thumb protection when re-pinning

[Dave Nereson]

    When re-pinning more than, say, twenty action parts, my right thumb
really gets poked, cut, and chewed-up from repeatedly trying the pin in the
birdseye of each part being re-pinned to see if it's tight enough, then
pushing it into both bushings on the flange, individually, to see if they
need reaming, burnishing, or re-bushing, then after reaming, trying the pin
in the bushings again, maybe making another touch-up operation, then trying
the pin in the bushings again, then pushing the pin through one bushing into
the birdseye, and, finally, using the plunger-type re-pinning tool only for
the final push through the birdseye.  That's just one flange.  After a
couple dozen, my thumb is raw meat, as though I took a rasp to it.
    I've tried using a thimble, but you have to keep taking it off to try
the pin in the bushing or to pick up a fine tool like a tiny reamer,
tweezers, or center-pin, then put it back on to push the pin through.  And
with it on, you don't have the sensitivity or control for trying the fit of
the pin in the bushing.  Nor do you with pliers.  Maybe some custom-made
leather "thumb boot" through which a center-pin will NOT poke would work,
but it would probably wear through quickly.  I need a bionic thumb!
    Gang replacement is different, where you have all new flanges and you
can chuck a roughened center pin in a drill and use that for the reamer,
then just push all the same size pins through with the pinning tool.  But
that's not the case with most actions I work on.
    --David Nereson, RPT