Lost my mind (temporary)

[ord sgt]

Drilling the tang bolt thru the trigger guard, got carried away and drilled too large of a hole for 10-32 tang screw. Can't tap the threads for the 10-32 screw.
This is on a pistol so larger screw may not be the answer.
Any ideas?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Plug it and re-drill. Is it brass or steel/iron?

 

[ord sgt]

the hole won't take any 10-32 threads and I am not sure if I have any larger screws to fill the hole

 

[Mike Yianopoulos]

Wow! Does that sound familiar. I did the same thing when I built my John Armstrong. I drilled the tang hole for 10/32 and forgot to switch to the smaller drill bit before continuing through the trigger plate. Think the phone rang or something. Anyway that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Rather than make a new trigger plate, I drilled out the hole in the trigger plate and threaded it for a larger screw. Screwed in the larger screw and cut it off and filed flush with both sides of the plate. I peened around the perimeter of this new plug with a center punch to keep it in place. Then re-drilled with the proper drill bit and threaded. This fix worked amazingly well. Hope this helps.

 

[ord sgt]

Yes, that it the right idea. Iwould have thought of it in.....oh, maybe 6 months!!!!Thanks for helping me overcome my "lapse of better judgement", for a better choice of words.

 

[flashpanner]

Try putting in a helicoil. It will return back to a 10-32 thread. Available from automotive supply house

 

[frou frou]

Fill it with epoxy, like jb-weld. Redrill.

 

[Vaino]

Silver solder an 1/8" thick piece of steel on the back and redo. I've also plugged the existing hole and then silver soldered a piece on.....nice thickness w/ plenty of threads.....Fred

 

[white_tail]

A Helicoil is your best option. You will need to use the drill provided with Helicoil kit (it's larger than a stand tap drill) then you will need to tap the hole with the Helicoil tap, then you insert a threaded coil into the tapped hole, the inside diameter of the coil is the size that you want. You may need to grind off the excess Helicoil. Link

 

[Flint311]

I've used a wire feed welder to do something similar, just not on such a small hole. Clamp a piece of copper (tube smashed flat) behind it and weld the hole shut. Weld won't hold to the copper. File, smooth, etc. and finish as usual. Just another idea. Good luck!

 

[ord sgt]

I first tried accruglass with metal shavings, didn't work. Being a tightwad like most ML's, wanted to try home brew remedies first. None worked so broke down and bought j-b weld. Mixed up a small batch and worked into the oversized hole and let it set up. Drilled and tapped the new material today. Seems to hold up so far. Ran the tang bolt thru the trigger plate. So good so far.

 

[oldarmy]

I have taped the larger hole and threaded in a bolt,
However, because I have a friend with a tig welder, He just fills in the hole with a spot of weld.
Do you know anyone with a wire welder?? Just takes a scond and it's a permant fix.