Gunsmithing Tapped pillar?

[lennyo3034]

So I had my first custom rifle built recently, and it is pillar bedded. I notice however that the pillars are actually tapped and the action screws screw into them before screwing into the receiver. Is this normal? Seems strange to me.

Thanks.

 

[turbo54]

Re: Tapped pillar?

It is probably just epoxy from bedding. Regardless, it should be drilled out to make the screw/pillar a clearance fit.

 

[hero's machine]

Re: Tapped pillar?

There is a smith in my town that uses the tapped pillar setup. Some locals sing praise to it, my take is that no matter how fancy you want to make it, you still have to clamp the damn action into the stock with a screw, on my rifles, that will be done with a screw into the action through a crush proof pillar.

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: Tapped pillar?

Interesting idea, I wouldn't do it.
Tapping the pillar will obviously transfer some unknown portion of the recoil forces from the receiver to the action screws instead of all of it being absorbed by the recoil lug as it should be.

Doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[Edds]

Re: Tapped pillar?

It won't work. You can't screw a bolt into a pillar then into an action and then draw the action down against the pillar.

 

[turbo54]

Re: Tapped pillar?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Edds</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It won't work. You can't screw a bolt into a pillar then into an action and then draw the action down against the pillar. </div></div>

This.

 

[lennyo3034]

Re: Tapped pillar?

I guess I should mention he rifle in question is a rear lug M14. This is no other recoil lug to speak of. I figure the use of the pillar to be the same though.

 

[Clark]

Re: Tapped pillar?

That could work just fine, but it would require twice as many action screws and shorter ones.
The bottom metal would attach to the threaded pillar independently with screws coming up from the bottom.

It would have the advantage of getting the pillar pre stressed and bed the bottom metal at the same time.

The pillar might have to be steel for the threads to be used a lot.

 

[Nocalphoenix]

Re: Tapped pillar?

Darrel Holland has been making his threaded pillars for years and they work well. As Clark mentioned the nice thing is that the bottom metal is independent of the action. They are definitly different but with so many other variables I cannot imagine you could complete a test to show they work better than a conventional pillar.

 

[lennyo3034]

Re: Tapped pillar?

In the case of this rifle, the bottome metal (trigger group) is indeed completely independant of the pillars and action screw anyways. I think I'll leave it as is.

Thanks for the help