Cylinder fitting

[parastein]

This is probably the most important part of a cylinder swap! A .003"-.004" BC gap is too tight! Powder residue and/or lead on the front of the cylinder will stop the cylinder from turning at some point in time. sandog posted a pic of the tool you will need. There is a flat cutter attachment that will cut and square up the breech end of the barrel. A file is probably the worst tool to use here! Then you will need to recut the forcing cone(the tapper inside of the barrel at the breech). Also, you will need a set of go/no go gauges to determine the proper depth of the forcing cone. The only thing that is quick and easy in working with guns is ruining one by making a mistake! The required tools ain't cheap, unless you are going to do more guns!
jcelect

Thanks. Having now shot it and dry fired it a billion times, I went back to measure. I can fit a .006 feeler in from the left on all cylinders - on the right, sometimes a .005, but always a .004.

Why would I need to cut both barrel and forcing cone? Couldn't I just face off the forcing cone at 90 degrees for a thou or two?

 

[Model 15-4ever]

I'm getting some popcorn for this one.

Brand new gun - check
Source expensive cylinder to add to an already overpriced revolver - check
Immediately void warranty - check
Fiddle around with problematic issues of yoke alignment, headspace, timing, endshake, and b/c gap, all without knowledge, experience or tools- check

Sounds good to go.

 

[parastein]

I'm getting some popcorn for this one.

Brand new gun - check
Source expensive cylinder to add to an already overpriced revolver - check
Immediately void warranty - check
Fiddle around with problematic issues of yoke alignment, headspace, timing, endshake, and b/c gap, all without knowledge, experience or tools- check

Sounds good to go.

Do you have anything helpful to contribute or are you just here to add the same tired boomer forum tropes about "grabbing popcorn"? Any additional condescending useless garbage to add while the adults are talking? Don't you have a Golden Corral to be at working on your fourth coronary?

I have 30 other threads bookmarked saying "Woe is me, back in my day S&W shipped revolvers with a .002-.005 BC gap, now they've gone down the drain with computers and CNC machines". I have many, many threads on this very forum of people saying "yep, I swapped the cylinder and it was easy, I check X Y and Z things" and I've checked those things.

Unfortunately, revolver gunsmiths are hard to find. If I need to ship it to a smith I will. That's why I'm here, asking questions on the same forum that gave me the idea this was plausible in the first place, with countless threads of others doing the same, reporting on my measurements.