340PD Polished Titanium Cylinder

[jimandsue60]

I screwed up and tried to clean the burn rings off the face of the titanium cylinder on my near new 340PD. Yes I had read all the warnings but could not stand seeing the burn rings. All my other revolvers are stainless and immaculate. I did remove the protective coating. I contacted S&W telling them what I did and asked if I should replace the cylinder immediately or keep an eye on it for erosion. They suggested I just keep an eye and watch for erosion. I am fine with that, they also told me it would be @ 150 dollars for a replacement stainless cylinder installed if I wanted to go that way. I am using mostly .357 for practice and above the minimum 120 grain.

Seeing as I am probably looking at buying a new cylinder I decided to polish the rest of the cylinder to see how it looked. I still have a bit of polishing to get some small scratches out of it and am liking the contrast of the shiny cylinder and black frame.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

Jim

This is how it looked from the factory (photo borrowed from Buds).

 

[Triggernosis]

I think that it looks just perfect!

 

[icemn]

I like it!

 

[M29since14]

Jim, I would say you might as well ship that thing off and get it over with. But if you do shoot it, I would be interested to learn how many rounds you were able to fire before the cylinder was no longer fit to use. Keep us posted if you go that route.

 

[Smith doctor]

I would buy a new cylinder and install it yourself. You will spend a fortune on shipping!

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Yet another chapter in that thrilling saga titled "If it ain't broke, fix it till it is."

 

[jimandsue60]

Jim, I would say you might as well ship that thing off and get it over with. But if you do shoot it, I would be interested to learn how many rounds you were able to fire before the cylinder was no longer fit to use. Keep us posted if you go that route.

I have already shot @ 25 rounds of .357 reloads (mine and mild, 158 grain) thru it with only the face of the cylinder polished. Cleaning was easy with no erosion evident. It has not been shot with the complete cylinder polished. I can not not see what difference that would make.

I am a bit baffled with why the titanium cylinder will erode if one is using the higher weight bullets? From what I have seen and read, all the erosion issues came from using 120 grain bullets or less.

We are leaving on a road trip for 4 months and I can not ship it back to S&W because it has to be shipped back to the same shipping address it came from. I will shoot it until it I see erosion issues. It is my every day carry, so I look at it a lot.

As a side note I also have a 640-3 in stainless with a cylinder that has the exact same length (diameter was a bit bigger but it still locked nicely) as the titanium cylinder on the 340. I did swap cylinders and the 640 cylinder did fit on the 340. I am not knowledgeable enough to know if that would work and would take it to a gunsmith to verify fit. It sure did look like a good fit and looked good also.

Jim

 

[jimandsue60]

I would buy a new cylinder and install it yourself. You will spend a fortune on shipping!

Who would I buy a new cylinder from? Will S&W sell me one to install myself?

Jim

 

[jimandsue60]

Yet another chapter in that thrilling saga titled "If it ain't broke, fix it till it is."

There is a lot of truth to that!

 

[Smith doctor]

Who would I buy a new cylinder from? Will S&W sell me one to install myself?

Jim

Yes they will. There are no restrictions on that cylinder.

 

[jimandsue60]

Yes they will. There are no restrictions on that cylinder.

Thanks for that info.

JIM

 

[Packard]

Titanium reacts readily with oxygen to form titanium oxide. I'm not sure what it looks like, but it is "self-inhibiting". That is, once the corrosion covers the surface there is no further corroding. So if you don't keep polishing off the surface it should last as long as the coated version. But perhaps it will be very ugly--I don't know.

 

[Neumann]

The original cylinder is deeply anodized to form a thick protective layer. Although titanium oxides naturally, the layer is too thin to provide protection against the hot gas of combustion. Eventually even the factory coating will be eroded. When that happens, erosion progresses rapidly, and can sometimes be seen to throw sparks.

It takes a lot of scrubbing to remove burn marks from stainless too. If you remove the protective layer of oxidation left on stainless by chemical passivation, you may increase the tendency to form burn marks, or lead to rust.

Unless you want it to look purdy for sale or display, leave the burn marks and concentrate on removing lead and carbon deposits, which can impede operation.

 

[Packard]

The original cylinder is deeply anodized to form a thick protective layer...

Are you sure that this is an anodized finish. I am under the impression that only aluminum can be anodized.

I was under the impression that the cylinder was a PVD finish. (Physical Vapor Deposition).

 

[gdogs]

Polishing the cylinder face is one thing and will probably result in erosion over time. But I can't see any reason why polishing the exterior would hurt it. My wedding band is titanium, I've been wearing it for 7+ years and it is nearly as shiny as it was the day I put it on. I always figured the exterior matte finish was done for looks, not functionality. Personally, I like the way your polished cylinder looks.

 

[jimandsue60]

While I was polishing the cylinder, it did not appear to be anodized. It almost looked like a mechanical etching. Very uniform light abrasions.

Jim

 

[Triggernosis]

I've always wondered why the U.S. Air Force can use titanium on many of their aircraft if it's so "fragile" and susceptible to burning. I actually thought the heat shields just aft of the jet nozzles on the F-4 Phantom were made of titanium.... Maybe I was wrong.

 

[JumpinJack]

I had my Ti cylinder coated with Diamond Kote. I don't worry about cleaning it any more as the power wipes off with an oiled rag.

 

[murphydog]

I am a bit baffled with why the titanium cylinder will erode if one is using the higher weight bullets? From what I have seen and read, all the erosion issues came from using 120 grain bullets or less.

Jim

I think this was meant to keep bullets from pulling loose with recoil due to the light gun weight, not a material strength or finish issue.

 

[jimandsue60]

I think this was meant to keep bullets from pulling loose with recoil due to the light gun weight, not a material strength or finish issue.

I thought that I had also read the the lighter bullets are also shorter allowing more flame cutting which caused erosion vs a longer bullet keeping the flame cutting to a minimum.