Oh yeah. New cylinder. New endshake. Down to about 1 thou endshake as near as I can measure. New Cyl is bunches better fit than the old and the throats are about .452" with a jacketed berries being a snug fit. That same bullet engraves in the rifling before reaching full diameter portion of the bullet so....overall combo should be nice for a shooter.
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The Undecided Project
- Thread starter Sharps40
- Start date
A quick chop to 5.25".
A broad side after cleaning up the muzzle a bit.
At this point the drilled 45-70 barrel band is a snug drive on fit cold. Should fit up just fine later. I think I'll use about 1/2" of the band with a ring maybe 1/8 to 1/4 wide. That'll let me play with a barrel right about 5" long for a hunter.
I spose I could glue it on for now since it has a built in try sight. But run that screw down too far and it'll be a bullet splitter. Looks a bit goofy right now. Sorta like a leveraction with a pikaninny rail or a silencer or both. But, it'll clean up....I hope.
Dr. Pavlov, you gots all us dogs salivatin' again! Gonna be another beaut!
Beatiful work sir. Never thought of shaping metal with it clamped to a drillpress using a file. My redneck lathe is chucking it up in drill amd using a grinder. Haha.
Will you use same face cutter with a different pilot to recrown the barrel?
Will you use same face cutter with a different pilot to recrown the barrel?
Yep. once the final length is determined (Tween 3.5" and 5.25") I'll use a piloted hand cutter to square it. Then we'll use a circumference beveler. Finally a piloted 11 degree crown cutter.
I've worn out a couple drill presses now for regular drilling, drum sanding, lathe turning and using a crossslide vise, as a Bubba Mill!
Its amazing what can be done well, at home, with determination, patience and a minimum of tooling. Hard part is following thru to completion.
One day I'm going to finish a 22 rifle that I started from scratch 25 years ago but it might wind up as a 45 caliber breechloading muzzleloader before all is said and done. The follow thru is a bit weak and the vision has been waffeling on this project!
I've worn out a couple drill presses now for regular drilling, drum sanding, lathe turning and using a crossslide vise, as a Bubba Mill!
Its amazing what can be done well, at home, with determination, patience and a minimum of tooling. Hard part is following thru to completion.
One day I'm going to finish a 22 rifle that I started from scratch 25 years ago but it might wind up as a 45 caliber breechloading muzzleloader before all is said and done. The follow thru is a bit weak and the vision has been waffeling on this project!
A bit of hunting this morning. Saw a squirrile....no deer.
Finishing the fitting of the grips.
But first. To fix the Blackhawk main flaw.....can't remove the cylinder pin w/o removing the ERH. So, shortened the new stainless pin, added a wide groove for better grip and gave it a 220 polish. All work done on the drill press with saw and files and sandpaper.
On the left grip, drilled and countersunk for the stainless screw....I know.....I ain't located slotted tip panhead 8x32 in SS yet. But I will. And, added a skin of glass bedding up top at the frame to seal the end grain from oil and take up the last of any gap against future movement. Well, actually its some kind of midwayusa bedding that I won't use for anything but noncritical jobs. But it works for them just fine.
An 8x32 SS nut is spun on the drill press to .278" diameter and tapered and driven into the .273" hole I blind drilled in the Right grip.
And the top of the right panel is also skinned into the frame with bedding.
Now, up to the house to wipe off all that excess bedding with a toothpick and let it sit overnight and then get to shaping the grip panels.....finally.
Finishing the fitting of the grips.
But first. To fix the Blackhawk main flaw.....can't remove the cylinder pin w/o removing the ERH. So, shortened the new stainless pin, added a wide groove for better grip and gave it a 220 polish. All work done on the drill press with saw and files and sandpaper.
On the left grip, drilled and countersunk for the stainless screw....I know.....I ain't located slotted tip panhead 8x32 in SS yet. But I will. And, added a skin of glass bedding up top at the frame to seal the end grain from oil and take up the last of any gap against future movement. Well, actually its some kind of midwayusa bedding that I won't use for anything but noncritical jobs. But it works for them just fine.
An 8x32 SS nut is spun on the drill press to .278" diameter and tapered and driven into the .273" hole I blind drilled in the Right grip.
And the top of the right panel is also skinned into the frame with bedding.
Now, up to the house to wipe off all that excess bedding with a toothpick and let it sit overnight and then get to shaping the grip panels.....finally.
