I do most of my drilling and tapping in the vertical mill but I found this recently on one of the gun forums. Handy and faster than using the mill.

Did I really need it? Naw, but it is a neat tool to have in the collection.



Made a box out of scrap wood to keep all the pieces together:

Got a drawer full of jigs; don't trust them; I still set up each hole.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Got a drawer full of jigs; don't trust them; I still set up each hole.

Yea, same here. The Dial indicators rule!

I have had a Forster jig for years and would not want to do drilling and tapping without it. I occasionally have to use the Bridgeport for holes in Shotgun receivers or the like, but for bolt action rifles in particular, it is fast and accurate.

Bill Jacobs

I have used the Forster jig for over forty years and, generally speaking, I like it. It is important to realize though, a barrel which is crooked on the outside will cause a misalignment in set up. Mostly, it works just fine but one has to be aware. Regards, Bill.

We have one in our shop and use it regularly. Very accurate. I like the feel it gives you when tapping. The bushings keep it straight and you can back off when you feel it grab. For shotgun and other slab -sided receivers we use one of those parallelogram jigs that auto-center the holes. For anything else we use the base as a jig and spot the holes.

Years ago SpearChucker had a thread on the jig.

He did a lot of work on Mauser conversions and liked it for quick setup. Accurate enough for a Moose Hunters '98. Spear made a lot of money drilling and tapping the old military war horses.

And if the bore is reasonably centered in the barrel and the barrel is fairly straight, the average Joe hunter will not notice any problems.

Interesting thread...For myself, never had any issues with the Forester Jig...Darn good piece of equipment, well thought out. Not often I have to resort to the Bridgeport

I grew up in my Father's shop using one 4 decades ago.

Once I went out on my own, it has been the Vertical mill and a DRO for the drilling and tapping.

Dad surprised me early this year as he was cleaning part of his cluttered shop, and brought over the Forster fixture, but then it took him about 3 more months to find the bushings, etc, he had put them in a box and then it got covered up.

So now it has a new 3rd life in my shop, I currently have 6 Mausers to drill and tap in the shop.

I have a wooden rack I built years ago in one corner of the shop by my main milling machine. The rack holds a lot of stock blanks, and barrels, and now also the Forster Fixture.
That way I do not have far to move it when it gets used.

J Wisner

I use both. It IS possible to get off with the Forster, depending on the trueness (is that a word??) of any given barrel/receiver combination.

sold 2 of these 10+ years ago for my smith.

I can't speak to it's accuracy, but at least it looks like yours came with a lifetime supply of center drills!

They actually don't use center drills; they use standard drills guided by bushings.
People like these because they are quick and accurate enough for a Mauser hunting rifle.
However, I don't have to point out the obvious design flaw in it; indexing off a component that may or may not, be in alignment with the receiver bridge. Those are often not perfectly straight. I just like the holes to be perfectly centered in the bridge.

Good point. I have seen too many receivers and barrels with mis--aligned holes, most probably done in one of those fixtures

I used this Tool for over 50 yrs and never had a problem being off center. We drilled and taped so many military rifles. It could make the job so easy that I could complete 6 or 8 before you got the mill ready and set up. B-Square made a fixture that was bad and you could ruin an action using their tool.



Forester was the most used jig in our shops

Since you are drilling holes linear only with the barrel, with the receiver being hung out as just an extension of that line, you will never know when the rear base is not aligned with the receiver. I prefer to have the bases true to the receiver. I've seen a lot of Mausers done in the 60s, cranked out by gunsmiths who needed a fast method, that were off center over the bridge. It was fast because the alignment of the receiver is ignored. But did work fine and the users did not notice.
I do. I want the holes in the center of the guide rib cut.
Of course, nowadays we are not butchering Mausers by the ton like they did in the 50s and 60s.