Thread: Bent Pro-shot cleaning rod

So if you are a ham hamfisted coot like me you also might possess one of the nice stainless steel/red alloy cleaning rods, they come about 6' long and are real easy to put a kink in - it happened to mine years ago and it's been lying in the corner throwing me accusatory glances from time to time.

Today necessity and a slow day prompted me to do something about it . . . After a good look I determined the handle was secured by a tiny roll pin in a blind hole, bloody hard to extract even with proper gear (which I don't have) A bit more figuring revealed a 1.0mm drill bit would go through the roll pin, a 1.3 would have been better but I didn't have one. So I worked the 1.00 drill through the pin and turned the blind hole into one that went right thru. From the exit side I drilled it out with a 2.5mm and pushed the roll pin out easy.

I cut the bent part off, it has a point and a recess for the roll pin. A wee test revealed the point wasn't essential for it to roll freely, and in lieu of a lathe I ground the locking recess with a thin disc angle grinder whilst turning the rod with a drill - eat durt Bubba!

And it works and has cleaned 2 22s

I might go into gun rustorations after I've sharpened up my skills doing another 20 or so . . . .

As they say necessity is the mother of invention.

@Tentman I will send you some projects then

It wasn't possible to straighten the kink out? I've done a couple of rods in the past - its a painful and tedious job to get them straight but it is usually dooable.

It was too long as it was, giving it the chop improved it.

I've always wondered how long it would take too file a barrel blank to tapered octagonal ?

I know what too give you for Christmas now.
A set of files a barrel blank and a digital timer

Originally Posted by akaroa1

I've always wondered how long it would take too file a barrel blank to tapered octagonal ?

I know what too give you for Christmas now.
A set of files a barrel blank and a digital timer

Sounds like something my old boss would do, he used to get 1 apprentice hopeful to file a square block into a sphere and the next one to file it back into a cube again.

There was an old reel movie( way before video) posted on here a year or two back. Fella made muzzle loaded from scratch using forge, hammers etc. really cool watch and sure shows how far we have come,the barrel was welded with iron sand and filings if my memory serves me right

the difference between an engineer and a echanical fitter is the engineer has spent 10,000 hours doing tedious file work

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

There was an old reel movie( way before video) posted on here a year or two back. Fella made muzzle loaded from scratch using forge, hammers etc. really cool watch and sure shows how far we have come,the barrel was welded with iron sand and filings if my memory serves me right

Probably Herschel House - a fantastically talented blacksmith, long rifle builder, knife maker.....

Originally Posted by Fee Knicks

the difference between an engineer and a echanical fitter is the engineer has spent 10,000 hours doing tedious file work

I feel that this is the other way around, I've spent a long time carefully fitting things up by hand with a file only to have old mate engineer bowl in and hack into the next one to be done with a grinder and a gouging rod. Then tighten the M16 retaining bolts down to 230ftlbs after aligning it by eyeball and call it 'mean as bro' then wonder why the coupling flies to pieces three days later...

Fitting is the art of engineering, i.e. how to do it once and not have it fly to pieces on you!

Originally Posted by No.3

It wasn't possible to straighten the kink out? I've done a couple of rods in the past - its a painful and tedious job to get them straight but it is usually dooable.

I used to use and arrow straightener