Blackhawk Restyle

[Sharps40]

Before and after for comparison of the cylinder chamfer....

And, the clean up of pitting at the top rear sight ears slightly lowered the level.....angled forward toward the nose a bit and it slims up the looks nicely.

 

[Sharps40]

Rear sight ears before the clean up and after....

Before...

After...

 

[Sharps40]

Cam cut all steel Cimarron 3.5" ejector housing arrived today. Got some careful planning to do and see if this will fit and work. For sure, I gotta get a couple new plug taps before making any threaded holes.

But, the new ejector housing laid out with the Ruger ejector parts.

Temp install to check the look and initial function.....not bad, a snug fit in the frame hole and it lines up/looks pretty good on there. Wonder if it'll work as nice as it looks.

From the opposite side....a bit of work on the ejector rod to establish the right length, some thinning for a deeper push back and natch...shorten the spring a bit. And a new button will be required, for looks and to get the final bit of clearance needed to override the base pin for cylinder removal. It may be doable in a workman like manner.

 

[John12084]

Beautiful

 

[Sharps40]

Decided to wait for sharp drills and taps before trying the install on the ejector housing.

Jiggin up on some O1 tool steel and drilled a #31 hole 2/10" deep and tried a standard taper tap. These are the easiest to start a thread in a hole with but no dice....with a lead in of 8 to 10 partial threads it bottoms in the hole and just funnels out the mouth. So, using the jig I tapped it full depth with a taper tap. Harder to start but with a jig its not bad at all cause ya come at the hole straight.

But, the plug tap is old and the threads it makes are a bit rough. So. I'll wait. Sharp bits and plug and bottoming taps on the way. I'll save the taper taps for action work where the holes go all the way thru. Blind holes are lots tougher to do and I'll want it right as can be on the first shot. So, standing by as the bits come by ups in 2 or 3 days to be dropped off at the post office, which is 4 miles from the house and will add another 2 to 4 days to the delivery. I hate UPS, but they make megabucks with the postal loophole that lets em drop off kabillions of packages with the Post Office and while UPS pockets the full to your door delivery price at fewer miles, fewer hours and ya can't complain cause yer box did in fact get delivered (to the frackin post office) on time or a bit early. I hate USPS too for bein stupid enough to have a loophole that allows a commercial carrier to dump their contracted workload on a Federal Agency. Buncha dayum hooie.

 

[Sharps40]

Its so good to have pals. Upon reading of my lack of sharp tooling, a buddy stopped by last eve with, Spanky new drills, plug and bottoming taps! Woo Hoo! I do love a good buddy, Beer Up my friend!

So, off to the workshop this morning before work and measure 16 times, drill once.

The ejector rod housing flares to the muzzle but we need a straight center line to put it in place....so a flat and some careful measurement off the topstrap and top of the barrel and a light line is scribed on the barrel.

Lined up and gently clamped into place and the center hole is punched for spot drilling and alignment of the drill and tap jig.

Best money I spent in 30 years + of hobby smithing, a scissors jig for drilling and tapping 6x48 and 8x40 holes....self centering and repeatable, holes are dead perpendicular to the barrel or action every time.

The #31 drill was collared to prevent poke thru and then a combination of taper and plug taps were used to put good clean threads in the hole. 6x48. Plenty strong and if the hole ever buggles out, room to redrill and retap to the factory 8x40. Lube the tap, break the chips often and go gentle, easy does it, small threads are strong but tender to cut, specially in a blind hole.

Success. A gun grade (read that strong and properly hardened) 6x48 threaded screw clear to bottom with no bobble or bind.

Still some light fitting of the inside curve of the ejector rod housing to accomplish to fit it more closely to the outer curve of the barrel but very nice for an initial install.

Pretty good look from this side too. I think this is gonna be just fine. Nerve wracking but fine.

 

[Sharps40]

A lazy Sunday at home means....progress on the Lightning!

So, a new ejector rod housing that is a whisker too long and with inexpertly rounded off end.....the end bevel was buffed wiggly wobbly and looks like hell, just like a high end Kimber Melt....Not quite as ugly as home stippled plastic framed handguns but for sure, sloppy. I'll fix it.

Clamped up, its long enough that using the piloted barrel squaring cutter I can remove all of the ungracefully zig zagged end at the muzzle.

The initial stopping point is a kiss against the face of the barrel. Now by hand, housing mounted on the bench, I'll carve it back, perpendicular to the bore of the housing with the barrel squaring tool until the total length is correct and most or all of the Melt job is removed.

Once the length is right.....I use the 11 degree piloted crowning cutter to crown the bore of the ejector rod. The face of this rod housing is symmetrical with the face of the barrel....both are crowned 11 degrees for a matching look.

And what is the right length for the ejector rod housing? A whisker shy of the beveled outer circumference of the barrel. And, only the tinest smidgen of sloppy Melted edge left to clean up. This will have to be done by hand, a very light breaking of the front edge of the ejector rod housing, by hand with a fine file, to remove the sharpness and match up the bevel on the end of the barrel.

