625-6 In for spa treatment

[BMCM]

Ahoy there Gents,

I'm typically found over in the Semi-Auto forum but I have some revolver work on the bench of late and this particular one has an interesting back story.

So, this gun was stolen some 7+ years ago and recently recovered a couple states away on an unrelated LE action. The owner, who's a member here, got it back early last month after clearing a few legal hurdles.

And now it's here on the healing bench for a checkup.

Gentlemen, Attend...

Kinda gives one pause when a gun shows up in a box labeled thus,

Pretty crusty overall, grips are Craig Spegel's boots and just soaked with crud and oily goop. Mainspring screw backed waaay out

Under the hood, dirty & crusty but, at first glance, everything seems sound mechanically.

A bit banged up on the backstrap,

Some dings here right forward of the frame lug,

Front sight blade beat up,

Detail stripped the gun and got this stuff in a dish sprayed down with some Kroil. I'll attend to these bits later on.

Got the frame/barrel all degreased and cleaned up so I figure I'll start with the front sight. Were gonna bump that damaged blade off of there and replace it with a SDM Gold Bead front.

Have a look at the old take off here... Note the tiny bevel on the bottom of the tenon. That's to help get it started into the mortise on the barrel.

New sights aren't beveled like that nor do they have a hole drilled.

So, what I've done is file a tiny bevel on the tenon of the new blade then mashed it into the mortise. Now the whole thing in fixtured on the mill table since we have to drill the hole in the tenon through the existing holes in the mortise.

Now to make sure we get a perfectly round hole and don't enlarge the existing holes any we're going to poke that hole undersize then finish it with a reamer.

The existing holes in the mortise are #54 or .055" in diameter so what we do here is take a #54 drill bit upside down in the chuck and use the shank to align the hole dead under the spindle then lock the table down.

Now that everything is lined up we take a #55 drill bit which is .052" diameter and drill into the tenon about .070" or a little past halfway through.

Flip the thing over, repeat the alignment and finish drilling the undersize hole from the other side.

Now to finish that hole to correct size we use this #54 chucking reamer.

A little splash of cutting oil with the tool turning about 200rpm and we have a perfectly round hole exactly to size.

All that was the easy part. Now we're back at the bench. Hole is clean & de-greased. Using a #2 cup tip punch & hammer, have to get that tiny pin in there without having it shoot across the room nor leaving any peckertracks on the gun.

Got the pin started without launching it anywhere, so far so good

And... it's in. Whew

So far so good...

The slider on the backsight was a bit mashed so that's getting replaced too. We're going with a .160 V-notch slider which ought to be here tomorrow.

I apologize for the wonky alignment on some of the pics. I tried using my phone for these shots and for some reason my workstation and photobucket both see the orientation differently. Gonna have to charge up the camera.

More to follow...

Cheers
Bill

 

[steelslaver]

Like the trrick of using the upside down drill for an alignment tool.

 

[NMPinNYC]

I just LOVE a pictorial essay like this. Thank you!

 

[75Vette]

Great thread. I'll be looking forward to the following "spa" treatment.

 

[notsofast]

Good stuff, great pictures, keep 'em coming.

 

[Billythepoet]

I'm interested in seeing how this turns out.

 

[BMCM]

Fixin' up the backsight

Evening gents,

Now I'll see to changing out the damaged slider on the backsight.
Got the new slider and a sack full of spare bits so lets have at it.

Yeah that slider has seen better days, a little dinged up here and there plus slightly smushed over on the right side. In any even this one would be too short to pair with the gold bead front.

So, to get that thingy outa there we gotta crank the slider all the way over to the right by turning the windage screw clockwise until it bottoms out.

Then give it a few extra turns 'till it snaps clean off
Need to be quite careful when extracting the screw head from the sight body... There's a tiny spring & plunger in that screw that has a propensity for launching into orbit. I took one of these apart a couple weeks ago where the plunger got away from me...Hit me in the face on the way to Mars never to be seen again. I did however find the spring four days later tangled in my beard

Anyway, got the screw head out then pushed the slider to the left and unscrewed the stub from the slider. The slider comes off to the right.

Despite soaking in Kroil for a week, the plunger & spring remained stuck solidly in the old screw.

Not to worry, I have spares

There are a couple special tools you need for this too... A spanner bit to tighten the nut and a special staking punch to stake the nut securely once tightened. Brownells has both of these however, these tools need to be sharpened a bit in order to fit the slots in the nut. A small mounted stone such as used the sharpen gunsmithing screwdrivers does the job nicely. Oh and regarding the spanner bit, don't bother loading it into a handle. That tiny nut does not need much torque. Turning the bit between thumb & forefinger is quite sufficient for tightening the nut.

I imagine all the bad reviews that spanner bit gets are from folks loading it into a handle and cranking on like they were tightening lug nuts on a truck


Here's where we risk sending a new plunger into orbit. Got the new slider threaded onto the replacement windage screw with a new plunger & spring. The trick is to compress the plunger and slide everything to the left without letting the plunger get loose.

And... it's in Whew!

Now to the little spanner nut.

Tightened up snug by hand with only the bit then backed off slightly. Perhaps a touch under 1/8th turn but no more than that. Then set the thing resting on the head of the windage screw and using the staking punch, give it a few whacks until the screw is spread into the spanner slots on the nut. Job done

It's quite oily since I gave it a good hosing with some Lubriplate FMO. This should work quite well with the gold bead, ought to be pretty fast for the eye to pickup too. Us old guys like clean simple fast sights

That's all for now.

Cheers
Bill

 

[Dale53]

Bill;
Absolutely EXCELLENT photo/tutorial! Thanks for sharing that with us.

