OP
Sellers are really proud of donor frames right now….I've found it to be better overall to buy complete guns.
HomeSmith Custom Shop: The Faux Pinto Thread
- Thread starter Shotguncoach
- Start date
-BTM-
Member
I'm in the same boat but find an N frame donor ain't easy. It would make a very unusual Pinto. Performance Center version!
Attachments
Last edited:
-BTM-
Member
Great write-up on matching barrels. The more I goof around with this the less mystifying it is.
I would add one thing for the folks in the back row - take a really good look at the mating surfaces on the frame and the barrel. I had a take-off that was gritty and galling bad. It would thread easy then seize. Marked the surfaces up with a sharpie to find the high spots then a bit of veeerrry careful file work gained another hour on the clocking, if that makes sense. You can see the galling here.
Attachments
-BTM-
Member
I made these to deal with a serious bubba problem that had bent several commercial & DIY punches. The starter punch is a game changer.
Here is a model 10 my pops did shoots good looks Nice to me
OP
I haven't forgotten about you guys….this project is on temporary hold because another project went south. The other gun I'm working on got through rust cycle #8 beautifully, then rust cycle #9 with a 25% acid solution somehow got contaminated during the boil and produced a haze on the frame and sideplate. While I was sanding to back-step the hazy pieces in order to re-do that part of the bluing, I discovered a divot in the backstrap that I had missed the first time….so that entire frame is being stripped down to bare metal for a do-over.
And I leave for a week long business trip on Monday.
So….the snubby 19 pinto is safely tucked away until I get the other things sorted out. I should be able to get back to it over Labor Day weekend.
And I leave for a week long business trip on Monday.
So….the snubby 19 pinto is safely tucked away until I get the other things sorted out. I should be able to get back to it over Labor Day weekend.
OP
As an interesting part of this little side trip, I have discovered how to artificially age a gun…
Another interesting thing (to me) is that it's quite a bit more difficult to take off my rust blue than it is to take off the original finish. After being scrubbed with 5 different grades of scotch brite there was still some finish remaining.
I didn't think to take pictures along the way to show the progression because it didn't really sink in on me what was happening until I was on the 3rd grit.
This tells me that for someone who does not want their classic gun to appear refinished but also want the dents and scratches to go away, the method would be to take dozens of photos of the original finish, strip it, do the metal work, blue everything, then strategically remove the new finish to "put it back" to the original appearance.
I have a 4" K38 with a fish hook hammer and two proud pins in the front sight base that needs restoration. That might be a good candidate for this technique. My complete blue job does not match the original, but the partially removed reblue sure looks like a worn original.
Hmmmmm
Another interesting thing (to me) is that it's quite a bit more difficult to take off my rust blue than it is to take off the original finish. After being scrubbed with 5 different grades of scotch brite there was still some finish remaining.
I didn't think to take pictures along the way to show the progression because it didn't really sink in on me what was happening until I was on the 3rd grit.
This tells me that for someone who does not want their classic gun to appear refinished but also want the dents and scratches to go away, the method would be to take dozens of photos of the original finish, strip it, do the metal work, blue everything, then strategically remove the new finish to "put it back" to the original appearance.
I have a 4" K38 with a fish hook hammer and two proud pins in the front sight base that needs restoration. That might be a good candidate for this technique. My complete blue job does not match the original, but the partially removed reblue sure looks like a worn original.
Hmmmmm
OP
Busy weekend at the bench…the 10-8 conversion to .357 got done, the 65-3 refinish and trigger job got done, and the 19 frame had the metal work done (I thought), 2 rust cycles, was stripped down to bare metal again to fix a scratch that didn't really show until the bluing started to come up, and is now resting overnight after the second rust cycle of the second try at bluing.
Oh yeah…and along the way my son and his wife acquired a miniature human. His name is Ashton and he is grandson #5.
I was busy enough that I forgot to take pictures, but I did get one of the 19 frame before it went into the bluing cycle.
And here are the other two that got done:
Tomorrow I should be able to get back on track with this project.
Oh yeah…and along the way my son and his wife acquired a miniature human. His name is Ashton and he is grandson #5.
I was busy enough that I forgot to take pictures, but I did get one of the 19 frame before it went into the bluing cycle.
And here are the other two that got done:
Tomorrow I should be able to get back on track with this project.
Tanners Owner
US Veteran
Congrats on the grandson
OP
The boring part is done and the blued pieces are resting in an oil bath, so tonight work began on the barrel.
