School a newbie on his tenon pins

[DeoreDX]

I'm ready to drill and install the Tenon pins in my Tradition's Kentucky rifle build. Instructions call for "#32 drill bit (.118)". I work with enough dual units drawings in my job to know that a #32 is .116 and .118 is a 3mm hole. Calipers on the tenon pins proves to me that the tenons are in fact 3mm in diameter. The problem is #32 drill bits aren't in your standard homeowner's drill bit set which at best are in 1/64" increments. I have a 7/64" (.109) and a 1/8" (.125). Drilling some test holes into a piece of scrap hardwood on my drill press the 7/64 seems WAY too tight. I don't want to risk splitting my piece of damaging the wood trying to drive that pin into a .109 hole. The .125 seems a little loose. I can easily push the pin in with my finger and pull it out with my fingers too.

I figure I have three options.

#1 get a #32 drill bit. Shopping around locally online Lowes and Home Depot don't look to have anything that would work. Harbor Freight carries a couple of numbered drill bit sets in the $20-50 range that will probably be sufficient to drill one hole.

#2 find a different material for the pin. I've used drill bits as pins before in other projects but I'm not sure if the brittle hardened metal of a drill bit would be best to use? Before I go around town with a set of calipers is there something you guys can normally source locally you like to use for tenon pins? In some of my searching many people are using pins much smaller in diameter, ~.064". I would assume this would help make the pin holes much less noticeable.

#3 don't worry about the pin being too loose with the .125. It will work fine for it's intended purpose and won't fall out. Maybe a light coat of linseed oil will help it go in and gum up enough to keep it from falling out yet let me be able to drive it out when needed?

 

[Black Hand]

Go to your local Hardware store and buy the proper bit.

 

[Dane]

Get some 1/16th music wire and a 1/16 drill bit, you're done.

 

[Col. Batguano]

You might try your local hobby shops for numbered drill bits. Guys that do a lot of modeling and working on trains regularly use them down to a # 88 bit size. But, absent that, I agree that just going with 1/16" wire and a 1/16" bit is the best way to go. It doesn't need to be any thicker than that to hold the stock to the barrel. If you happen to lose a pin some day (yes, it happens) trying to relocate a .113" piece of stock is going to give you trouble.

One more option is to file or grind that pin town to a smaller diameter. Just put it in your drill press and put the file to it when it's spinning. Do it on both ends though.

 

[excess650]

Get some 1/16th music wire and a 1/16 drill bit, you're done.

My local Ace Hardware carries the 3' sections of music wire in both 1/6" and 3/32". The latter seems a bit thick for pinning a barrel into place.

 

[DeoreDX]

No 0.063 music wire anywhere. Hobby Lobby had some .03ish and Hobby Town was a dead end. No music wire in my local Ace hardware.

I stopped by Harbor Freight on the way back home. They didn't have the $20 numbered bit set but they did have a $3.99 set of metric "Micro" drill bits in HSS. They are pretty short so I need to make a point to point drilling jig. A couple of hangers away from the bits was a doweling set. I think it will work as an impromptu point to point jig. I clamped a piece of wood to the platform and drilled straight through Raised the platform up loosened the bit and let it drop through. Placed one of the dowling jibs and installed the little 3mm drill bit. Everything looks to be in line.

 

[DeoreDX]

Did a couple of test holes in some scrap. Point to point jig looks like it works great.

 

[Larry Akers]

Google McMaster-Carr. From them you can buy single bits in any size you need including metric.

I use #3 or 4 finish nails for barrel pins.

 

[Col. Batguano]

Small bits like these have a tendency to bend during the drilling process if you don't hold your target work rock steady, so if you can rig it so the exit point that the work is clamped in an adjustable x-y axis vice on the drill table that too would help. I disappointed myself on a tang bolt in the last build when the hole didn't exit in the middle of the trigger plate like I was originally planning. I fixed it, but it's better to get it right the first time.

 

[Black Hand]

I drill undersized holes from both sides then run the proper bit all the way through. Thin bits tend to wander if forced, and the 2-stage process minimizes the issue.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

With small bits in wood you should be backing off and clearing the chips more than you drill. A drill it will wander if the chips aren't cleared ...

 

[Herb]

Use Option No. 2. Drill the hole 7/64" (.109) and then use a 2 1/2" long finishing nail for the pin (also called "nail"). They are about .098". If the hole is a little loose in the wood, the finish will close it up. Or you can put a very slight bend in the middle of the pin You want an elongated hole in the underlug to allow for stock expansion. I like sheet rock nails for "pins", they are about 1 3/4" long by .095, with a sharp point. But I use a drill close to that size. Your Ace Hardware store probably has numbered drills, but they will be about $3.80 each. If not them, then True Value, or Lowes.

 

[Zonie]

If a .095 diameter pin or nail is going to be used, a #41 drill will drill a .096 diameter hole for it.

Number size drill bits are available at most good hardware stores but the buyer needs to ask for them because they are usually stored in a special cabinet.

 

[Vaino]

To begin...I use .062 dia. music wire for all the pins in a LR and a 1/16 drill is used. Music wire is cheap, semi-hard and of consistent dia. A correctly sharpened or new drill is used.

When drilling the bbl lug and RR pipe holes in 2 different setups, the bbl/stock assembly is clamped in a very accurate vise w/ the top bbl flat against the permanent jaw. An accurate layout is made and an awl indent marks the location. Whether bbl lug holes or those for the RR pipes are being drilled, on each setup all of the holes are drilled at one time using the drill press shown below. 2 parallel clamps are used at each hole being drilled and when that hole is drilled through, a length of music wire is pushed in and the clamps moved for the next hole. A parallel is used on the muzzle end opposite the vise which is at the breech end...the parallel maintains the bbl/stock horizontally.

Drilling 4 bbl lug or 3 RR pipe holes straight through takes very little time and the large drill press table really speeds things along......Fred

 

[DeoreDX]

I went into my Ace Hardware to pick up a 10-32 tap to make a range rod out of some scrap aluminum rod I had laying around the house. Under the tap/dies is a very nice display of numbered drill bits. They aren't in the same section as the other drill bits. Could have saved myself a lot of driving around if I had seen that the first time :cursing:

Now my hole is drilled and pins inserted I wished I had went with the .063 music wire. In the Traditions Kentucky rifle the tenon is right where I place my hand on the rifle stock. I can "feel" that giant 3mm hole every time I grip the stock and are very noticeable by touch and visually. I'll never use a Tenon pin that large ever again.