Cylinder change

[bobmac16]

I recently sent my 686+ back to Smith Wesson to have them install a six round cylinder.The service center rep led me to believe that after I could easily switch out between the six of the seven shot cylinder. However when I tried to replace the seven shot cylinder back in the gun it will not function properly. Has anybody switched out there cylinders and I'm I missing something? Thanks for your help

 

[mikesal34744]

Was preference the only reason to change to 6 or is there an issue with the 7 rounds?

 

[Hapworth]

Hands and ratchets are specially mated; it's unlikely to me that the hand now fit for your six round cylinder will mesh properly with your seven round cylinder.

 

[Jimmyjones]

On 6 rnd the hand moves the cylinder 60 degrees, on a 7 rnd it's 51.4285 degrees per step. The 7 shot cylinder should want a shorter hand to sequence properly.

 

[bobmac16]

I switched to a six round cylinder for IDPA competition purposes thank you all for your posts it seems I was misled by the rep I spoke to from Smith Wesson

 

[jtcarm]

Removing/installing a hand isn't terribly difficult, but I wouldn't want to do it very often.

 

[scooter123]

On 6 rnd the hand moves the cylinder 60 degrees, on a 7 rnd it's 51.4285 degrees per step. The 7 shot cylinder should want a shorter hand to sequence properly.

By design the hand "passes by" the pawl on the extractor on the S&W revolver. As a result it is possible to have 6 and 7 shot cylinders fit to one revolver. However doing that requires hand fitting each position of the pawl on the extractor of each cylinder and considering the time required to do that I rather doubt that the Performance Center would do that. Fact is that would likely require something in the range of 40 hours of hand fitting and at about 150 dollars per hour folks just wouldn't pay for it.

So, in theory what the Rep stated was possible. However, in the real world it would be a matter of pure luck for both cylinders to function properly without carry up issues.

 

[srgvaz]

I switched to a six round cylinder for IDPA competition purposes thank you all for your posts it seems I was misled by the rep I spoke to from Smith Wesson

Rep and revolver gun smith are possibly different people/jobs.

It does happen often, but never trust a stranger over the phone/email.

The "gearing" (per say) ratchets & hand are different when you have more or less "teeth" in the mechanism.

It may be possible to have both, but you may have needed to of instructed/requested/confirmed. In writing or email is always best.

 

[jaymoore]

I've have done the swap on my own in the past, and sometimes you can use the same hand, sometimes not. As noted above it's more in the ratchet than the hand where things vary on production revolvers. And with out the production fixturing and cutting equipment (a wee tiny end mill) it's horribly tedious to fit each ratchet tooth individually.

New "spare" cylinder/extractor assemblies come with unfinished ratchets which would require extensive hand thinning to use "as is". Last used cylinder I bought had had the factory fit star swapped out for new one (current gen) but that option won't work going from six to seven rounds!

Without seeing the revolver in question in detail, it's tough to guess how the factory "gun plumber" did the swap. But it's unlikely he was able to use a production line ratchet fitting station, so the question would be is what tools do the service techs have available?

(Wouldn't be surprised if there's mighty little commonality between the production line's tooling and the service department's! Been there and have done that many moons ago for a different mfg'r.)