Now to make up a ejector housing nut or stud. I havn't decided for sure yet but I may potentially increase the life span of the threads in the barrel by installing a stud and nut (stud stays in the barrel, nut comes on and off, this protects those tender barrel threads for many more cycles of assembly/disassembly than the Ruger system of a fat headed screw into the barrel) but we'll see.....time to go work on both and decide which I'll be using for this project.

 

[Sharps40]

Fitting a 2014 Eyetalian ejector rod housing to a 1967 Merikan Gun barrel. Work on the cheep part. No smasherwackers required. Just need the ejector rod housing to lay on the barrel, closely, just a touch of outward spring at the muzzle so when screwed down, its firmly attached and free of the wiggles without being bound or bent. A good fit, not a driven in place with hammers or ground with a bench sander fit.

So, clean up the circumference of the ejector housing lip where it enters the loop in the frame. The blueing was worn off from multiple fittings so those are the high spots to polish away with a very fine cut safe sided file.

Then using the barrel of the expensive part as the jig to fit the cheep part (always work on the cheep part first, and remember, as a rule of thumb, all parts, even the factory replacements will need some amount of fitting and rarely is a hammer or grinder the right tool)....about 25 strokes on 220 grit sand paper.

Here, see, the cheep part fitted to the expensive part...the ejector rod housing lip is fitted to the receiver loop for a slip fit, the curvature of the buttend of the housing fitted to the barrel for an ever so slight amount of spring out at the muzzle....much less than the nearly 1/8 of outward spring there was before.

It lays on there nice. Comes off and back on with out a fight and should clamp down firmly and solidly when the attaching hardware for the front end is completed.

 

[Sharps40]

Otay, less see.....a Ruger ejector rod screw, 8x40.....a barrel tapped 6x48 (plenty strong, more threads inna hole and room to buggle out the hole and replace it wif an 8x40 hole later)....so, how to fit that Eyetalian rod housing to the Merikan barrel.....

A chunk of 5/16" brake tubing from the upgrade of John Lee from single pot master cylinder to dual power master......split down the center so it can be wrapped round that too bigga threaded ruger screw.

Over to the drill press and file to carefully and cleanly remove that shank of 8x40 thread from the screw leavin only a whisker of shoulder to pull down the ejector rod housing to the barrel.

I need the hole in the screw centered in the head of the screw. So, install the screw head in the sleeve, clamp it in the portable hand vice and select a suitable diameter drill bit to slip into the sleeve and kiss the bottom side of the screw head....makin an indentation close enough to center so I can finish the hole with a proper tap drill. Heres the jig up.

The drill press belts are moved from 3000 rpm down to 250 rpm for this lil kiss of the bit against the underside of the screw head hidden in the sleeve. Drill deep enough to just center and align a much smaller tapping bit later. After which, I switch to a #31 bit that drills the hole to depth for a 6x48 tap and screw.

Starting with the 6x48 taper tap, I start the threads till the tap bottoms. Gently, member, its a blind hole and the first 8 to 10 threads on a taper tap are barely there....easy to rip out metal instead of cutting grooves. Quarter turn, back up to break the chip, back in for 1/2 turn, back up to break chip, .... Feel it touch bottom and stop!!!! Switch to plug tap and finish with bottoming tap. We have just about 8ish full threads in this dude, maximum strength with a threaded fastener is achieved with 3 or 4. Given the spacing and need to shorten the stud later, we'll have 3.5ish threads in the barrel and 3 to 5 threads engaged in the modified nut. Strong, strong. Remember, as few as 3 of these screws hold on over 1 lb of scope and rings on any magnum rifle forever and without shearing off, this will be just dandy here. No worries.

The line up....a Merikan Ruger barrel with a snugly installed and as needed, shortened threaded stud (will lok tite it later, after bluing), an Eyetalian ejector rod housing fitted to the Merikan barrel and a suitably modified Ruger ejector rod housing nut.

And it screws in and pulls the housing down against the barrel neat and like it were made fer it.

And from the nose end, ya'd never knew it weren't factory....but its better. Strong enough and rebuildable later, both the barrel and nut can be reamed for 8x40 thread in the future when some ham handed dude snorkes it down crooked and too durn tight and ruinates fairly good work. (Future gunsmiths send telekinetic waves of thanks to prior smiths that made provisions against Captain Hamhand an his 5 lb SmasherWacker)

 

[Sharps40]

Getting down to the last of it now. Not much left to do. Make up the ejector rod and button.....check the fit of everything, brushed finish I think and then the blue. Reassemble, shoot.

So, for now, some better looks at the package. I think the ejector rod housing (gosh I hope it lifts shells up for pluckin out!) and cylinder chamfer were great calls.

The right side...I was considerin makin up a brass loading gate but I think it would be garish. Prolly try a brass ejector rod button instead, less of that Bawdy House look.

The view down unda and ya can really get a feel for the cammed ejection and the cylinder chamfer....

From the top......to me the rod housing provides a look of completeness and I still like the cylinder chamfer....I got a Mod 60 that might need that chamfer treatment.....

Even from this side, I can see the housing is a tweek shorter than the barrel, as it should be. And, I can see that the ejector rod button, though it will cam up and out from the barrel in use, will still need a releaf cut to over ride the cylinder pin so said pin can be easily removed w/o tools for disassembly/cleaning, etc.