Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Cutting screws down

Got 16bores modified Talley's and buggerd up the screws, got new ones from Talley (great service) but now I need to cut down the screw. So where can I get a 6-48 nut to put on the screw? And all I have is a grinder to make it smaller. Will this work?

I did free hand grinding for decades. You will need to hang on TIGHT and take one thread at a time. Carefully.

It is a good idea to clear the whole area so that when it gets away you can find it.

Brownells sells a screw holder for grinding that they call a "screw gizzie". Probably not worth buying to grind just a couple of screws, but a useful tool to have if you grind screws on a regular basis.

File and a vise, if you value your fingertips.

Depending how much you need to shorten them, it's pretty easy to do with a small draw file. I just slip them through the hole in the handle of a wire stripper and hold them in from the back.

A small cutoff wheel on dremel tool might work well if you have much to take off. Otherwise a file would be best for a thread or two. I'd clamp the screw between 2 pieces of soft wood, like pine, in a vise.

Or you could carefully bottom tap the holes giving you more and better threads.

What I do.

1.Use masking tape to build up circumference of the threaded shaft (the threads to be removed are left exposed) equal to the screw head.

2. Chuck up the screw in a portable drill. The tape should help keep the screw shaft centered.

3. With the drill motor running at a moderate speed, gently grind off the excess threads on an electric grinder. If done correctly, the screw threads remaining will be intact and level.

4. Finish by polishing the cut with 400 grit paper.

I used a pair of lineman pliers (side cutter dikes) to hold the screw head and sanded it down on a small electric sander w/ 80 grit sandpaper. Worked just fine....

It doesn't have to be any harder than you make it.

David

i made my own screw gizzie. bought the bottom tap from brownells. cut a small piece of plate, drilled and tapped the hole. inserted the screw to depth and ground it off. worked like a champ. no buggered fingers and it cleaned the treads up when i pulled the screw out of the gizzie.

I like it!

I have shortened screws by just putting them in the chuck of my drill and slowly filing them down

Wrap some tape on the head of the screw and hold it with vise grips

Use the side of your bench grinder wheel so you can see better

I have filed several down with just pliers and a fine file, no problem getting them started after filing.

Thanks to all got em done, used a file and drill worked great.

I turn mine on a sherline lathe.

all good.

my method as well

If I only need a little bit off, I clamp the screw head in my brass jaws. I then stroke it as needed with a file and use a 3-corner file to clean up the threads. If I have to shorted it a lot, I use a ultra thin Dremel cut-off wheel in the same set up.

I would be smart to tap some thin bar stock and just screw them in as suggested.