I bought a spare 22lr cylinder with the thought of rechambering it to 22WMR
before doing anything I wanted to check, the timing of the new cylinder as luck would have it doesn't. It will cycle, and the bolt seems to be dropping in the slots, but the hammer will not come back to full cocking in single action nor will the hammer come back and fall in double actiion. Keep in mind I do not want to alter the lockwork of the gun as it is a perfectly functioning K22. Can the cylinder be made to work with this gun I am guessing it is a timing issue the ratchets look ok on the new cylinder a little wear, but no worse than the one that is in the gun now. Thanks in advance for any advice or help.

__________________
Randy

Randy,

You don't indicate in your post whether the spare cylinder/extractor you are trying to install is new or used.

If the cylinder/extractor combination is new, all of the individual ratchets will have to be fit to your particular gun (hand). In the case of an uncut/new extractor, the hand will not be able to complete it's necessary upward travel and pass the ratchet sucessfully without fitting. The cylinder may in fact carry up and lock in place, but at that point, if the ratchet is too large (uncut/unfit) and the hand simply has no where to go. Because of this, the hammer/trigger travel will be impeded.

A used cylinder may also suffer from the same problem. Hand widths can vary quite a bit, so fitting is almost always required. Very few cylinders simply "drop in", but must be fit in terms of the extractor/hand interface. This is particularly true when dealing with older cylinders with pinned extractors. The new design extractors can sometimes be swapped between cylinders and function properly, but this is usually not the case with the older models.

There are other very important considerations when fitting a new cylinder also.....like the integrity of the front and rear gauges (headspace and b/c gap) and proper barrel cylinder alignment.

__________________
Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

I did forget to mention it is a used cylinder. I do believe the cylinder is of the same vintage. When I install the "new" cylinder for there is no play front to rear, whereas the original cylinder has just a bit. I think you hit the nail on the head the hand can not make its full cycle. Is this something a good local gunsmith can handle. I have no problems tearing a Smith all the way down to the bare frame, and replace parts, but I know my limits.

__________________
Randy

A good revolver smith should be able to make it fit. I fitted a new never fit cylinder in an N frame once. First had to set the rear gauge or headspace, then file the ratchet. I used a small fine file that was safed on all but one side (safed + teeth ground off). nI would file a couple strokes on each tooth, being careful to keep the correct profile. Install the cylinder and try it. Do some more file strokes and try again. Finally a couple chambers came into time at the very end of a trigger stroke. Those teeth I quit working. Kept working those that did not until they also worked. Just befor a tooth "times" the cylinder will turn into place, but the trigger/hammer will lock up as the hand is trapped. Cylinder had locked up and hand can't quite go past ratchet. Very close at this point.

It was kind of nerve wracking and a lot of work. Functions fine though.

A trained, competant gunsmith should have the necessary tools and expertise to fit the "new" extractor/cylinder combination properly, and check the gun over in terms of the other concerns encountered when installing a new/replacement cylinder in a revolver.
Hope you can find someone in your area.

__________________
Ret. LE, FA Instr, S&W Armorer

Thank you both this explains it perfectly. Now if I can find a good gunsmith here in the middle Tennessee area.

__________________
Randy

No one around here seemed interested in doing it, so with a little time I did it myself. It times and shoots the "new" cylinder as well as the original one.

__________________
Randy

Well there you go! I’ve only had the cylinder changed on two K-frames (during 32 cal conversion builds) but whatever other problems the respective gunsmiths may have had, apparently fit and timing were not among them.

I’ve got just one more such project in mind, adding a Model 648 cylinder to Project 616 and chambering it to 32-20. I think that should be a pretty straightforward project with potentially great usefulness.

Froggie

An update found a 22WMR reamer on ebay for less than the rental charge. I carefully reamed each chamber to the proper depth. The rounds would fire but extraction was tough to say the least wound up polishing each chamber until they were mirror like solved the sticky extraction issue. I will have to wait for dryer weather to do a accuracy test thanks to all.

__________________
Randy

merl67 - Good news sir! If you don't mind me asking, how did you polish the chambers? Semi-related, I have a spare 10-5 nickel cylinder and yoke, and I've been toying with it off and on for a couple of months. I only have $70 into it so it's not a big deal if I can't fit it to any of my Model 10's ...

I have sandpaper rolls 1in wide. I made up a set of what I call flap sanders from drill rod material (broken drill bits saved in a drawer) a slot is cut in the end one inch deep a piece of the sandpaper roll is used to wrap the rod until it will just fit the chamber then just use a drill I started with 180 grit wound up with 220 then polished with paste used to polish steel. Hope this makes sense...

__________________
Randy