Columbus points gun

[jon buck]

I have a Columbus points gun (made in Germany with a ref. no. 756) really good piece of kit.
However I am about to run out of points and nobody seems to sell them anymore.

Is anyone aware if there are any out there or has anyone got any gathering dust they want to sell.

Its a shame to have to buy a new gun when this one works so well.

Thanks

Jon

[Dermot]

You could try Ebor ...however it is not in their online catalogue, they used to supplie a very wide range of glazing points

http://www.ebor.co.uk/catalogue/14.pdf

[prospero]

Fret not Jon. I have the exact same gun and it takes Fletcher #5 11mm Triangles. Lion cat page 96, ref 3581. I would prefer 13mm Points, but you can't have everything ... You will need the little metal tongue to convert the chute to 11mm, so I hope you haven't lost it. One tip: Load the points so that the rubbery strip is not facing the back of the gun or it can jam. Otherwise they work fine.


Sorted.

[Not your average framer]

When the Kaha gun was being phased out, I bought 20,000 Kaha 13mm triangle points from Frank Scraggs and these also work in the Columbus gun. It might be worth asking around to see if any suppliers still have any of the Kaha 13mm triangle points left on the shelf somewhere!

While ordering these I had a good chat with a very helpful chap at Scraggs and he found a couple of the Kaha converter thingys which convert the Kaha gun to accept the Fletcher 9mm diamond points too! They need the bend at the top straightening out a bit to fit the Columbus but they work too! Personally, having invested in a box of each size of the Fletcher diamond points, I dont much like them as they can come out of the gun almost sideways, whereas the triagle points always come out straight.

Before I got around to buying the modern day Fletcher guns of which I have four (so I can fire flexi-tabs, framers points, glazers points and multi-points), I started off with a box full of broken guns, 6 x Columbus (of various models), 1 x Kaha and 1 x Red devil. A friend re-made some broken axles which were broken with wear and tear and robbed bits from one of the Columbus guns. I ended up with 7 working guns.

The Columbus gun robbed for spares was an in-between size for diamond points which are no longer available, the Red devil gum works, but it's carp. All in all, I reckon I did O.K. I now prefer the newer Fletcher models, which almost never jam and are probably more powerful when working with hard wood mouldings.

I have a couple of antique dealers who bring old frames and framed pictures to me, who ask me to use the old fashioned triangle or diamonds points to match the originals, or brads from my brad gun as appropiate. It seems that as far as antique dealers are concerned, that I'm one up on those who don't have any of these old framer's museum pieces!

[jon buck]

Thanks very much for your replys,

Jon