Beg Borrow Steal Roll Pin Punches

[mikeyjones]

I've somehow managed to do several builds without the need for roll pin punches but this time around I seem to have gotten myself in trouble. The roll pin that holds the bolt catch release in place refused to go in so I just beat the **** out of it until it listened to me. Now the paddle won't move so I want to take the roll pin out but I can't seem to do it my normal way (with a hex key and a hammer).

If anyone has a set of roll pin punches and a spare roll pin, I will be extremely grateful to borrow them.

Please let me know what you have. Thanks in advance.

[MtGun44]

Brownell's sells sets.

Bill

[Bzcraig]

Harbor Freight even has roll pin punches, they are cheap and should be in your tool box anyway.

[oldred]

Harbor Freight even has roll pin punches, they are cheap and should be in your tool box anyway.

HF has roll pin punch like objects, they look like roll pin punches and can sometimes even be used as punches but mostly they are just scrap metal shaped like a punch. This is coming from someone who has lots of HF stuff including some large items such as 14x40 lathe, band saw, etc so I am not biased against HF. They have some real deals and they have some real junk, unfortunately punches and chisels simply bend/mushroom and fall into the category of worthless tool shaped objects. Get a good set of punches, some good ones at a decent price can be found at Sears under the Craftsman brand and while these are not the best you can buy they are a good buy for the money. When it comes to punches and chisels cheap can be worse than none at all since a rounded mushroomed punch end can ruin the pin hole in the item being repaired, good punches are not cheap but cheap punches are not good!

[mikeyjones]

HF has roll pin punch like objects, they look like roll pin punches and can sometimes even be used as punches but mostly they are just scrap metal shaped like a punch. This is coming from someone who has lots of HF stuff including some large items such as 14x40 lathe, band saw, etc so I am not biased against HF. They have some real deals and they have some real junk, unfortunately punches and chisels simply bend/mushroom and fall into the category of worthless tool shaped objects. Get a good set of punches, some good ones at a decent price can be found at Sears under the Craftsman brand and while these are not the best you can buy they are a good buy for the money. When it comes to punches and chisels cheap can be worse than none at all since a rounded mushroomed punch end can ruin the pin hole in the item being repaired, good punches are not cheap but cheap punches are not good!

This is how I generally feel about tools. Hence the reason I was asking to borrow a set. I can't justify the expense right now for a set of quality punches so if anyone had any I could borrow, I would be eternally grateful.

[leeggen]

You might check at some of the hardware stores, sometimes they have single punches you can buy. Not trying to be hardnosed but if you beat up a rollpin in the manner you stated I would not lone you my oldest of punches. Tools are used to help your job to be easier, if abused or used wrongfully then you get yourself in a corner as you have. Maintenance Tech. for 40 yr. still have some of my origanal tools in good shape.
CD

[mikeyjones]

You might check at some of the hardware stores, sometimes they have single punches you can buy. Not trying to be hardnosed but if you beat up a rollpin in the manner you stated I would not lone you my oldest of punches. Tools are used to help your job to be easier, if abused or used wrongfully then you get yourself in a corner as you have. Maintenance Tech. for 40 yr. still have some of my origanal tools in good shape.
CD

I completely understand. I was just so used to the roll pins going in smoothly and it just wasn't happening this time. I'll check out the store tomorrow.

Edit: Let me just state for the record that I treat all of my tools with care and usually would never use excessive force to drive in a roll pin. My thinking here was that since the roll pin has some spring and compression to it, a little more force would just drive it in. I was using a plastic non-marring mallet so I didn't think I would be able to do any damage to it.

[bob208]

go to a sears store they have them and tey are covered by the craftsman warranty. you can buy 1 or the set.

[Joe504]

Where are you located?

[bangerjim]

Something like that (a hand tool)......buy the best you can afford. And factor into that having them around for your lifetime! That is why I own 3 sets of Starett punches, as well as many, many other tools they make. Many are from the pre WWII era, so that attests to their quality!

