Hello,

I need to buy or make a punch to take out the rivet holding my firing pin on my 1907 MP Target. Replacement rivet is the same as any prewar MP or so I was told.
Would anyone know the exact width of the rivet so I could buy the right punch? If not I will attempt to make one.

To flange the rivet will be another angled punch?


Thanks for any help or ideas.

I just use a slightly undersized pin punch to drive the old ones out. For flaring the new rivet, I put one tapered punch in my vise, then use another for the other side. It almost takes 3 hands but I have had good success. I tap it, then feel if it has any movement, then tap again until it's tight and centered. I'm sure there's a better way or probably a fixture for this, but I only have to do it maybe once or twice a year at most. Good luck!

__________________
Chris
SWCA #2243 SWHF #292

Back when I did a lot of revolvers, I made up a small bench plate with a shaped spud to back the rivet for flaring. Wasn't hard, small piece of plate, properly shaped drill bit shank, drill hole to match and shorten shank to proper length. Do flare from both sides to make sure.

Did the fixture to fix one of my own, saved me a lot of grief over time. I'm not sure, believe I drilled the original rivet to help removal. This is done to weaken the rivet, not completely remove it, don't want to enlarge the hammer hole.

If you do not have any the right size, a Bench Grinder or Belt grinder and a file will do the trick to one that is slightly over sized. If you are careful, the old Rivet can even be reused although Power's Custom still sells then I believe.

To reinstall, "softening" a punch into a slightly rounded tip (again with a Grinder - then polishing) seems to be less stressful on the Rivet when flaring it.

Flaring the rivet can be done in a number of ways.

One is to use a larger center punch, another is to use appropriate sizes of ball bearings.

The large center punch is held in a vise and the same size punch is used for the other side.
I made up a special bench tool for this.
In the base I put a tapered tip that stuck up just far enough to do the proper flare and used a standard center punch to rivet one side, then flipped it over to finish the other.

The ball bearings can be "glued" to the rivet sides with grease, then put in a vise and tightened until the flare is correct.

Don't over do the flare, the firing pin must be free to move up and down. As long as the rivet is flared enough it can't come out is all that's needed.

The ball bearing idea is a interesting idea. It seems that the ball bearing could get stuck if you got over jealous. I will look into punches this weekend. I do have some extra wheeler bits lying around that if I smooth the edges might make a nice punch.

You just have to use a large enough ball bearing that won't get stuck.

In any case, you don't want to flare that far down in the pin.
The object is to flare the rim of the pin enough to hold it in place.

So in other words, just large enough of a shoulder that the rivet can't come back out under normal circumstances.