[bulletjunkie]

Bought one, got it some time this week, i am not a gun smith but i managed to file one down to replicate my factory pin, i used it successfully, inspected the spent casings, looked fine to me as well, well i did an heat treating process since i had 30 dollars to blow on an aftermarket pin with a bad rep, it turned out alright, i was expecting it to be brittle after but i guess not however i did have someone help me with that who is familiar with metallurgy , i was debating whether i should cyro it or try to anneal it/heat treat, i will see how it holds up, so far 200 rounds good to go..90 round mag dump, hard on the wallet but it's something worth testing i guess, i will keep you updated, if it last 1000+ rounds, i am just going to replicate these pins instead of sending it back to ruger..also i will be using WOLF for the rest of the testing to save some money and see how well it holds up

 

[Tom T]

Annealing

Very interesting. What was the annealing process? Is that the same as hardening? Doesn't that make it even more brittle? Thanks

My mini is at the factory right now. Someone suggested asking for a spare pin. Guess I have to wait till they call me though.

After $51.00 ground freight (ups 3 day), I really want to see if rifle is ever going to work right before dropping more $ in it. I have no idea what they will charge for the repairs and freight home. I know I will end-up with over $1,000 invested in a 9 year old used mini14 (I helped a friend out, and paid $800 for it with 5 various clips, scope) and had to run it through a dealer.

Maybe the Ruger CEO will read this and offer warrantee because it wouldn't fire even one 5 round clip. RMA #87483 hint hint. LOL

 

[glenwatkins]

Tom they will fix it for free but if you want spare parts now is the time to ask while they have the gun there. Nice project bulletjunkie!!

 

[Tom T]

Tom they will fix it for free but if you want spare parts now is the time to ask while they have the gun there. Nice project bulletjunkie!!

Thanks Glen, I think you are the one that convinced me to get it fixed right.
However I am not going to dilute their attention with any requests until they call and say it's done. I don't think they'll box-it-up until I pay for return freight.

 

[bulletjunkie]

Very interesting. What was the annealing process? Is that the same as hardening? Doesn't that make it even more brittle? Thanks

My mini is at the factory right now. Someone suggested asking for a spare pin. Guess I have to wait till they call me though.

After $51.00 ground freight (ups 3 day), I really want to see if rifle is ever going to work right before dropping more $ in it. I have no idea what they will charge for the repairs and freight home. I know I will end-up with over $1,000 invested in a 9 year old used mini14 (I helped a friend out, and paid $800 for it with 5 various clips, scope) and had to run it through a dealer.

Maybe the Ruger CEO will read this and offer warrantee because it wouldn't fire even one 5 round clip. RMA #87483 hint hint. LOL

yes it can make it more brittle (which what i was expecting) but it also can make it stronger, only time will tell.. but from what i've read i had to heat it up fairly high with, then cool very rapidly, it is not exactly annealing but more of heat treating. they are a little different in process, i meant to post that

edit: also forgot my father is working on a "custom firing pin" himself, he has done it a few times before, he took a nail and sanded it down to a firing pin, we are going to see if that works as well, it's just something interesting to try in case there was a "SHTF" situation without any spares.

also have been looking for similar firing pins to experiment with

 

[paulw]

Thanks Glen, I think you are the one that convinced me to get it fixed right.
However I am not going to dilute their attention with any requests until they call and say it's done. I don't think they'll box-it-up until I pay for return freight.

Hi Tom,
You might want to make the call.
When I had mine repaired (firing pin) they never called me before shipping it back. The only reason I was home to receive it was I got curious and called them...they had shipped it 3 days earlier.

 

[Chilly]

Heat treating means you're using heat to change material properties: harder or softer.

Hardening can be accomplished by heating and quenching (the faster the quench the harder it becomes), nitriding, carberizing, etc. Tempering is usually performed after hardening to relieve stresses created into the metal from heat treating. It's a long soak in a pretty darned hot environment and it does lower the hardness a few points, too. So it relieves the stress and makes the part less brittle. Annealing is sort of like tempering except you're intentionally dropping the hardness way down. Annealing is softening. This is my understanding from working around this stuff but I'm not an expert by any means. A metallurgist may have more accurate definitions.

 

[Calif Mini]

..........., well i did an heat treating process..................

What / how exactly did you do the heat treating process?
Then exactly how did you temper it?

This is the info we all need to be able to try one for ourselves.

I know the G-A firing pins are two piece so heat treating in a furnace may un-braze the tail piece or weaken the bond some.

Did you do a "heat treat" or a case harden on the front third of the FP?

When I did a Rockwell hardness sampling, the G-A pins were so soft they almost did not register on the scale. Low 20's HRC. As a comparison, raw 4340 was about 40HRC. Factory FP's are over 50 HRC. I did my testing using a superficial tester and cross referencing o HRC. Superficial does less damage to small parts like firing pins.

I had a used one sent to me that the actual tip was bending / deforming.
Not knowing the material used makes it uncertain as to how to best upgrade them.

Was on Midway site and found Glend Arms FP..... Not for use on the Mini 30.
Never noticed this before. Guess they did not have luck with hard primer ammo??

 

[kwg020]

I'd like to see how long one lasts with just cryo treating. Nothing else but cryo. kwg

 

[Chilly]

Cryo does nothing to the hardness of metals. Even the most ardent promoters of cryo say it makes the grain structure more uniform, helping to eliminate weak spots where a bunch of intergranular discontinuities meet in one place. Unless the pins are failing for this reason cryo will not help. The best way to eliminate these intergranular discontinuities is to purchase higher quality steel from the start. That's why cryo has an effect on Ruger barrels and not so much a Krieger barrel: it can only improve pre-existing defects.