Thanks Olskool, glad you like it.



Thanks for the suggestion Collects, but after the trouble Jackthetoad (member here) went to, to send his old shot out rifling snubby barrel to me, for me to heat up the silver solder to get the front sight off it, after all the trouble I went to getting that front sight welded onto my barrel, with the attendant filing, sanding and buffing of the weld joint, there is no way I would remove it to put a thin, half dime, that is not anywhere near the thickness nor strength of the original front sight in its place. I knew from the beginning I could have done that Collects, but that was never an option I wanted to exercise. To me, nothing looks better than the original front sight. After much work, that's what I have now and am very happy with it.



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Bill,

30 or 40 years from now, some collectors will look at that gun and try to decide if the barrel is the original length from the factory. I can here the discussion:

"Is the front sight soldered on?" "No, it looks like it was forged with the barrel." "The s/n matches too, it must be an original." "Yeah, it's refinshed but still a rare model."

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Jim
S&WCA #819

Thanks Collects, glad you like it. The proof of my fix and entire effort spent on the project is in the shooting though. I'll post a range report as soon as I get the chance to shoot it.


Lol, good point. But it wouldn't work because where the writing on the top of the barrel was cut off when the barrel was cut, would be a dead giveaway that the barrel was cut and not made that length originally. Because if the barrel were made that short originally, the writing would be placed in proportion to the length of the barrel instead of being interrupted on the top of the barrel like it is now. Thus since the interrupted and cut off writing would prove the barrel wasn't factory made in that length, then neither could the front sight have been forged with the barrel.





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Been following this thread and I'm also looking forward to the range report. Good job bringing that gun back to life.

Bill, one thing is for sure, no one can accuse you of not being brutally honest with your thread.

Having been around a milling machine a time or two, I can only imagine what you had to say - and I have been having a good chuckle at your expense, but only on the old theory that, "But for the grace of God, there go I."

This has been enjoyable. Keep us posted as the finish work and range testing proceed.

Thanks Snubbyfan, glad you like it. I'll post a range report as soon as I get the chance to shoot it.


Well M29, I figure it is just as important to post about the mess ups and accidents as much as it is the successes. Makes for a more interesting story too when people read the reality of how things can really go and how set backs and accidents and the fixing of them are sometimes as much a part of a project as the rest of the build/restoration and how much effort is sometimes necessary to do the fixes necessary to get to the finished product. Also it might help in advising someone else to be extra careful if they are attempting to do the same thing. If you think that mill vice is tight enough and the piece positioned in it correctly and securely enough, check it again! Lol.

Here are a couple pics of my new 45 HE M1917 Snubbie, Just picked it up from a fellow forum member. production date 1918.

Cute little thang there, JJ!

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Registration? NEVER!

I too have the same problem. From neglect, I have rusted my revolver from storing it in a dark closet and had been forgotten for years of not inspecting it. To top it off, there was wet area where the revolver was being stored, and so got rusted out on the cylinder.

First of all, what do I clean it with to get rid of the rust. Second, the cylinder won't open when I try to unlock the cylinder.

I will give more info and a pic to show you what this revolver looks like.

Bye for now.

Soak it for a day or two in Kroil oil or transmission fluid, or break fluid or any kind of penetrating oil to help loosen the rust, (Kroil oil is best). Then try to push the cylinder release button. If the button goes forward, then GENTLY tap the cylinder to the left with a rubber hammer, but don't unduly force it. If the cylinder release button does NOT go forward, then don't tap the cylinder with the rubber hammer at all. In that case, you need to disassemble the sideplate from the revolver and find out what is holding up the cylinder release button from moving.

Also your ejector rod could be rusted at several points stopping the cylinder release button from pushing the inner ejector rod forward so the cylinder can release. Also your crane could be rusted where it pivots to swing out the cylinder.

Yes more info and a pic would help. If the rust isn't super deep, you might be able to file out any deep pits with a jeweler's file, then sand them, then buff them to a high polish, then reblue it or just keep it highly polished "in the white" like my S&W model 1917 snubby is.

Depending on how bad it is, and whether or not you want to bother putting the labor into it that it will take to bring it back to life, I might be interested in buying it. Got to see it first and of course you might want to fix it yourself and keep it.

It's not a S&W, but is an Uberti 1858 Remington with a conversion cylinder that I cleaned up, where someone had removed the blue finish with a chemical to try and make it look "antique", but all they did was mess up its looks, leave a slight chemical etching into the metal all over the revolver (Naval jelly?, not sure, but definitely something with acid) plus they let it rust up. I bought it off gunbroker for a pretty good deal considering it had a fluted conversion cylinder on it, and had to file out bad rust pits, then sand them, then buff the whole revolver out to a mirror polish. Still not done with buffing it, the loading lever and sides of the frame needs a little more buffing to get the high polish I want, but it is getting there and you can see the vast improvement in the before and after pictures.

Before pics.



At the top of this pic, you can see how deeply pitted the rust was in that section. That took a lot of very careful jeweler's file filing, to get to the bottom of all the small rust pits and still not mess up the contour of that area. I was lucky it didn't show after I finished it. Took a lot of sanding too after filing to get all the file marks out, plus a lot of buffing with rouge to remove the sanding marks. Time and patience is what it takes and lots of it. It is a project that extends over days, not a quickie weekender.


