Partial lug on 617

Alx · #1 07-13-2010, 01:44 PM

I have a 6" and a 4" 617, and although I don't mind the full lug on the 6" barrel, 'always wanted to grind off the lug on the 4", at least as much as could be done without risking a mess of a job.

The grips are Hogue, and the standard hammer I replaced with a .500" full target hammer from Smith's parts service.

At the local gun show Sunday, I saw a Smith revolver that I would swear was a custom, home-smith modified job, had its full lug ground down, but very nice job. I asked the dealer and he said it was a NEW gun, from the custom dept. of Smith, some odd caliber I was not familiar with, but the frame a regular L, and with the full lug that had been taken down somewhat.

No gunsmith I have talked to would agree to grind off the lug from my own 617, being afraid of messing up the job, but after seeing how Smith's own factory went about doing that, it gave me inspiration to do it myself as well. Their method was not as radical or difficult as I had planned, trying to make the gun look like a regular 17 straight barrel but with a shrouded ejector. That would have required quite a bit of milling, and precisely following the barrel profile, etc. But the Smith&Wesson method for partially grinding down a full lug to lessen its profile proved much more feasible, and I did it with only a belt sander and medium grit belt, and some hand sanding with finer sandpaper grades going up to 600 and finer. I finished with some Flitz polish, but that was too shiny, and needed steel wool to dull it just a bit, getting it very close to the original stock stainless steel finish.

( The belt sander was a small Skill brand one, but has a plastic housing with its back end having a perfect place to rest the gun's crane housing, with the trigger guard as a stop, so the belt sanding could be done very consistently and smoothly, at a suitable angle, like sharpening a chisel with a jig, with minimal risk of the belt grabbing or me slipping and accidentaly hitting any other surfaces of the gun's frame.

Probably 'have reduced the re-sale value of the gun to most people, but it has become much more valuable to me for keeping, being unique, and being more of what I wanted in a stainless steel K/L frame .22 hi-cap 4" revolver, and maybe to some other Smith 'fans' as well. Although only marginally lighter ( not really noticable to me ) I think it looks better, and it does holster a bit easier too.

bflobill69 · #2 07-13-2010, 02:34 PM

Man don't do a thing to it... it BEAUTIFUL =O Shoot it... As often as permitted...

Bflobill69

one eye joe · #3 07-13-2010, 03:20 PM

You did a helluva job ! ! That's unique and pleasing to the eye. Enjoy....

Rule3 · #4 07-13-2010, 05:18 PM

That looks really good. Really

A braver man than I.
People say I am crazy for polishing my stainless guns with wet dry paper from 220, 320, 400 600,800 grit, Then Mothers Mag Polish, but never tried a belt sander.

Alx · #5 07-13-2010, 07:26 PM

? braver ?, thanks, but not as much as you might think. The belt sander has a flat top, and I put it on the floor upside down, with the belt facing upward, and the gun set against the flat belt. I would not have tried it "freehand" with the gun only hand controlled, but since the shape of the sander allowed me to set the barrel pointing directly into the run of the belt, head-on as it were, and with the trigger guard/crane register-braced against the housing of the sander for stability, it went alright, without the wandering and random variations I wanted to avoid. That took a total of perhaps half an hour sanding, to get it down to there, pretty slow going, but since the barrel would heat up, when it got uncomfortable to hold, I would let it rest and cool down, probably four or five times. For the contour, near the end I just rolled it side to side, while resting on the crane housing and trigger guard, and the sander left an extremely even surface, although it showed the direction of sanding.
The hand sanding etc. took care of the rest.
Sort of odd, but I never saw any of the steel dust from sanding, and could hardly feel any of it coming off the sander either.
I better check the insides of the sander, it may have a bunch of steel dust embedded in the usual sawdust cakes.

There is also some dremel work on the top of the trigger, you can see where I rounded the sharp ledge there and radiused the edges. I've done quite a bit of that sort of shaping on stainless steel, having "melted" the corners and edges of my carry 940, and several other guns.