If this particular 625-6 is half the revolver that mine is (now residing with my youngest son) you will be tickled pink! These are seriously good revolvers and a dandy both On The Range and in the Field!

Dale53

 

[steelslaver]

Once again nice tutorial.
I hate those little spring and plunger setups. The one on the elevation nut can be fun.

But, the worst one is the one that works a Charter Arms cylinder latch. Getting thatt all together with the spring and plunger is "entertaining"'

 

[Doug M.]

I had Bill do the RB operation on my 4" M66 after seeing that he had opened up shop. I'd followed a couple of his strings in the semi-auto sub-forum and been impressed by his work and the manner in which he wrote it up. (I'm not even close to qualified to assess a machinist's work, but the photos were very clear and as a professional word nerd, I was confident from his writing that he was the real deal.) When he did that work, I think I was proven correct. I told him he was not charging near enough, and I meant that.

This revolver was stolen in a burglary that was one of a series in the neighborhood on a Sunday morning; we were out of town. Had we been home, Bozo (avatar) would have discouraged them. That was in mid-August 2011. A computer, my wife's bike, a the TV, this and two long guns were taken. The computer, bike and eventually this revolver were recovered here and there.

The revolver was recovered from a career criminal in San Mateo County in the fall of 2015. The case process took most of three years, in large part due to the offender's exposure. Dealing with the Californicated process of getting it back was most of three months. A pox on California. The process here was not all that glorious, either. (I'm not sure of the basis for what was done - I do LE legal as one of my duties and had never seen the basis for what the local agency, not my client, had to do.)

I'd had a feeling it would need to be examined by someone with a clue, which sure as heck was not me. I had time to consider the options, and Bill opening his shop gave me a good idea. I did not even open the box when I got it back, but shipped it off to him. Now you see why I choose him. This was easily the best built revolver I had ever seen, and I want it back that way. I should have sent him a couple of moonclips to make test firing easier.

 

[BMCM]

Evening Gents,

Ok so now that were all done messing with the sights it about time I got after the rest yes?

Took care of all the damage/scratches here on the backstrap with a bit of file work and some abrasive tape.

Bunch of divots here caused by burs on the cylinders stop notches. There's only about 0.010" clearance between the cylinder & frame here when it's open so I surmise the burrs had to be near 0.025 tall or so to cause this damage. Knocked down the high spots with a XF ceramic stone. Looks ugly now but that will all be cleaned up with a bit of abrasive blasting.

I wanted to gauge the yoke before proceeding on to the cylinder so we insert this tool into the yoke barrel.

Then holding the yoke snug in the closed position, slide the tool rearward towards the recoils shield. The precision "nub" on the end of the tool slips into the bolt hole freely, so, we're good. If the tool did not align with the hole then I would have to straighten the yoke by careful bending. Fortunately this one gauges good.

On to the cylinder. It's a little rough.

Spots bashed flat at the front of the flutes in several spots.

Peening & displaced steel at the stop notches. You can see where a bur was raise high enough that is was folded over and mashed flat when the cylinder was flipped open & struck the side of the frame. however the more problematic bur is the one raised on the lead in wherein when the cylinder stop hits that bur it can jump clean over the notch and skippin that notch entirely.

In order the correct that I'll start with putting some of that metal back. I have here a little ball pien hammer, a couple hardened dowel pins, and a 10% cobalt tool bit. I'll use the pins on the lead in and the toolbit on the opposite bur to gently bump the steel back into place.

All done with this notch. Now seeing it up close I note some divots or chatter marks just past the notch in the direction of rotation. I wonder if that was caused by the cylinder stop landing there after skipping that notch.

Finished peening the other five notches then I cut a set of soft jaws for this little scroll chuck to hold the cylinder on the lathe.

A brief spin with some 400 grit paper and it looks much better.

I have a couple more things to tend to then I'll fire up the compressor for a touch of bead blasting.

In explaining the stop notch peening, my assessment is this gun suffered lot of rapid fire DA flogging. Could have been dryfire or live fire or both, doesn't really matter. Either way it's evident to me this cylinder spent a lot of time getting flung around at a rapid pace

More to follow.

Cheers
Bill

 

[growr]

Absolutely stunning in ALL regards AND you are willing to share it with us!!

Randy

 

[RonPagan]

I find these pictures very soothing. it's like seeing a neglected Chevelle or firebird and bringing it back to its former glory because you hate seeing it in that state.

 

[jbtrucker]

Thanks for sharing , glad the firearm was taken away from a moron and returned to a responsible person.

 

[ontargetagain]

Gosh it would be great someday to shadow someone like you doing this work and learn more. I have a great appreciation for taking something that has been neglected and restoring it properly.
Thank you Bill, I find threads like this most rewarding for a guy that likes to learn.............I'm just a sponge LOL

Karl

 

[robvious]

amazing photography... much appreciated

 

[stansdds]

This is a well documented rescue of a damaged revolver. I'm enjoying the information and the pics.

 

[oldbrownhat]

Wonderful photo essay, and informative for us amateur 'smiths. I like the SDM bead + v-notch rear combination. Might consider that for my 625-8.

I hope there's a special place in Hell for whoever put that gun in such terrible shape.

 

[dwcopple]

just curious, would it have shot fine the way it was before you started doing all of this to it?

 

[Doug M.]

I doubt I am a good enough shot to know, but I was concerned about safety and the like, so I did not want to take the chance. This was even more true after I learned they had to use the superglue/iodine (I think it is) method of trying to raise fingerprints.

I think a reasonable reader can tell why I felt confident to send it to Bill.