Reloading EverythingLoad DataWidenersRotoMetals2
MidSouth Shooters SupplyRepackboxTitan ReloadingInline Fabrication
Lee Precision
Results 1 to 14 of 14

Thread: making a simple round hole bigger!!!

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
    nekshot's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    swmissouri
    Posts
    3,116

    making a simple round hole bigger!!!

    OK, my son confiscated my first auction bought gun when I was 17. A Italian double barrel percussion 20 ga. The gun shoots fine and is real cute but it has always been a wall hanger. Never had a ramrod in it although the hole is in the stock and you can see where the collar was attached to barrel spacer. The lug that fastens barrels to stock only has a little hole in it and thus eliminating a ram rod to slide in all the way. So I says to myself if jail birds can hacksaw themselves out of prison surely I can make the hole bigger with a file. Don't have a drill bit long enough and if I did I would not want to chance breaking lug free from barrels. Well, 6 months have gone by and working at it 30 minutes or so at a time because it can drive you nuts and I am half way big enough!! Why did I start this????
    Look twice, shoot once.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master


    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    NH
    Posts
    3,783
    Dermil Tools are perfect for this

  3. #3
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    4,900
    Dremel? It might, although a carbide burr is advisable for steel. I don't know the length of the piece of steel you are trying to bore larger, but if it is at all long, you would need the Dremel tool to be closer to the barrels than its diameter permits.

    The simplest method would be to use the best possible file. What you need is a chainsaw file, round without taper. Fit a wooden handle, and if necessary cut a flat on one side of the handle to let it lie parallel to the barrels. Hold the ends of the barrels with your left hand and right knee, and for the side of the hole furthest from the barrels, when it is difficult to press upwards, tension the file by a loop of stout cord attached to something in the room.

    You can buy an extra long drill on eBay, by doing a search like this, to rule out the kinds you don't want: extra long drill -wood -masonry -concrete . A hand turned drill would be best, but if you need an electric one, there are two things which prevent the drill snatching.

    One is keeping it aligned, which you can do with a piece of tubing taped to the barrels as a guide. The other is to have the barrels in a stable vice, and hold the drill with both hands, and with the left elbow resting on something solid, so that it doesn't try to move forward and dig in. Alternatively you could use a tapered tungsten carbide burr, which has so many teeth that it won't dig in like that. The shank is usually žin. diameter, so epoxy it into a piece of steel tube with that bore.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Posts
    586
    you can make drill bits longer by silver soldering or welding rod extensions on, or even getting a commercial extension that has a socket and set screws into which you put your diameter drill shank. or, you could buy a really long drill bit. i've done all of the above.

    worst case scenario, you can sell the gun to me for a few bux.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
    nekshot's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    swmissouri
    Posts
    3,116
    Quote Originally Posted by justashooter View Post
    you can make drill bits longer by silver soldering or welding rod extensions on, or even getting a commercial extension that has a socket and set screws into which you put your diameter drill shank. or, you could buy a really long drill bit. i've done all of the above.

    worst case scenario, you can sell the gun to me for a few bux.


    a couple of times if it was mine I would have given it to you! I have it all clamped up and I have dremels and I do have some long shank bits but I don't want to bugger or (as we would say "bubba did it"). I will triumph! But I don't know how long this gonna go on.
    Look twice, shoot once.

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Las Cruces, NM
    Posts
    4,535
    First, I'd figure out if I needed to do anything to the lug. Are you sure it wasn't set up for a steel rod instead of wooden one?

    Second, if I still felt the need to open up the lug I'd remove the barrels from the gun first and then work on the lug.

    And, yes, a Dremel or similar is best for this although a file should work fine if you have the right one (or two). One coarse and one fine.

  7. #7
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    4,900
    Quote Originally Posted by nekshot View Post
    a couple of times if it was mine I would have given it to you! I have it all clamped up and I have dremels and I do have some long shank bits but I don't want to bugger or (as we would say "bubba did it"). I will triumph! But I don't know how long this gonna go on.
    I was assuming (correctly?) that you meant the lug that secures the forend to the barrels, and that the wood therefore had to be removed. One word of warning: don't use too long a bit of any kind in the Dremel, in an effort to get the angle right. I once tried to spin a four-inch length of 3/32 inch tempered piano wire in mine, and it immediately bend over at 90 degrees and stayed bent, under centrifugal force, with a noise and vibration like the bit of the Bible where God gets really angry. I couldn't have bent it that way by hand, and if it had fractured I mightn't be here.

  8. #8
    Boolit Grand Master

    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Northwest Ohio
    Posts
    14,454
    Dremils are more forgiving with their lower rpms. Purchasing at work bought a bunch of mounted wheels cheap a few years back ( a die cast and tool room go thru a lot of them quickly) These had an aluminum shaft. in the slower rpm grinders dremils foredooms they did good. In a pencil grinder or the dotcos that were 80,000 - 100,000 rpms they would bend 90* and set up a vibration the would destroy your wrist. Watch the old guys in the shop, when they mount a point in the grinder they start it UNDER the bench top and dress it there first to true it up. This way if the point let go it was shielded from them. I have a bunch off cheap mounted wheels, rawhides, and or felt bobs let go over my years in the trade.

  9. #9
    Boolit Buddy
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Kentucky, USA
    Posts
    294
    Put masking tape on the barrels and use a round chainsaw file or rat tail. You can control the amount you remove and go slower. Also if you can't make the hole big enough for the ramrod, you can taper the ramrod to fit what you have within reason.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master


    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    NH
    Posts
    3,783
    Quote Originally Posted by Ballistics in Scotland View Post
    Dremel?


    .
    Stupid auto correct

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Posts
    4,900
    Quote Originally Posted by Geezer in NH View Post
    Stupid auto correct
    Well at least it didn't make you say "drivel". I apologise if anyone thought I was criticising, of course. It is petty to criticise any spelling that gets its job done, but in this case it might have sent someone off searching where he would find only antihistamine tablets.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master


    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Atlanta, NY 14808
    Posts
    2,163
    Whoa up there. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around how at 17 years of age, you have a son who can confiscate one of your guns. Not saying it didn't happen, but my experience was loosing my first Winchester 22. As I recall, I was over 40, well maybe 50, and my son was over 17.
    Sorry, I couldn't resist.
    Micah 6:8
    He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

    "I don't have hobbies - I'm developing a robust post-apocalyptic skill set"
    I may be discharged and retired but I'm sure I did not renounce the oath that I solemnly swore!

  13. #13
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Boysee
    Posts
    748
    Use a counter-bore with a cut diameter the size you want the finished hole.
    Make/turn a pilot for the c'bore the diameter of the current hole.
    It will follow the pilot and cut the hole to the proper size, even with an extension.

  14. #14
    Boolit Grand Master

    Wayne Smith's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Hampton Roads, Virginia
    Posts
    13,617
    Why isn't he doing it instead of you?? Good learning experience for a teenager or young adult.
    Wayne the Shrink

    There is no 'right' that requires me to work for you or you to work for me!

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check