What common tool can make the first tiny punch guide hole/ impression precisely where you want it?

What common tool can make the first tiny punch guide hole/ impression precisely where you want it?


This is a gunsmithing question.|||center punch spring loaded or solid steel tapped with a hammer both work nicely|||Your question is a bit nebulous in that you don't say exactly what you are doing. If you are drilling and tapping a barrel or action for a scope there are jigs made to locate the holes exactly where they are needed. There are many different such jigs depending on what you are doing. Another less specific method of locating a hole is to use a drill press and a cross vice. This is the method I use when building rifles.





If it is important to have a hole go through a workpiece and come out at exactly a specific location, you can do this with a drill press. You run a long screw through a piece of plywood about the size of the table on your drill press. Place the wood piece on the table of your drill press with the point of the screw pointing up. Bring your drill bit down and adjust the board so that the screw is exactly aligned with the tip of the bit. Firmly clamp the board in place. Now, you know that if you drill through a workpiece, the bit will exit at exactly the point of the screw. All you have to do is to place the workpiece that you are drilling over the screw point with the place where you want the drill to exit over the screw point. Now drill through the workpiece and your hole will come out exactly where you want it.





Often muzzleloading rifles will be designed so that the tang screw goes through the stock and exits exactly at the rear of the trigger guard and acts as the trigger gurad rear screw as well as the tang screw. When drilling this hole, you have to make sure that the hole exits the stock at the exact spot where the rear trigger guard screw hole is lolcated. Just place the point of the stock where the tang screw is to exit on top of the screw point and then adjust it so that the drill bit is entering where you want it. You will drill the hole in the exact spot and exit at the exact spot that you want.





If you are drilling into a blind hole such as a screw hole on the bottom of a barrel that holds the forestock in place, this requires a bit different technique. What I have found that works best for me in such cases is to use a candle to apply a coating of soot on the bottom of the barrel all over and around the scrrew hole. Now, carefully place the barrel into the stock and firmly press it into place. You may even need to tap it gently with a leather mallet to insure a good transfer of soot onto the barrel channel of the stock and leave a good impression on the stock. Carefully remove the barrel from the stock and, if you have gotten a good transfer of soot, you will be able to clearly see where to drill the hole for the screw in the stock.





As you can see, there are many techniques for accurately locating spots to drill holes. It all depends on exactly what you are doing.|||They make various diameter transfer punches, we had to use them on aircraft sheet metal repairs too. They do make a spring loaded center punch of small enough point diameter is should be OK. We use to use cobalt blue fluid to make the punched spot easier to see also.|||http://www.google.com/products?hl=en%26amp;q=c鈥?/a>





a spring loaded center punch