On Sun, 19 Mar 2006 05:28:47 GMT, Gunner wrote:
On 18 Mar 2006 18:13:41 GMT, Dave Hinz wrote:

Without knowing the alloy, I know it's a crapshoot. But knowing the
person I got these materials from, if it's newer than 1970 technology
I'd be shocked. Any thoughts?

Dont bother with Mystery Metal. Get a piece of O1 or similar and make
a firing pin. If you need one..Ill dig though the stacks.

Yup. I came to that conclusion over the weekend myself. I don't owe
this metal anything, and if I don't know what it is, or how it behaves,
spending an afternoon on something complex only to have it be unusable
(the bolt, not the firing pin) would be silly, when known material is
readily available. Relative values and all that.

So what do I do with this accumulation of unknown steel then? And, more
importantly, why am I asking _you_? (written with a smile, I assure
you)

Btw...as I recall..the Thompson was never meant to have a light
trigger. You yank it, not squeeze it.

can't/won't train myself to do that to a trigger. It's reasonable as
reworked which is as good as I can expect to get. I learned enough
making the first pin out of "mystery metal" that I now know how to jig
it, which order of operations, and so on. So I'll get some of the right
stuff and make one just like it but better. (and save this one as a
spare, because it does work).

I'll post some pics if there's anything picworthy.