Here's a question for the kiddies. For years I have used the old (vise grip with the hardened tooth and anvil that you clamp in the vise and THWACKETTA, what with Thor's mighty hammer) to stake in the 870 shell stops. It works perfect, is infinity controllable and makes a stake comparable or better than the old style elongated stake that Remington used to use back in the day when the shell stops never came out.

staking tool by Rod Henrickson, on Flickr

The problem is that every time I look at the toy catalog (Brownells), this new, wonderful gadget keeps popping up. I've watched the YouTube videos and admittedly I get mixed feelings about them. For $40 USD I will have to buy one because I certainly can't afford to make one at that price. Has anyone tried the infernal devices and how well do they work? Not that getting stuck with a tool that doesn't work is a problem because I have lots of tinker friends I can give it too if it doesn't, BUT, it never hurts to ask first !

p_634100870_1 by Rod Henrickson, on Flickr

When everyone already knows that you're dumb, asking dumb questions doesn't make you look any dumber !

I like the vice grip tool idea.

When I was armorer we had a stakeing tool from Remington.

I did stake a few with a punch if the old stakeing was not that badly worn

Haven't used the brownells tool

I never saw the one they used at the plant. Or, I walked by and never realized what was happening at the time. I was told later by the guys in the custom shop that it was a proprietary machine that had been made for that purpose. The only other one I have seen other than the new one, and the vise grip style is the one that Tom Menck invented. Toms works well enough but you are never sure exactly where the stake will end up if you don't have another guy squinting at it for final alignment. In one shop I worked in we finally cut a couple of aluminum spacer blocks to fit in the back of the U cut to get the distance right. Some guys had no problems with Mencks tool, but I never really made friends with it.

menck by Rod Henrickson, on Flickr

I don't know anything from experience in this area, but the new Brownell's toy looks good because it is infinitely adjustable, and the amount of stake can be fine tuned as well. A second set of eyes (or an i phone set up as a video camera) would still make things easier, but are not as critical as with any THWACK! type of device.

quote:

Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:
I never saw the one they used at the plant. Or, I walked by and never realized what was happening at the time. I was told later by the guys in the custom shop that it was a proprietary machine that had been made for that purpose. The only other one I have seen other than the new one, and the vise grip style is the one that Tom Menck invented. Toms works well enough but you are never sure exactly where the stake will end up if you don't have another guy squinting at it for final alignment. In one shop I worked in we finally cut a couple of aluminum spacer blocks to fit in the back of the U cut to get the distance right. Some guys had no problems with Mencks tool, but I never really made friends with it.

menck by Rod Henrickson, on Flickr

This looks like the tool we used when we I went through the Remington armorer course don't remember if it had a brand name on it. Wasn't that satisfied with it.
More then once troopers would bring their field striped 870s to me in pieces and after the shell stops had fallen out.

More then once a couple of hits with a good fitting punch worked well.

I have both the Brownell's tool and a Vise Grip tool that I made myself. The Vise Grip is way easier to use.

Bill Jacobs

quote:

Originally posted by Clemson:
I have both the Brownell's tool and a Vise Grip tool that I made myself. The Vise Grip is way easier to use.

Bill Jacobs

When you say the Brownells tool, you mean the new one with the bolts or the old Menck style Bill ?

The vise grip is pretty hard to beet. Especially if you make the anvil to cradle the receiver so that the receiver does not try to lift because of the curved edge. I use a padded C clamp to actually clamp the receiver to the anvil and I can set the tooth in the vise grip EGG-FAWKING-ZACKERY where I want the stake. Then smack the top jaw lightly with a hammer.

Mine is the new style. I may try to make an anvil like yours for the vise grip. I have a Penny glued to mine right now!

Bill

Thanks Bill. I think I'll stick to the vise grip then. The screw type looks like a good idea, but from watching the YouTube kids, they're either using it wrong or it's not as good an idea as it seems.

Just get a chunk of aluminum and slab off about .200 inch leaving a .300 inch ledge. Then run a 3/4 inch ball mill down the ledge to make the radius. Special, protective plastic coating? DUCT TAPE ! I used to use a flat piece of aluminum, but like I said, the receiver would twist up on the rounded edge when I tightened the vise grip. The radiused lip and using a C clamp solved all of that.

I also milled a rectangular base on the bottom that I can clamp into my vise.