So I want to purchase an arbor press to drive some roll pins for trigger guards on AR lowers. I have seen where people modify the ram to hold pin punches by drilling the bottom of the ram.

What are some alternate ways to attach a pin punch? Ideas like magnets come to mind but what would you do?

Thanks for sharing
jonblack

Drill a hole in a 1/4" plate and attach that plate however you see best to the ram? Could just put the pin directly into the plate then.

I just noticed some small arbor presses on eBay that already have a 1/2" hole drilled in the bottom of the ram.

What's wrong with the old hammer and punch???

I've put together dozens of lowers and never had a problem. Maybe  I'm missing something???

Just use a  c-clamp if you must 'press'.

I've used a Harbor Freight one on every trigger guard pin I've installed. Hold pin in hemostats, apply light pressure, remove hemo's push home.

Large type with jaws taped worked great for me.

Y'all are over thinking it. Trigger guard roll pins are a breeze. First mistake most people make is they don't support the "ears" well enough. Use a 1/2" thick piece of hardwood, HDPE or similar to back it up and support it. Now use a piece of vacuum tubing or similar on your roll pin punch hold the pin. A dab of grease on the pin helps to help it through the ear.
Most folks make the mistake of little baby taps to drive the pin. A few good dedicated raps are better than a bunch of little baby taps.

I have a ton of experience driving roll pins with punches. I have a large assortment of roll pin holders and drivers. Now I want an arbor press to dedicate to the task.

Kinda like wanting a compound sliding miter saw when I have been using a miter box for years.

So you are just using the ram to drive the pin? Good idea. How do you get the pin to go a little lower than flush?

this is my goto tool for ar assembly.

I'm guessing you don't have a mill?  Otherwise you'd be talking about milling out pin holders.  But if you had a mill you could just use the quill and a chuck to hold stuff.

OP- you need a Bridgeport.

On a more serious note- how about drilling/tapping the ram and the making a punch holder that bolts on?  Ya, this will limit your press stroke, but if we're planning on dedicated tooling...

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Yes pushes it right to flush and I don't obsess over minutia so it being .00000675 shallow on one side in relation to the other matters not to me. If it did I would used a ball bearing to finish seat it.

A small Arbor press is handy as fuck, not just for driving trigger guard pins.

I was making parts to adapt my rcbs uniflow to my lnl. I had one interference fit pin to seat.  I made a solid insert for my old lyman single stage press to use instead of a shell holder.  Then I threaded a piece of 7/8 rod and drilled a small hole in one end to hold the pin. In this case I was pushing the pin through a plate so it had 1/2" or so protruding.  So there are aligned holes in the shell holder and the threaded driver.  If I wanted to set flush I'd start the pin and then reverse the threaded driver.

I don't have a mill yet. I want something that can be used on a benchtop, something cheap enough that I can dedicate to the task.

Don't even get me started about wanting a Bridgeport!


It seems that is what most people do. I just didn't want to limit myself in the unplanned event I would want to use the arbor press for another task. I'm sure a 3/8" hole in the end of the ram wouldn't really hurt anything.

If that's what I wanted to do I'd drill/tap the end of the ram, prob 1/2" or 3/8".  Then you can thread in a pin punch or a solid end.

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You just use a piece of drill rod to fill the hole.
Or better yet make a replaceable ram face.

Thats my standard roll pin tool. Get it started using needle nose pliers to hold the pin.

This. Both the bolt release pin and the trigger guard pin get driven with a pair of channellocks.

I used vice grips until I found the Little Crow Gunworks roll pin pusher. It is pretty simple but it was worth the money for me.

http://www.littlecrowgunworks.com/rpp.html

Thanks Dano. I see you are one of the ones who "gets" what I am trying to do. Sure I can use Channel Lock pliers, but I don't want to. Hence the title of the thread. I think the arbor press you pictured is probably the one I was looking at on eBay.

I will have to give this a little thought. It may be a little complicated but I think it is a useful suggestion.

That R Guns block is pretty nice. I think I will probably make my own block (as you suggested) that will be a semi-dedicated fixture on the arbor press.

Thanks for brainstorming and offering the great ideas.

I picked up a 1 ton arbor press from Harbor Freight a couple of nights ago. The casting is a little rough but I think that is to be expected. I made a brass shim to replace the steel shim and everything seems pretty tight. I will do the "ratchet" mod where you grind down a couple of teeth. Then I will drill a hole in the end of the ram and work up a jig to hold a lower in place. I will try to keep this thread update in case other people are interested in using an arbor press to drive roll pins.

I'm pretty sure the HF arbor press will work just fine for my needs. It will surely drive pins as "square" as driving pins with a roll pin punch and hammer, and most definitely more "square" than squeezing a pin in with a pair of channel locks.

OK, I had a little time to work on the arbor press today.

