Further Disassembly For Re-blue?

[Retired W4]

I recently acquired this 28-2 (N591xxx) as a project gun. It has great mechanics but very thin blue and several spots of shallow corrosion. I have a friend with a hot tank and I'm thinking of having him re-blue this thing after I remove the old finish and polish the minor rough spots.

One question concerns the removal of the ejector rod forward lock up and spring in the ER shroud. Can the process be done without driving the retaining pin out for removal of the other two parts?

The other question is, is it OK to leave the barrel on the frame?

I've done this on an old Savage 23A but this is a different animal.

 

[WR Moore]

If you don't remove the locking bolt & spring, bluing salts will get in there and cause rust. Doesn't matter how many times you rinse it. Come on, it's just a cross pin, spring & the locking bolt.

To a degree, you've got the same issue with the threads on the barrel tenon/shank. I'd remove the barrel myself, but I've got the proper frame wrench & barrel supports. You can groove a couple pieces of board to clamp the barrel, but you definitely need the proper frame wrench.

I'll defer to the guys who currently do this stuff professionally about the barrel. Really doesn't look that bad to me.

 

[Retired W4]

Great points WR. Having the proper clamps, etc is my short fall. The other item I did not mention is the removal of the ejector rod, spring and extractor star. I might be getting in over my head.

As Clint Eastwood once said, "A man's got to know his limitations."

But then there's the Duke. "A man's got to do what a man's got to do."

I probably should listen to Clint.

 

[WR Moore]

OK, disassembly of the cylinder parts is mandatory. Place at least 2 fired cases in chambers (3 better in a cloverleaf pattern) to stabilize the ejector/extractor star.

The threads on the rod/extractor are left hand. Righty loosy, lefty tighty.

The major problem-besides losing parts-is holding the rod to turn it. If they're really tight, I've found that locking my lathe spindle so it won't turn and chucking the rod up tight works best. Some others do the same with a drill press. You turn the cylinder with your hand. Possibly the chuck on your electric drill-if it uses a chuck key-would work and give you a larger gripping surface. HAND TURN PARTS ONLY!!!!!!!!!

If you DIY, take pictures of how the parts you can't see in the cylinder assembly fit together as they come out.

One of the major problems of being a revolver user is that there aren't that many folks who know how to correctly work on them. The project revolver I bought ~4 years ago was fundamentally sound, but had been "improved" enough to let me beat the price down considerably. Had to replace hammer, trigger, locking bolt, extractor rod, hand, cylinder stop and all the springs. Appearance wise, the photos don't make it look bad at all.

 

[Retired W4]

With my project, all internal parts are fine and the gun functions well with all safety checks passed with flying colors. It's just cosmetically deficient. Bore and chambers are great. I will be talking with my friend tomorrow to find out how he would proceed after I remove the locking bolt/spring and disassemble the cylinder. I want to pick his brain to see how detailed he is going to be to avoid the problems you mentioned that could come up in the bluing process.

I would like to leave the barrel on the frame if that could be done without creating problems down the road.

 

[steelslaver]

I always dissemble the ejector rod and extractor and usually remove the lug and pin. But, I also left the lug in and the cylinder locking bolt and spring once just to see. I have never removed a pinned front sight blade or ramp nor the alignment pins in the cylinders. Ramps and blades and pins from well over a year ago show no problem signs. The lug and cylinder lock deal was last spring and its fine too. But, after I take a gun out of the hot blue tank, I first rinse it off good in hot water, then stick it in a boiling tank of water with a bunch of baking soda in it, then after it is dry from that, rinse again with hot water and then stick everything in a pot of Eds Red. 1/3 tyranny fluid 1/3 kerosene and 1/3 acetone. Never has anything show any signs of a problem. I have had lugs get gummy from other gunk though.

 

[Retired W4]

Thanks. I will check to see if my buddy is using the same (steps) techniques. I wanted to avoid removing the forward locking lug and spring for fear of denting the surrounding metal. My essential tremors give me fits when doing that kind of stuff.

 

[steelslaver]

Thanks. I will check to see if my buddy is using the same (steps) techniques. I wanted to avoid removing the forward locking lug and spring for fear of denting the surrounding metal. My essential tremors give me fits when doing that kind of stuff.

I have a bit of the shakes now days myself. But, I got a bunch of hockey pucks, machined grooves etc. and drilled a few holes in them/ I can set the gun on them with no wobbles then get the punch lined up and tap it. Plus, to remove the pins you need a .050 punch and the smallest standard punches are usually 1/16. .0625

Also I have never removed a barrel to blue the gun and have seen no evidence of solution coming out of the threads. I believe that problems result from not properly getting rid of any remaining salts.

 

[Hair Trigger]

W4, you sure you want to go through all this to refinish a revolver that will be worth less after the refinish? It doesn't look too bad to me in the pics you show. Is there not a way to mitigate the corrosion without having to refinish the whole thing? If it's the solid gun you say it is, it won't shoot any better after you do all that work.

 

[Retired W4]

W4, you sure you want to go through all this to refinish a revolver that will be worth less after the refinish? It doesn't look too bad to me in the pics you show. Is there not a way to mitigate the corrosion without having to refinish the whole thing? If it's the solid gun you say it is, it won't shoot any better after you do all that work.

Point well taken. I will probably put it back together and shoot it, then think about the project some more. I'll find out tomorrow how much it will cost me to refinish it and go from there. I have a couple sweetheart 4" HPs already and this one would be right at home in the drawer by the front door, as is. Will report.

 

[DWalt]

I was trying to recall the details, but over 15 years ago when I had access to a hot bluing tank setup, I blued at least five of my own revolvers. They were all Rugers and Colts, no S&Ws as I remember. Plus quite a few semi-autos, rifles, and shotguns.. I just disassembled the revolvers and blued them without removing barrels from frames. Nothing bad happened, ar least not so far.

 

[2152hq]

I haven't hot blued in yrs. But I always used to remove the bbls from anything I did.
Just too much of a chance of the salts getting in there and not being able to get back out.
They dry out, but are hygroscopic (?) in that they attract moisture as time goes on. In doing so, the metal will rust and quite badly. The salts themselves will grow and 'bloom' right out of the joint where they are trapped.
You get a white growth coming from the joint where they are trapped. The bluing is gone, the metal pitted.
Not good.

Oil will not kill them. Hot water will dissolve them and rinse it away.
It's just wether you can get the hot water rinse in there or not to do the job.

Another reason to pull the bbl is to reemove any oil or grease that may be on the threads or shank of the bbl. Placed there during assembly usually.
When the parts go thu the hot salt bluing process, they are at around 300F.
Any oil or grase in there will liquify. It has a good chance of running out from the joint duing the time in the tank. The oil weeping out of the joint will spoil the bluing right at that joint and any other place it runs onto.

I still pull bbls when Rust Bluing.
For the same reason as the latter above. The possibility of oil/grease in the assembly threads.
The parts still go through boiling water in this process so the same caution applies.
Old SxS bbls can be a real trip to re-blue with the possibility of all sorts of old rosin & paste solder flux and lubes trapped inside the ribs.