If you are a fan, as I am, of Mark Novak's Anvil gunsmithing channel, you know that he uses tools to do a job, to make his life easier, and that he often makes tools for a specific purpose. Sometimes a workman will have an idea for a specific tool that he needs to finish a job. My grandfather and my dad were notorious for making tools. My grandfather had a small collection of homemade tools that filled a specific function. It might be a bent brazing rod with a loop of a hook on it, or it might be a screwdriver that he had ground for a specific purpose.
One of the tools I keep on my bench are a set of wooden blocks that I call Ruger block. I call them this because when I built them, I was working on a Ruger revolver. As it turns out, they fit Ubertis and Piettas just fine. They are simply two blocks of red oak that I took from the firewood pile and put on the table saw. I use them to clamp a revolver in a vise so that I can work on it without needing three hands.
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| They are marked with an R so not to be confused with scrap wood. |
Of course, the first thing we do is check to make sure the revolver is clear and safe, then remove the cylinder. Fit the blocks into the space where the cylinder was, then clamp it in the visse.
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| I clamp it like this for working on the bottom |
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| Or, I clamp it like this to remove the backstrap. |
The point is that these two wooden blocks, which cost me about an hour of my own labor, are invaluable when I am working on a revolver. They are an extremely useful piece of my kit, as important as a vise, or my bench, or a good set of screwdrivers.
I have an ancient bench vice. Somewhere along the line I picked up some vice jaw polymer pads with magnetic grips that serve a similar function. The wood probably provides a more secure hold on items than the polymer "bumpers", so I may create some. Some contoured blocks may be useful since "hollow" objects of odd shapes distort under load and allow rotation. The vice has some "buck teeth" that work on iron pipe but anything else that is less "solid" just "squishes" out of shape. "Free" blocks would also allow some repositioning of the work piece and be adaptable to odd shapes. Last year, I dressed the edges of some shovels and mattocks for ice/snow duty. The vice, the long handles on the tools, the wall and I had quite a "rassling match". I am still considering a project to shorten that "web" wall. It will be a PITA job, but is probably more reasonable than creating a tie-off in the over-head so I could hang up-side-down for those odd jobs. Now, I just have to figure out where I CAN "borrow" some fine grain hardwood blocks.......
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