See how some chemical used to remove the bluing also etched into the metal slightly somewhat? She was a mess. Took a LOT of jeweler's file filing, then sanding, then buffing to bring her back.
I had to be very careful when filing the chemical etching out of the barrel flats to try not to round off the edges of the flats. That takes a steady hand when filing but isn't that hard, but that's not an easy thing to avoid when buffing on a buffing wheel, and they got rounded just a leeeetle bit, but not bad and you might not notice it, I barely can. That translates to a lot of buffing wheel vibration into your hands holding the part carefully while you CAREFULLY buff it trying to not round off the sharp flats on the barrel. Came out acceptable I think considering how much work it took to remove the chemical etching that was etched into the metal all over the whole revolver and conversion cylinder.


After I worked on it.

After jeweler's file filing, sanding and one initial buffing.








After a few more times buffing. (That translates to a LOT of time on the buffing wheel). Still not totally where I want it shine wise, since the loading lever and frame sides need a little more buffing, but it is getting there and I put it back together to take some "After" pics. But I will disassemble it again and finish buffing to my satisfaction (where it is like a mirror). Probably will leave it "in the white" like my snubby S&W model 1917.

Not too shabby now, but still not quite as mirror like that it will be when I am completely done with a few more times buffing it. Might even stick a set of fake ivory or fake mother of pearl grips on it just to set it off. She's a .44 as a muzzleloader percussion (.454 ball) but takes .45 Colt cowboy action cartridge loads (or my low power cartridge reloads I do) in the conversion cylinder.




That is what time, patience and persistence can do for a messed up revolver. But you have to have jeweler's files, wet/dry automotive sand paper of differing grits, and a buffing wheel and buffing rouge of different grits to get that done. Plus you have to have experience with filing, sanding and buffing. But it is possible to do and a very satisfactory feeling when you bring one back from a mess.






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Bill, that kind of patience is mind-boggling to us mere humans! True craftsmanship, awesome to behold.

__________________
Registration? NEVER!

Thanks Shep, glad you liked it. But anyone can do it that has the inclination to, as long as they get a good set of jeweler's files, different grits of automotive wet/dry sandpaper and have a buffing wheel and use different grits of buffing rouge. It ain't rocket science. But it does take a lot of time and patience. A little experience helps, but that can quickly be learned and you get experienced doing one or two guns and then you never quit learning. I know I don't. Back in 1976 I was a sheet metal mechanic at Piper aircraft building and repairing wings for their Piper Navajo's and I got real used to working with aluminum and steel. So I had that experience advantage, plus been working on guns for probably 40 years now. One thing I had to get over at first when I first started working on guns a long time ago, was fear of jumping in and messing up the gun. But if it is a mess already, there's not much you can do to hurt it unless you totally ruin it. You just have to trust in yourself and have confidence in yourself that you can fix it, and then not give up until you do.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention this part. I realized I needed to sand evenly all the way around the cylinder to get that chemical etching out of the metal on it, and wanted to do it the fastest and most efficient and evenly way. So I found a bolt close to the cylinder's arbor hole, and two steel washers and two rubber washers (so no metal was directly contacting the cylinder). I tightened up the nuts so the bolt, steel washers and rubber washers firmly held the cylinder and chucked it into my mill like this.....



My mill head will rotate away from my mill vice like this.....
(Sorry, these two below pics are a little blurry).





Then I wrapped some wet/dry sandpaper around a 1x2 piece of wood, wet the sandpaper, and held that firmly against the side of the cylinder as it rotated.

What would have taken me hours to sand by hand I accomplished in just a short while with wet 220 grit sandpaper. I was successful in getting every last speck of chemical etching off of the cylinder. Plus the sanding was perfectly even doing it this way. I hand sanded the flutes some and then used a dremel with a very small buffing wheel and coarse rouge to get into the flutes since I couldn't sand the flutes using the method of sanding on my mill.

Then I used some 400 grit and then 600 grit wet sandpaper using the same method to get an even smoother finish on the cylinder to get it ready for buffing with rouge.

Next I gave it a medium grit red rouge buffing followed by a fine white grit rouge polishing on my buffing wheel. It is now starting to get that perfect mirror finish on it, but not completely yet. No etching nor sanding marks are visible now, but it isn't quite the perfect mirror finish I want yet. Just a leeeetle tiny bit hazy. So it will take a time or two more of buffing to get it perfect, but it is definitely getting there.

I don't view it as work, it's my hobby that I enjoy doing. But there is NO WAY anyone could pay me enough to do that for other people for a living. I can't count how many hours that I put into projects like this, that my time and labor would exceed the value of a customer's gun. Plus my hands get sore from filing, sanding, and holding parts while buffing them. That's why you have to do these things yourself, because it would be too expensive to pay someone else to do it.

But occasionally I do work on relatives and close friends (shootin buddies) guns, and don't charge them for it. I just don't advertise that I do it and try not to make a habit of even doing that. I don't have enough time to finish all my own gun projects as it is.




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