Aligning the screw slots

[Char-Gar]

As I look through pics of custom rifles in the various gun rags, I a amazed at how many so called "custom rifles" have the screw slots pointed every which direction. Nothing screams "slipshot" work so loudly as screw slots that are not alighted up and down or fore and aft.

Aligning the screw slots is not hard work or brain surgury but it does take time and can be tedious.

To align the screw slots material is removed from the bottom of the screw head. If the slot is more than 1/8 turn off straight, chuck the screw in the drill press and use abrasive cloth backed by a file on the understide of the screw head.

When you get the screw to about the 11 to 11:30 position, you then lap the screw in the seat (trigger guard, grip cap, butt plate etc.) I use clover abrasive compound and turn the screws with a screwdriver bit in a hand brace.

This is a cut and try proposition so don't be surprised it it takes a while.

If you have a round head screw that needs to be flat to fit flush, again chuck the screw in the drill press and bring the head down on some abrasive cloth or paper held flat on the drill press table.

Misaligned screw slots on a fine rifle, looks like a large hairy wart on a pretty woman's nose.

[Phil]

If you ever get a chance to see a rifle with the metalwork done by Mark Penrod take a close look at it. He does the best metal work I've ever seen and I've seen a lot. Not inexpensive except when you consider what you are looking at, then its a very fair price. Quarter ribs that look like they are an integral part of the barrel, for instance. And thats just a minor tidbit.

Cheers,

Phil

[curator]

When cleaning out boxes of supplies from a building that had been a gunsmith's shop in the 1850s I found several boxes of screws with "thick" heads. They were both wood screws (wedge head) and machine screws (fillister head). The chief curator explained that they were made that way so that after they were fitted, a second slot was cut deeper in the correct alignment and the head filed down to remove the first shallow slot. That way all the screw slots were properly alligned.