Grips are shaped and in the first heavy coat of urethane to freeze the grain. I'll further sand the grips to take off any whiskers that may pop but these have already been wet sanded and whiskered three times.
I brought the grips right down to the backstrap for this one. Slightly broke all the inside edges of the wood panels and left the wood just proud of the front strap and the frame. There is a bit of a swayback built into the Colt backstrap about midway up from the heel. I wanted to carry it into the grip panels, so fitted them much closer on the backstrap this time. Ya can just see it in pics 1 and 2, between the heel and the grip screw.
The front strap is much more rounded/domed than the backstrap so I brought the panels down close to the top of the dome and then broke the inside edges slightly so its not sharp/splintery on the fingers. Got a bit more fitting to do up front and a touch of bedding ooze out to clean off up at the frame. Probably wind up sanding these grip panels about once or twice more.
I brought the grips right down to the backstrap for this one. Slightly broke all the inside edges of the wood panels and left the wood just proud of the front strap and the frame. There is a bit of a swayback built into the Colt backstrap about midway up from the heel. I wanted to carry it into the grip panels, so fitted them much closer on the backstrap this time. Ya can just see it in pics 1 and 2, between the heel and the grip screw.
The front strap is much more rounded/domed than the backstrap so I brought the panels down close to the top of the dome and then broke the inside edges slightly so its not sharp/splintery on the fingers. Got a bit more fitting to do up front and a touch of bedding ooze out to clean off up at the frame. Probably wind up sanding these grip panels about once or twice more.
This is a hand filling grip. Almost too big for me. I am able to pull the bisley hammer down with the shooting hand thumb but barely. I purposefully didn't make them any smaller or thinner because they seem close to what I recall of Colt grips....hand filling (for me)!
Using the drill shank, the outside diameter of the muzzle band was turned down to about .875" for about 2/3 of its length. Then using the same drill shank and a bit of 240 grinding compound the inside was ground out to a light slip fit over the end of the barrel. I'll be removing the bulbous end of the muzzle band, for now its something to grab onto while working the part and will allow me to fasten it to the drill shank again for final polishing.
I want the final shape to be somewhat like a band with a tail on top. The sight blade will fit in a slot in the tail up top. The band will go around the barrel and almost butt up against the EHR. After it's epoxied or soldered in place (and with the current fit and taper of the barrel, sliding it back should be somewhat of a drive on fit) I'll trim the barrel and band to the final length. That's the plan. The hard part is coming up with the logical sequence of steps for shaping the front sight mount and being able to hang on to it or clamp it down as its being worked into configuration.
So, in the end, the band should be a single diameter. Shorter. And positioned further back on the barrel with only a small portion of it ahead of the EHR.
Still a blunderbuss look but coming along. At this point, the end of the 5.25"ish barrel is right at the transition from large to small diameter. Not as fancy as Ross Seyfreds 45 Colt with the Ruger Number 1 Barrel Band Front Sight but so far, so good. Enough for now. Gotta get cleaned up and take GoodWife out for dinner.
I want the final shape to be somewhat like a band with a tail on top. The sight blade will fit in a slot in the tail up top. The band will go around the barrel and almost butt up against the EHR. After it's epoxied or soldered in place (and with the current fit and taper of the barrel, sliding it back should be somewhat of a drive on fit) I'll trim the barrel and band to the final length. That's the plan. The hard part is coming up with the logical sequence of steps for shaping the front sight mount and being able to hang on to it or clamp it down as its being worked into configuration.
So, in the end, the band should be a single diameter. Shorter. And positioned further back on the barrel with only a small portion of it ahead of the EHR.
Still a blunderbuss look but coming along. At this point, the end of the 5.25"ish barrel is right at the transition from large to small diameter. Not as fancy as Ross Seyfreds 45 Colt with the Ruger Number 1 Barrel Band Front Sight but so far, so good. Enough for now. Gotta get cleaned up and take GoodWife out for dinner.
Don't have any full diameter rod to make up a tool for alignment checking at this point but a quick check with a small diameter aluminum rod with a very sharp square edge indicates all 6 chambers line up well with the bore of the barrel. The rod can be slid from barrel to cylinder at any point around the circumference and it slips neatly into each chamber without a hitch. For now I'm pretty happy. Will have to get the grips done and a try sight in place and take it out shooting. Got 24 rounds of 255g full wadcutters loaded and another 19 rounds with berries round nose hollow base 185 loaded close to stiff to give it a work out.
