Hand tools?

[bangerjim]

You can buy inferior tools at HF and swapmeets and evilbay. Or buy quality name-brand tools that will maintain accuracy and last several lifetimes. I have the same set of USA-made drills (number/letter/fractional) I bought 20 years ago. You can still cut your finger on the flutes if not careful!!!!!! I have not needed to re-sharpen them on my Darex yet. But I have a cheeeeepo set of HF drills I use for general construction and drilling of the same sizes that I have resharpened at least 6 times in the past 8 years.

Same goes for lay-out tools. Starrett only here.

Same with taps and dies, hammers, screwdrivers, and any other tool. Quality trumps cheap ever time.

Buy what you can afford. But think ahead and buy tools that you grandchildren can use!!! I have many precision tools from the late 1800's that are still as useful and accurate as the day they were made.

[Traffer]

.Making your own tools with cheap Harbor Freight and Chinese eBay tools is ....well it's very superior. I have a shop full of tools that I paid about the same amount for what many people pay for one "high priced" tool. Do you want to show off your work, or do you want to show off your tools?

[bangerjim]

I show off BOTH............all the time!!!!!!!!! And get OOHS and AHHHS on a regular basis.

I am proud of my work.......................and even prouder of my quality "high priced" tools.

banger

[HangFireW8]

Jim,

Start with a Chapman master screwdriver set, the one with all the bits. Not marring screw slots is the first step towards professional work.

Next get a complete set of stones, different shapes, sizes and grits. Trigger and action jobs...

Next a complete set of files and rasps, if you plan to do stock and handgrip work.

Dremel, or a Foredom with reverse if you can afford it. Also get a complete set of polishing compound grits, from 60 to 1200.

If you don't already, get some one piece cleaning rods, different lengths and thicknesses, and bronze or brass core brushes and tips.

If you will do scope work, buy or make ring alignment rods.

Parallel smooth jaw pliers.

Gun vise and bench hockey puck. Bench mat. Bench brush for a clean working surface.

Get the Jantz supply catalog for good prices on headspace gages and no-fill sandpaper.

That's a good start.

[Traffer]

Get yourself a bunch of Harbor Freight tools and have fun breaking them. I do.

[Clark]

My 29 year old son makes $220k/year and has had a wrench in his hands twice in his life.
He is a software engineer at Google.

My 60 year old brother in law makes $1M/year and cannot operate a screw driver.
He is an attorney that does real estate arbitration.

Randy Ketchum was a gunsmith and gunstore owner that paid taxes on $30k/year.
I have interviewed many engineers. I think Randy had a genius IQ and would have made the big bucks in engineering.

Stewart Bengalt was the front man for a rock group and made $50/week in tavern gigs with Northwest booking agency.
Then he did furniture wholesale sales and got rich.

What does it all mean?
People want to be gunsmiths, rock stars, pro ball players, models, actresses, etc.
There are not many jobs available compared to the number of wanna be applicants.
With the same amount of talent thrown at a job market with big demand, one can get rich and then do amateur gunsmithing, or amateur guitar playing.

[44man]

I think it is a toss of the dice. Jobs were so hard to find long ago and today it is worse. You need to support a family and never give up. Today it is hard to start new and more so with your own business with taxes and regulations that lawyers don't understand.
To see college graduates sweeping floors or washing pots after going up to their necks in debt makes no sense.
You need a trade but many will not hire you without years of experience so how do you get that?
A trade school is best over college.
I learned myself and can do about anything from electrical to plumbing, concrete to block, construction and machining but to get hired with a good pay is another thing.
The smartest people I know made it to 12th grade and the dumbest took liberal arts, can you explain how that gets a job? What is liberal arts? Can you drywall or side a house.
Most jobs I get are from aircraft mechanics. Very smart but a weed eater or gun is strange.
A good smith can plumb or clear a sewer or wire a house. He can weld or machine. make tools and furniture, no limits.
I worked 42 years around aircraft mechanics and learned a lot. But they still download and print instructions for every job. Rules are tight with thousands of people in your hands. They were in mine too when I loaded planes. Responsibility was heavy. Look up in the window and see a lady, child or man. They paid my wages. They must arrive safely with their luggage.
Your mindset and love of your fellow man might not make you rich since getting rich can mean cheating and stealing.
Now you speak Spanish or Arabic and do not have to work. You can vote. No ID.

[Hooker53]

All that's listed above plus, after you think you have bought all the tools and books you will need, if you look At the books on the shelf, and Bob and Franks " Gunsmiths Kinks" is not in there, buy all four of them. Great books with great satire as well. This is Info from hands on folks that you will never get from a mail order course.

Roy
Hooker53

[Ballistics in Scotland]

The Brownells print catalogue is far more useful than the online version, because you can browse better for something you don't quite know exists yet. A lot of their special tooling is expensive for the amateur, who may only ever use it a couple of times, but for him his own copy might easily be good enough.

Filing things to a flat surface is skilled work if you only do it occasionally. A belt grinder can be an expensive tool, but you can do a lot with a small hand-held belt sander, held upside down in the vice. A drill press is very useful, and the less experienced you are, the bigger the advantage over a hand-held drill. For gunsmithing you should go for quality in preference to size, but even a cheap one is a whole lot better than no drill press at all.

Some cheap tools on eBay will do a good job, others won't. But you can find good quality ones there too, if you know the difference, and still get them cheaper than from someone who must keep up shopfront premises. The best way I know of getting a fine stockmaking rasp is to buy cheap hacksaw blades by the dozen, and fis them together in a block by machine screws or pop rivets through the holes.