Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Readily available and CHEAP source of shimming material!!!!

So, here I was in a quandry over how to get my vintage Balfour scope in B&L mounts to point anywhere near where the old Savage 99TD 250/3000 was pointing. Ran out of adjustment room on the bases with the scope and rifle still 12 inches apart at 25 yards. Only have on hand a few scraps of brass & copper scope shims..... Go ask my buddy who has drawers full of new in the box Stith and B&L mounts and who like me owns and shoots the oldy moldy stuff if he has any shimming material or knows another way to raise the POI of the setup this much. Friend says 1) Nope, no way to adjust the B&L set up that much and 2) SURE!!!!.... he has LOTS of .015 shimming material! And likely I do too..... Huh?????? He produces an empty soda can and begins to demonstrate how easy it is to cut out perfect shimmiing material from same.... WHY didn't I think of that! Had to use three thicknesses of the stuff to get the rifle and scope talkin to each other but the idea worked quite well. The thin aluminum cuts easily and forms easily and molds itsself quite nicely under the compression from the mounting screws. Looks pretty good now but more importantly it works. Wondering if anyone else here had tried this or knew about the idea. Thought I would pass it along.

Good idea, but my beer comes in bottles, Leinie Honey Weiss, so no aluminum cans available for recycle shimming material.

Jeff

Cheap feeler gauges work well, old credit cards, and the thingys that hold the bread bags closed, have all been used in a pinch. I prefer the feelers, as you can put one piece in there, and there are many choices of thickness.

R

More good ideas! 260Remguy, git offn yer high horse and buy some GOOD beer! Then sacrifice the skin it came in to the red gods of the hunt.

I've used pop can shims before too, they work great!

Not cheap but readily available and one can get exactly what he wants. Shim Stock Link
1Minute

Used the "beer can" shim back in the early 70's on a Ruger 77 with fixed rings that ran out of adjustment. Worked GREAT! Only thing is...beer cans work better than soda cans...(GRIN!)
Especially COORS cans...
Virgil B.

Coors cans need to be put to good use after they've suffered holding that wizz water.

I reckon I know of a slightly better mousetrap,....though I've cut up my share of old Pop and Brew cans, too.

Try this one,........good used "Wetordry" emory paper,....folded to grit out on both sides.

....won't "Walk" or try to squirt out because of slick surface, and requires less torque.

Just save all the varying grades ya' use,....and re-cycle 'em into shim stock.

You talk about glomming onto something in a Milling Vice,......?

again,....try used Emory paper.

GTC

Would there be an issue with an electrolytic reaction between the aluminum shim and the steel of the reciever causing rust in an area you can't get at? Just thinking out loud, so to speak. I remember back to various aluminum-bodied foreign cars that rotted away at the contact points between the aluminum body panels and steel frames/ sub-frames. Early Alfa Romeos come to mind. I do know that Rover took to putting layers of insulative mat'l (cork usually) between the steel frame and Aluminum bodies of the Series II, IIA, and III Land Rovers for that very reason also. Again just wondering.

For shimming stuff around the shop, and scope mounts occasionaly I use either feeler gauge stock or brass shim stock. I keep a good supply of both on hand from .002 up to .012".

Would there be an issue with an electrolytic reaction between the aluminum shim and the steel of the reciever causing rust in an area you can't get at? Just thinking out loud, so to speak. I remember back to various aluminum-bodied foreign cars that rotted away at the contact points between the aluminum body panels and steel frames/ sub-frames. Early Alfa Romeos come to mind. I do know that Rover took to putting layers of insulative mat'l (cork usually) between the steel frame and Aluminum bodies of the Series II, IIA, and III Land Rovers for that very reason also. Again just wondering.

For shimming stuff around the shop, and scope mounts occasionaly I use either feeler gauge stock or brass shim stock. I keep a good supply of both on hand from .002 up to .012".

Would there be an issue with an electrolytic reaction between the aluminum shim and the steel of the reciever causing rust in an area you can't get at? Just thinking out loud, so to speak. I remember back to various aluminum-bodied foreign cars that rotted away at the contact points between the aluminum body panels and steel frames/ sub-frames. Early Alfa Romeos come to mind. I do know that Rover took to putting layers of insulative mat'l (cork usually) between the steel frame and Aluminum bodies of the Series II, IIA, and III Land Rovers for that very reason also. Again just wondering.

For shimming stuff around the shop, and scope mounts occasionaly I use either feeler gauge stock or brass shim stock. I keep a good supply of both on hand from .002 up to .012".

Shims cut from a milk jug work pretty good.

I have a roll of the aluminun sticky tape that sheet metal guys use. It's real handy for bedding problems because it stays where you put it. Ken

Good idea's here!

I've thought of this same idea a few years back myself. I think it would work just fine in a pinch, however the corrosion problem is a valid concern. I like to bed them in epoxy dyed black. It's nearly invisible, makes an airtight fit, and won't compress, or absorb moisture. You have to shim it with something till it sets up though and most anything will work for that.