Does anyone have a good method for drilling out 1/48 machine gun barrels? I attempted to do it with pin vice on a Tamiya F4F-4 and ended up ruining them.

Hi Paul,
The method that works for me is as follows:

The thinness of a micro drill bit will slip in most
cases when you try to drill.

So first, chuck a fine needle in the pin vise and
position it on the area you want to drill. When
you have found the correct center, apply gentle
pressure so that needle creates a depression
in the part and this helps prevent slippage.


Proceed to drill with the pin vise as you now have created a guide for the drill bit to work into.

Works every time!

Cheers,
Joe

I really feel like that should have occurred to me.

Thanks Joe!

Paul,
That's the exact method I've used for years. Works 9 out of 10 times for me.

I start with a very shallow hole made with the needle, then make sure it's actually close enough to dead center in the gun barrel. If not, I gently file it flat, and try again. I do find that nearly half the time I'm off by a wide margin. Once I'm happy with the location, I enlarge the hole with slightly more pressure till it's deep enough to use as a pilot hole. While drilling I actually tip and slightly rotate the drill in a circle so that the hole becomes funnel shaped. This usually results in getting the gun barrel tip very thin, and allows for small adjustments to the hole location.
Joel