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Blackhawk Restyle
- Thread starter Sharps40
- Start date
First panel is done, buffed and waxed and set aside.
For now, I am final finishing the other grip, final finishing the frame for its final buff and then its back to the action and barrel. I ordered a 3.5" long ejector housing. If I like it and it fits good/works right, I'll install it and make up a nifty ejector button. From there I gotta decide whether or not to slim the top strap and whether or not to chamfer the cylinder. Then polish and blue and done! Only Fourty11 hours more work to do then I can swap it for a truck or something!
For now, I am final finishing the other grip, final finishing the frame for its final buff and then its back to the action and barrel. I ordered a 3.5" long ejector housing. If I like it and it fits good/works right, I'll install it and make up a nifty ejector button. From there I gotta decide whether or not to slim the top strap and whether or not to chamfer the cylinder. Then polish and blue and done! Only Fourty11 hours more work to do then I can swap it for a truck or something!
Grips are done. Not bad for my first set in about 20 years. I'm happy with the look and I think they fit pretty well and specially fit the hand better. So, off to the table for pizza and then to the shop to buff the brass frame back to its shiny glory....then I'll place the bottom end in its protective box until such time as final reassembly occurs.
I agree Wow! That is very handsome wood for classic style wheel gun. It's coming out great.
Bottom end is now complete. Functional, polished, not too slim and kinda purty. Time to box it up and move back up to the barreled action.
Verdict on the brass frame. Good quality soft brass, polishes well and no air pockets or inclusions. Fit to Ruger frame is better than expected requiring very little and quite simple work. It fits the frame nearly as well as the hand fitted original XR3-RED. Both grip frames exhibit a slight gap at the junction of the trigger guard to action. Neither is noticeable. I would buy this frame again. However, given the lesser quality and fit of the grips that come with it, I would not purchase the chrome plated version....too hard to fit new wood grips with out scratching and scuffing the frame.
Finally, the verdict on making wood grips.....I remember now why I quit makin em 20 or so years back. Its more and harder work than inletting a rifle action. Small, hard to hold, compound angles and tough to sand and finish and polish, specially with some arthuritus in the fingers and poor ol eyes getting a bit myopic. Lemmie tell ya,,,,,bifocals ain't what they're cracked up to be.....close work is darn difficult when yer eyes get too stiff to focus up close on the small stuff.
Verdict on the brass frame. Good quality soft brass, polishes well and no air pockets or inclusions. Fit to Ruger frame is better than expected requiring very little and quite simple work. It fits the frame nearly as well as the hand fitted original XR3-RED. Both grip frames exhibit a slight gap at the junction of the trigger guard to action. Neither is noticeable. I would buy this frame again. However, given the lesser quality and fit of the grips that come with it, I would not purchase the chrome plated version....too hard to fit new wood grips with out scratching and scuffing the frame.
Finally, the verdict on making wood grips.....I remember now why I quit makin em 20 or so years back. Its more and harder work than inletting a rifle action. Small, hard to hold, compound angles and tough to sand and finish and polish, specially with some arthuritus in the fingers and poor ol eyes getting a bit myopic. Lemmie tell ya,,,,,bifocals ain't what they're cracked up to be.....close work is darn difficult when yer eyes get too stiff to focus up close on the small stuff.
Thx. Waitin on a part till I go much further. I wanna see how it looks and works with a short ejector rod and housing before making the final decisions on fit and finish. For now, the clean up of some rust pitting allowed me to very slightly lower the ears around the rear sight and taper those same ears. The action looks much improved. A slight change and that camel hump look is much reduced.
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Still waitin for parts but movin forward.
Cylinder. It needed chamfered up front. The ruger square cut looks a bit .... ugly.
1/4 twenty thread all....wrapped in a single layer of duct tape to make it snug and protect the inside of the cylinder shaft bore. Rubber gaskets to protect the ratchets and cylinder surfaces and nuts to secure the cylinder on the shaft and chucked in the drill press. Run it slow....100 to 200 rpm is fine and won't see your part sailing across the shop or kicking the hand held file out of hand and gouging up yer face or some other part of the cylinder. This set up will do double duty for polishing the cylinder later so it can be blued. Much easier than eyeballing everything crooked.
A light kiss to start makes sure everything is running smooth and when its as wide as I want it, without cutting into the cylinders themselves, I back the file with 220g for a polish...here it is about half way done.
And here completed with a touch of cold blue to protect against rust for the time being.
And then, installed in the frame for the first look....
Cylinder. It needed chamfered up front. The ruger square cut looks a bit .... ugly.
1/4 twenty thread all....wrapped in a single layer of duct tape to make it snug and protect the inside of the cylinder shaft bore. Rubber gaskets to protect the ratchets and cylinder surfaces and nuts to secure the cylinder on the shaft and chucked in the drill press. Run it slow....100 to 200 rpm is fine and won't see your part sailing across the shop or kicking the hand held file out of hand and gouging up yer face or some other part of the cylinder. This set up will do double duty for polishing the cylinder later so it can be blued. Much easier than eyeballing everything crooked.
A light kiss to start makes sure everything is running smooth and when its as wide as I want it, without cutting into the cylinders themselves, I back the file with 220g for a polish...here it is about half way done.
And here completed with a touch of cold blue to protect against rust for the time being.
And then, installed in the frame for the first look....
The cut off barrel...already crowned but square, sharp and ready to cut yer fingers out front. So, I could bevel it back by hand and eye wif a file and get it wrong or use a barrel end chamferererer-er. (Technincal name is barrel beveler offer)
Very sharp and ugly end.
Barrel end and the beveleroffer chucked in a variable speed drill.
Bring em together, slow rpm, rock the barrel beveleroffer around the cut off end of the barrel....stop when yer happy wif the bevel.
I'm happy wif that. Subtle, less sharp, easy on the eye.
The outside bevel before some cold blue to protect it from rust till bluing time....sorta like a three angle valve job on a hot rod. Details. Forget em and its ugly and potentially less functional.
Very sharp and ugly end.
Barrel end and the beveleroffer chucked in a variable speed drill.
Bring em together, slow rpm, rock the barrel beveleroffer around the cut off end of the barrel....stop when yer happy wif the bevel.
I'm happy wif that. Subtle, less sharp, easy on the eye.
The outside bevel before some cold blue to protect it from rust till bluing time....sorta like a three angle valve job on a hot rod. Details. Forget em and its ugly and potentially less functional.
