I'm looking for a press fit finish on a dovetail front sight. How much of a tolerance should I leave in the dovetail dimension without spending too much time working it with a file? Also, should I leave the depth of the dovetail slot a little under-sized as well or just worry about the width? Many thanks.

-- ale

quote:

Originally posted by aleaddict:
I'm looking for a press fit finish on a dovetail front sight. How much of a tolerance should I leave in the dovetail dimension without spending too much time working it with a file? Also, should I leave the depth of the dovetail slot a little under-sized as well or just worry about the width? Many thanks.

-- ale

Depends on what you are going to "press" it in with. For depth, if at all possible, I try to leave no more than .002 clearance between the sight blade and the top of the ramp.

When I cut a dovetail for a specific sight, I make the initial cut, and then as I advance the table in .001 increments, I feed the cutter to a depth of about 1/3 it's diameter and then try the sight. I will continue this until I can just barely start the sight by hand. Then, I will back the table off approximately .003 and take a finish cut.

This leaves a slight, undetectable flare to help get the sight started. At this point the use of a Williams sight pusher is all that is needed to set the sight into position. In actual practice, this goes pretty fast. Much faster and cleaner than sneaking up on it with a file. Been there, done that, didn't care for it!

Thanks a million, Westpac. It worked G-R-E-A-T ! !

-- ale

You're welcome. Glad it worked well for you.