I need help on what material I can purchase for making slave pins. I tried the roll pins in a kit but do not work. I need to make three slave pins for the three sub-assemblies on a Springfield XD. I read that spring stock works but what size do I need to purchase. I only have a bench grinder and sander for small tool alterations. Any help would be geatly appreciated.

Nick:

I don't know the size for the XD Pistol, but have you thought about drill bits cut to size.Try and see which ones fit snug and then cut to length.


Ken

Slave pins are used to help in holding discrete parts in correct position before making it into a final assembly. An example is the hammer pin on an M1911 pistol. It is easier to assemble if the hammer and trigger are held in the correct relationship using slave pins to align the parts before inserting the hammer and trigger pins. The "real" pins push out and displace the slave pins.

Because they are for temporary positioning and holding, slave pins do not need great strength. Mild or cold-rolled steel is sufficient. With that said, it is probably easier to get accurately ground drill rod stock that will work fine as slave pins. You grind them to length and deburr the ends, of course.
Another source is common box and carpentry nails. Just cut the heads off, and trim to length.

In all my time as a pro gunsmith, I used only the appropriate sized twist drill for my 'slave pin' supply. Of course that meant that on occasion I had to stop at the precision machine supply shop and replenish my drill indexes. With fractional, metric and number sized drills available the exact size needed is always available as close as the drill index box. ........ Big Cholla