to add...

I also keep a bunch of spare gauge pins for a weird reason that's probably not relevant to anyone else :) I have trouble measuring stuff the same day-to-day....

The biggest problem I face with the PTG bushes is that even though I keep them sorted and on a board, marked, I tend to mix them up. They're not marked..... and I have trouble distinguishing between tenths.. so sometimes I "sneak up on" my measurements by bridging over with pins used as "Gauge Blocks" in an attempt at bracketing and finding a fairly true dimension but.... un-conditioned shop, grease/oil, measuring equipment scattered hither and yon in drawers, nothing calibrated..... I do a lot of back-checking if I'm trying to actually measure something. Generally I gage-to-fit when it comes to tenths
 
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I use guage pins mostly for boring out cast bullet mould basebands to size. One cherrie on the smaller side can be used to create several various sizes without having to make a new cherrie for every size. Also use them for indicating a barrel but I only do my own work and the first 32-40 barrel had over 144,000 bullets down the bore. Also set a new National record with back in 2013 and then I retired it shorty after and then built myself a new rifle in 28-35. So as you can see I don't do many barrels so mostly do bullet moulds for myself and friends.
 
A bit loose with the language I guess

I personally do not like tight pins. I buy a set of 25 pins per caliber. Your barrel maker will tell you the mean dimension that they shoot for. Use that as your middle pin and get 12 pins on either side in .0001" increments
.
Pete, I do not believe that you can buy them for $2 ea., they are closer to $4-$5 ea.

Edit: My McMaster Carr catalog list the 25 piece set with roughly a .300 mean for $260. I buy a lot from McMaster Carr and really like the way they do business, but can't buy the pins from them at that price.

The pins I bought there was a few years ago. I didn't remember them being terribly expensive. Guess I could have been more precise but 2 dollars or four or five, wouldn't be a deal breaker, for me at least. I likely lucked out on the size though. So far it has been snug enough to use to dial in the muzzle.



Pete
 
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Pete, I just bought 6 pins in the .256 area. Bill was $52.44. I didn't remember them being quite that high.
The bad thing is, I forgot why I ordered them.
 
I understand all too well

Pete, I just bought 6 pins in the .256 area. Bill was $52.44. I didn't remember them being quite that high.
The bad thing is, I forgot why I ordered them.

What I've learned to do it to avoid buying anything until at least a week has passed and often I find I didn't need it anyway :).

Pete
 
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