Sears is marginal (mostly China today), but they do have that warranty to give you the warm fuzzies.

Don't waste you $$ of HF stuff in the hand tool arena. I own CERTAIN HF tools, but do not swear by all of them that they sell. (Can you say "swear at?")

MY MOTTO: "If you make your living with a tool, do not rely on HF"

And.......please treat your tools like your good friends.

bangerjim

[mikeyjones]

So here's an update guys. I got a set of craftsman punches at sears on Saturday. Turns out the whole issue was caused by my stupidity. I inserted the bolt catch buffer in backwards that's why it wasn't moving and that's why it was really hard to drive the roll pin in. I got it out and flipped the buffer and eveything went together like butter.

Moral of the story:don't be an idiot.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

Sum Ting Wong make many HF tools!

BvT

[andremajic]

Sum Ting Wong make many HF tools!

BvT

Reading your comment reminded me of this clip.

[deltaenterprizes]

I picked a set a Walmart for $7

[Big Rack]

I got lucky a engineer who also purchased all the perishable tooling used my fine J&L made in india set and bent up a couple he replaced them with a Starret set, of course somehow the company paid for them.

[nanuk]

the best roll pin punch I have used had a concave surface to the pin was reduced in diameter during the blow, to help unstick it, and drive it more easy.

some others I had, had a pimple on the end which just seemed to deform the end of the pin.

if nothing else, I'd get a piece of tool steel, and grind a hollow in the end ensuring to not affect the heat treat, then give it one good whack.

[brasshog]

Take a 16D nail and put in in a drill press. Use a file first then follow with sandpaper until you get you correct size. Use the file to severe point while spinning and to flatten the end. Heat with blow torch (I use my foundry to get it white hot) till it's supper hot and drop it into a bucket of oil. Bang Away ! Keep the head on for a good aiming spot if you like.

[oldred]

Take a 16D nail and put in in a drill press. Use a file first then follow with sandpaper until you get you correct size. Use the file to severe point while spinning and to flatten the end. Heat with blow torch (I use my foundry to get it white hot) till it's supper hot and drop it into a bucket of oil. Bang Away ! Keep the head on for a good aiming spot if you like.

That simply won't work, a nail is just mild steel and as such it absolutely will not harden by heating and quenching and even if it was made of a high carbon steel you left out a VERY important step -the NECESSARY tempering step! A nail could be hardened by the carbon pack method or heating and treating with a hardening compound such as Kasenit (no longer available but lot's of it still around) or "Cherry red" (a widely available hardening powder) but with any of these methods a nail would still be hard only for a very few thousandths deep on the surface. Only some alloys or high carbon steels can be hardened by heating/quenching and even then these have to be tempered after the hardening process or they would be so brittle they would shatter like glass under a hammer blow, hardening alloy tool steels or high carbon steel is a two part process that requires heating twice. First it must be heated to the proper temperature for the hardening process to occur upon quenching then it must be reheated to a lower temperature to temper or "draw" the metal to a tougher less brittle state, it can not be simply heated then quenched then used unless the super hard and very brittle condition is acceptable for the situation (certainly not for a punch!). Heating then quenching mild steel will do nothing unless carbon is added during the process but as I mentioned earlier that will only surface or "case" harden it.



Even the blacksmiths of years past and knife makers of then and today have this process down to an art of tempering by color, that is after hardening the brittle part/blade is then reheated and tempered by watching the color changes to know when the proper tempering temperature has been reached. This step is not optional except that a part that has been case hardened by the carbon pack method or by the use of hardening compound can usually be left "as is" because the inside metal of the part is still soft and ductile so the strength remains. If mild steel could be hardened by simple heating/quenching the case harden method would not work because the piece would be left hard and brittle throughout and would not be simply "cased", of course if mild or low carbon steels could be hardened by simple heating/quenching then "case" hardening would not be necessary.