Barrel turning question, please help!

[Charles]

I have a 5 screw K22 that shoots waaaay left, and here's why...

The barrel is obviously misaligned.

My question is this...

Should I buy a wrench and fix this myself, or should I send it to someone to do it for me? My worry is overtightening and creating a choke point for the bullets, or torquing the frame. With this degree of misalignment, will the barrel need to be milled a bit, or will it snug up OK?

If I do it, I will buy an appropriate wrench from Brownells and will re-drill the pin hole on the barrel.

 

[500 Magnum Nut]

I'd think you can tighten it further. It should be fine.
The tools are a lot of money, unless you want to make something up so you don't twist the frame.
I think the pin will be a pita, if it was drilled off, it may turn back on you. Perhaps bending the pin slightly, in a vise, would keep the barrel tight at 12:00. Or, if this don't work you might need to fix the barrel.

 

[Bat Guano]

I just got a M66-2 back from S&W which did the same thing. Inasmuch as there are no new replacements available, they turned the barrel about as much as yours is. It now shoots right on for windage, and there was no charge for the work or return shipping.

Even though yours may be "too old" for them to work on, you might give them a call and see what they might do for you. All you can lose is a phone call. I am certainly pleased with the results.

 

[DCWilson]

I'm in almost the same situation as the OP, save that the barrel on my similar-vintage K-22 went slightly past TDC rather than going not quite far enough.

Since I am trying to build a set of basic gunsmithing tools, I thought I would just buy the frame wrench and K-frame action right now, then add the actions of L and N frame as needed.

 

[n4zov]

I would encourage you to send the gun to S&W for repair since they already have the equipment and, most importantly, the experience to do the job without damaging the gun. That is assuming they will still service the a gun as old as yours. Otherwise Cylinder & Slide could probably do the work.

 

[john traveler]

That amount of barrel turning is "do-able" by the home gunsmith. Brownell's frame wrench blocks and handle will cost around $100.

If you have the connections, have a machinist make you some frame blocks out of Delrin plastic.

What has worked for me is to make barrel blocks from some 2 x 4 lumber to fit the barrel curvature and the forward lug under the barrel. Simply carve using a chisel until them come close to fitting. The blocks should hold the barrel close to the frame, on the forward lug, and clear the front sight and ramp.

Frame vise blocks can be made from cast polyester resin from hobby shops or Home Depot. You make a shallow tray from a milk carton, and pour enough resin to almost fill the tray. Wax or heavily oil the frame first, and press it into the resin to form half the mold. Do the same for the other side when the resin has hardened enough to remove the revolver. Remember to wax or heavily oil the frame or the resin may not release! Use bits of modeling clay to plug up cavities and holes that you don't want the resin to go into. Let both mold haves cure and harden a couple days.

The blocks can then be used in a machinist's vise or even between a couple boards held with C-clamps to hold the frame. The idea of the form-fitting blocks is to distribute the force on the frame to avoid warping it.

Drive the barrel pin out first, and then clamp up the barrel in the barrel blocks in a vise. The vise should be tight enough to prevent slipping and marring the finish.

Clamp and hold the frame between the two molded blocks. Using hand pressure only, the frame will unscrew from the barrel with less than 10 or 15 ft-lbs. You want to trighten your barrel just a few degrees to align the barrel and frame grooves. Drive the pin back in to finish the job.

Believe it or not, the barrel can come partly unscrewed just from extensive firing. S&W barrels are not that tight, especially the pinned ones.
It's fairly common to find barrels partly unscrewed in the more muscular calibers.

 

[john traveler]

I almost forgot to mention: DON'T try to drill out the pin or re-drill the pin hole! I know a number of people (including myself) that made that mistake and ended up breaking off the drill in the frame. The pin holes were drilled in a fixture at the S&W factory, and trying to drill without that fixture is a good way to come to grief with broken drill bits. If that happens, your only recourse is to have it EDM out, and that is expensive.

 

[john traveler]

One last item, but not for the faint-of-heart.

If your revolver has a barrel underlug, a quick way to correct the loosening is to use a plastic-tipped mallet or a plastic deadblow hammer to rap on the underlug. A few raps will quickly bring the barrel back into alignment.

 

[DCWilson]

Dang, John! That did it. I never would have thought that the barrel was loose enough against the pin and the frame to permit further movement with some gentle taps from my Shooboy hammer, but clearly it is.

The evidence:

Thank you for that tip. I am sure I never would have dared to try it on my own, if I had even dreamed that it might work.

 

[Charles]

John, that was very informative! Thanks!
A couple of questions spring to mind...

How long should it take before you can remove the revolver from the resin? And how do you secure the revolver when using the hammer whack technique? Do you mean full underlug only, or does that include the little ones like on a 19?

David!!! That's great! What did you whack on, exactly?

 

[john traveler]

The polyester casting resin sets in as little as an hour or two, depending on how much catalyst you give it. It would be safe to wait a couple hours, and give it a gentle tug, or a poke with your fingertip. It it doesn't readily deform with a firm poke with your finger, it is set enough to remove the frame.

Tapping on a partial M19 type underlug (fully enclosed extractor rod) or a full-length underlug will give the best results. It usually works on the tiny M10 type lugs too, because the barrel is not all that tight to begin with. With the exception of the alloy framed guns, whose barrel threads are secured with Locktite resin, any of the S&W model revolvers have easy to remove barrels.

The lug-tapping trick works by simply holding the revolver frame in the palm of your hand. There is no twisting force applied to the frame, and the integrally-forged barrel lug can take it. It's also useful for removing a barrel when you don't have access to a frame and barrel wrench.

 

[DCWilson]

John, that was very informative! Thanks!
A couple of questions spring to mind...

How long should it take before you can remove the revolver from the resin? And how do you secure the revolver when using the hammer whack technique? Do you mean full underlug only, or does that include the little ones like on a 19?

David!!! That's great! What did you whack on, exactly?

I think John gave the applicable general answer, but in this specific case I tapped the side of the ejector locking lug on the underside of the barrel. Do NOT really whack this protrusion; I found that my barrel moved incrementally with a series of gentle taps. In fact, the first time I hit it four or five times, and I found I had overcorrected the problem. A series of progressively gentler back and forth taps got me squared away.