ENCO pin gauges...Cool!!

[vonfatman]

When I called the customer service person said, "Oh, the set from Handloader Magazine"

I hope they bought Mike his set! He sure did sell a bunch of these for Enco. I even got them on sale...shipping included: $66.44
I can handle a discount!

I can't wait to get mine. I have to wait for Christmas...it's my gift from my wife!

Bob

[Houndog]

Any of the industrial tool supply houses have chucking reamers in .001 size increments. You can get whatever you need. They also have the pin guages, but at a MUCH higher cost, and quality than ENCO or Grizzly. I use MSC for my precision tooling needs and they have a very good website.

[deltaenterprizes]

MSC an Enco are the same company. A set of small hole guages will give the same info are a lot cheaper and take up less space. A dial caliper can be off a couple of thousandths use a real micrometer, there is a big difference between the two.

[JSnover]

That's true. If you shop the MSC catalog you can get the top shelf equipmet or the cheaper versions that show up in the Enco catalogs. It really depends on how you like to measure your holes. A smal holle gage set plus a micrometer; you're pretty near the cost of a set of pin gages. On the other hand, there's a lot of things you can't measure if all you have are pins.

[Houndog]

What both the above posters said are true. ENCO and MSC are branches of the same company, but ENCO caters to the ametur machinist/home shop market and MSC caters to the job shop/industrial side of things. MSC has far better cutting tools, a much better selection of tools, and the price difference reflects it.

If you are skilled with precision measuring tools, a small hole guage set and an outside micrometer will give just as good and just as consistant measurments as a pin guage set, but if you don't use this type of tool very often you would probably come closer to being correct with the pin guage set. I own and use both regularly, but my pin guage set is made by Starrett and is in smaller steps than .001.

[Three44s]

Note to the mods:

Someone mentioned a "sticky" ....... someone else thought better of it ........ too many stickies already .......

What about an articles section like Surplus rifle .com???

Just my .02 ...........

Three 44s

[redbear705]

I have my new set also. This has proven something that I suspected...my Ruger Blackhawk in .41 mag has 2 tight cylinder throats.

I have noticed that I usually have 2 fliers when I shoot. So I'm wondering about opening these throats up.

I have used a reamer to open the cylinder holes on my .45 Colt Blackhawk, and that worked nicely.

Does anybody know if a similar reamer can be located for the .41 mag?

Call or go here.....they do all kinds of reamers for the shooting folks....http://www.mansonreamers.com/contact%20us.html

JR

[45nut]

Note to the mods:

Someone mentioned a "sticky" ....... someone else thought better of it ........ too many stickies already .......

What about an articles section like Surplus rifle .com???

Just my .02 ...........

Three 44s

We have the member articles both here and at castpics, CB the forum and castpics are a marriage of content.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/cmps...?page=Articles

http://www.castpics.net/articles.htm

Those links AND the Classics and Stickies area include vast amounts of information.

[quasi]

the first mention of using pin gages for measuring revolver throats that I remember seeing was by Ross Siefried. I can't remember if it was in G+A or Handloader.

Now that Barnsnes has been fired from Wolfe publishing, as was Siefried before him, I have canceled my subscription.

[alamogunr]

Now that Barnsnes has been fired from Wolfe publishing, as was Siefried before him, I have canceled my subscription.

When did that happen??

[quasi]

I believe it was in Aug. or Sept. I saw a post by John himself (mule deer) on the 24 hour campfire website, in the "Ask the gunwriters" forum.

[PatMarlin]

Just bought 2 sets of pin gages up to .500 from Grizzly. The price was awy cheaper than Enco, even with shipping.

[John D]

Does Grizzly have a website? I'd like to get a set!

[PatMarlin]

Here ya go JD...

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Stee...-pc-Plus/G9791

http://www.grizzly.com/products/Stee...pc-Minus/G9794

[alamogunr]

Those are good prices on the gages. I got mine for about half that on ebay because I took a chance that the few that were missing would not be needed for firearms use. I lucked out and the missing pins were not ones that were close to bore or throat sizes of common cartridges. If anyone decides to try this, ask the seller if he will tell you which pins are missing. I didn't do that and just got lucky.
John

[alamogunr]

I just looked at pin gages on ebay. If I were looking to buy today, I would pass on the ebay offerings. Overpriced and no guarantees.
John

[PatMarlin]

I bought both minus sets. I just noticed one of the links I posted was a plus set.

Have to say one thing a globalized import export, industries, it has allowed us to buy decent tooling at an affordable price.

Now if we could just get American production back with the best quality at a reasonable price.

Never happen.

[John D]

PatMarlin:

Thanks for the link. I think i'm about to get a set!

[TCLouis]

A set of four and it does require a bit of "feel" and a mic, but seems to cover all the range I need.

Sometimes it seems to reveal less than round throats also!

[Willbird]

A gage pin is the only proper way to measure a hole. The ones who have surfed the links already saw this, but I will explain it anyway, they come in + and - as well as wholes and halfs. The old timers say it takes .0002 for a pin to be able to actually enter a hole, so a .500 hole will only accept a .4998 pin.

So if a .250- pin goes in and a .250 plus does not you have a real grasp on the true whole size, the minus pins are -.0002, and the plus are +.0002....to really measure to the .0001 you need all 4 sets sometimes, the +- and the half sizes too. If your print calls for .250 to .2505 tolerance a .250+ pin should go in and a .2505- pin should not fall in, and a .2505+ should not go in at all. I used to produce parts with that kind of tolerance on holes that were only .100" deep darn near every day, and a gage pin is about the only way to measure them accurately.

Another use for them is measuring case wall thickness if you are turning case necks, if you get one that just slides in you can mike the cast neck, thus clamping it tight on the pin, subtract the pin size and divide by 2...and thus measure your case wall thickness with great precision, and without having to seat a bullet.

They came in handy as a honcho on a group buy too when the molds cast on the small size, or rarely on the large size...it gives you more ammo to wrangle with lee if you can state that the cavity itself is smaller than the drawing spec for the bullet itself.

I used to work in a shop that hat probably a dozen complete library sets of wholes and halfs from wee up to 1"....all the good vermont pins.

They are not terribly expensive to replace a single one if you lose it, OR if you cut it down to make into a dowel pin...then you just used a chinee one to make a dowel or other pin and you replaced it with a vermont pin.