Finally got my barrel changed and the old Smith back together. The brand new old barrel sure does shoot fine. It's like a whole new gun. If you read my post "Do you see a problem?" you know the story about the split barrel. Now I think I should get the sandpaper back out and polish the hammer and trigger.
Problem solved. Finally.
- Thread starter Hdonly
- Start date
Mike Irwin
Staff
Is that a washer between the barrel and the frame?
It is a shim. He needed that to index the barrel correctly. He didn't have a lathe to set back the barrel another turn. Cylinder gap is correct, so it works.
-TL
Mike Irwin
Staff
Yeah, I'm familiar with the concept of shimming...
Just not in that particular application.
Just not in that particular application.
shimming will not look as nice as a custom fitted job done on a lathe, but it work just fine. No reason not to do if if you need to fit a barrel to a revolver and have no access to a lathe.
The "correct" way to do it with a lathe is to set back the barrel shoulder enough to make the sight come up to 12:00 and then cut and throat the rear of the barrel to give a .003" cylinder gap. After that you must adjust the length of the ejector rod and push rod to work because the front locking pin and lug are now moved back a bit, but that is fairly easy to do.
The only problem with shimming is that you sometimes have to make a new front locking pin. Make it a bit longer then the original so it will fully seat into the end of the ejector rod. Not hard to do, but it takes a bit more work.
You make it about .040" too long from the slot to the nose. The cylinder will not close at that point. Now you dress down the extra length and move the bevel back so it will cam past the rod on it's bevel. Pretty easy.
If you use drill steel for the new pin you can do the 'turning' with a hand drill and a file. The slot is also cut with a good Swiss file. When it's dressed to length and polished you need do nothing more. It will last forever.
The "correct" way to do it with a lathe is to set back the barrel shoulder enough to make the sight come up to 12:00 and then cut and throat the rear of the barrel to give a .003" cylinder gap. After that you must adjust the length of the ejector rod and push rod to work because the front locking pin and lug are now moved back a bit, but that is fairly easy to do.
The only problem with shimming is that you sometimes have to make a new front locking pin. Make it a bit longer then the original so it will fully seat into the end of the ejector rod. Not hard to do, but it takes a bit more work.
You make it about .040" too long from the slot to the nose. The cylinder will not close at that point. Now you dress down the extra length and move the bevel back so it will cam past the rod on it's bevel. Pretty easy.
If you use drill steel for the new pin you can do the 'turning' with a hand drill and a file. The slot is also cut with a good Swiss file. When it's dressed to length and polished you need do nothing more. It will last forever.
HighValleyRanch
New member
Are those grip tiger maple?
Who made them?
Who made them?
It took a combination of three spring steel shims to make up .017" to index the barrel. I just got lucky and ended up with about a .004" cylinder gap. Between .003" and .004". I made the grips from some scrap pieces of Tiger Maple left over from one of my brother's guitar builds. I get scraps from him every now and then. The gun has had the cylinder changed and now the barrel changed so there is no real collect value left. It does shoot good now though. Hammer and trigger were blued. The ejector rod locks up tight and releases easily when opening the cylinder. The timing is slightly off. I am trying to find a replacement oversize cylinder lock to take care of that.