First thing I did was the mod where you grind two teeth off of the ram. This will allow the arbor press to "ratchet" so the handle can be placed in an optimal position on the down stroke.

I just used a bench grinder and small file. The I touched the ram up using a wire wheel on the bench grinder.

I had previously made a brass gib plate.

I cut the brass piece out of an old ashtray using a dremel tool. I didn't bother to square it up since if fit in the pocket just fine. Plus that means there is more surface area anyway.


Looks like I will have a lifetime supply of brass to make gib plates.


Next I made a platen to hold an AR-15 lower receiver. I had some 1" particle board that had Formica on both sides of it. It was some scrap that I had laying around but it did make a nice platen, at least to mock up the receiver jig for the arbor press.

I then made a piece to reinforce the trigger guard "ear" when driving in the roll pin. I like to buy the large delrin (or whatever they are made of) cutting boards at Sam's Club. For under $10 I get a lot of material to make jigs and soft-faced driving blocks.

I used my jointer to get the delrin to the correct dimension to full support the trigger guard ear.

The delrin piece is sized so that you just "bump" the lower receiver up and it will be in position to drive the roll pin.


Next I had to figure out how to hold and drive the roll pin. I had some old broken punches laying around that I thought about using. But then I would have to drill a hole in the face of the ram. As mentioned in my opening post, I had previously thought about using magnets. Well, I had some small square magnets laying around and...voila! Behold my roll pin "holder."

The cool thing about using the magnet to hold to roll pin (aside from the obvious reasons) is that you can easily reposition the roll pin should there be subtle variations from lower to lower. As long as I don't try to slam the pin in the hole I should be OK and not damage the finish on the trigger guard ear.



There is already a roll pin in the lower shown in these photos. Yes, I drove the roll pin using this press. I just wanted you to be able to get a better idea hold the magnet holds the roll pin.


Now, I just need to fine tune everything and figure out a good way to mount the platen to the arbor press. I might machine out a piece of aluminum for the platen, just to make it look cool. I do kinda like the protection the Formica offers, though.

Thanks for looking and I hope this little project might inspire others, especially if you already own an arbor press.

Great engineering there.

I'm still wondering what's wrong with my little ball peen hammer and the correct size punch. I've installed dozens of pins  this way and haven't had any trouble at all.

Thank you sir. The idea of using an arbor press is not unique to me. I fist saw it on the Windham Factory Tour videos on YouTube.


Nothing in the world is wrong with it. I enjoy punches myself.

Here's my kit.

I always had trouble not leaving a little mark when I used a hammer and punch. I guess I don't have much finesse.

A chain breaker should work too.

Yeah, I've had this little gizmo kicking around in the junk box for awhile. I never got around to making a pin pusher out of it, though. Reminds me of the one that Little Crow Gunworks uses.

first AR I used the rubber mallet and pin and luck... 2nd, 3rd, 4th, I used c-clamps and vise grips with no problems and will probably continue to do it that way.
But if that doesn't work for you,  how about a small bench top drill press. Nothing is so hard that you need a real arbor press, plus you can chuck up your punches in the drill press and it's also usable as a drill.

just a thought, I've done this before on other projects where I didn't have a press with enough space to get my parts in, but the drill press had the room.

I've used a drill press too - it worked fine.

 

knipex 8603250, work great, easy and fast. Link

Yeah Knipex makes some pretty cool stuff.

So far the arbor press is working out really well.

I used it last night to install a Magpul trigger guard on a Colt complete lower. I'm glad I didn't have my jig fastened down permanently because the lower was not stripped and some of the installed parts changed the requirements of the jig. Everything went real well.

Then I needed to install and adjustable gas block. It was a Seekins and I noticed that the hole in the gas block was really tight. I normally ream the hole via the method that Little Crow Gunworks teaches. I have found it virtually eliminates mushroomed roll pins if you ream first. However, the Seekins gas block seemed to respond differently to reaming. It seems like it might be Cerakoted. Anyway, I used the arbor press and it pushed the roll pin in like butter. I was able to rotate the little square magnet and use it like an adjustable tool.

Of course I could have used my normal technique with a hammer, punch, and my self-built gas block jig but I want to continually improve my process and the arbor press is definitely a welcomed addition to my tool kit.

How will it work for the bolt catch pin?

Use a C Clamp for this. Makes it effortless.

I don't believe I would want to use it for a bolt catch pin. That is a place where a punch makes much more sense, at least to me.

I will be removing an A2 front sight today. I will use the arbor press and see if it makes the job easier.

Nope, seemed like too much trouble getting the jig under the ram and holding everything still while pulling the handle. My normal method using my shop-built jig makes the job easy enough.

Lowes has these on sale, $15 for the 2 piece set until 12/02.  
Item #: 749270


Don't forget your $1.91 1/4" clevis pin (installing front pivot pin/ spring/ detent) while you're there.  

Item #: 138641