When I first started working with metal I would have just attacked this thing with a big stack of sandpaper….that was before I discovered good files.
For this part of the project I used a set of Grobet files in a #6 cut…extremely fine. So fine that a piece of #8447 scotchbrite would remove the file marks. Following the file work with the scotchbrite really helps with visibility because as the imperfection starts to go away the file marks can sometimes cover it up.
Here are all of the tools I used on the barrel:
Instead of trying to type out a description of every fix, I'll just show the before and after pics…
Two in this pic: under the "Wesson" and the bottom of the shroud.
There were several others but you get the idea.
I also noticed an interesting machining mistake on the rib when viewed from the muzzle…compare the left and right sides where the rib transitions to the barrel:
Total time for file work on the barrel was just over an hour. Tomorrow we'll do the cylinder, and then both pieces will get a sequence of scotchbrite buffs and a final burnish before assembly.
When I first started working with metal I would have just attacked this thing with a big stack of sandpaper….that was before I discovered good files.
For this part of the project I used a set of Grobet files in a #6 cut…extremely fine. So fine that a piece of #8447 scotchbrite would remove the file marks. Following the file work with the scotchbrite really helps with visibility because as the imperfection starts to go away the file marks can sometimes cover it up.
Here are all of the tools I used on the barrel:
Instead of trying to type out a description of every fix, I'll just show the before and after pics…
Two in this pic: under the "Wesson" and the bottom of the shroud.
There were several others but you get the idea.
I also noticed an interesting machining mistake on the rib when viewed from the muzzle…compare the left and right sides where the rib transitions to the barrel:
Total time for file work on the barrel was just over an hour. Tomorrow we'll do the cylinder, and then both pieces will get a sequence of scotchbrite buffs and a final burnish before assembly.
OP
The cylinder turned out to be in much better shape than the barrel. There was only one spot that required file work and that was minor. After that scratch was cleaned up it was just a matter of finding which grit would remove the spiderweb of fine scratches that covered the cylinder.
I worked through 6 different grits of scotchbrite going around the outer circumference of the cylinder. Each grit made two scrubbing passes with the cylinder turned 180 degrees in between. Everything was wiped clean and lubricated with WD40 before each pass.
The barrel and ejector rod received exactly the same treatment.
The last step was to swap out the new carding wheel for an old one and burnishing the pieces. Total time for this step was 1 hour and 5 minutes.
On Saturday we'll put it all together…
I worked through 6 different grits of scotchbrite going around the outer circumference of the cylinder. Each grit made two scrubbing passes with the cylinder turned 180 degrees in between. Everything was wiped clean and lubricated with WD40 before each pass.
The barrel and ejector rod received exactly the same treatment.
The last step was to swap out the new carding wheel for an old one and burnishing the pieces. Total time for this step was 1 hour and 5 minutes.
On Saturday we'll put it all together…
OP
Today's first step was a reminder about order of operations. If I had chased the threads on the barrel and in the frame before I blued everything, the repeated boilings and degreasings would have cleaned the tap oil out of the threads. I did it today because I enjoy spending 10 minutes with a Q-tip cleaning threads. 
When the threads were finally clean and dry, the new rear sight was installed to provide a straightness reference point, the barrel taker-offer was switched to putter-onner mode, and we visited the big vise in the garage.
The Gods Of The Workbench smiled upon me today because the assembly of a cylinder, barrel, and frame from 3 different guns ended up with the rear gauge in spec and a .006" cylinder gap with no adjustments required.
I did a trigger job on this gun when I was testing it with the 4" barrel, so the final putting together was just a matter of moving the stuff that was outside back to the inside. More time was spent choosing an appropriate set of stocks from the pile than assembling.
A quick rub down with renaissance wax, some clicky-clicky function tests to verify that we still had a 7lb DA pull and a 2 1/2lb SA pull, and we're ready for a range trip tomorrow.
When the threads were finally clean and dry, the new rear sight was installed to provide a straightness reference point, the barrel taker-offer was switched to putter-onner mode, and we visited the big vise in the garage.
The Gods Of The Workbench smiled upon me today because the assembly of a cylinder, barrel, and frame from 3 different guns ended up with the rear gauge in spec and a .006" cylinder gap with no adjustments required.
I did a trigger job on this gun when I was testing it with the 4" barrel, so the final putting together was just a matter of moving the stuff that was outside back to the inside. More time was spent choosing an appropriate set of stocks from the pile than assembling.
A quick rub down with renaissance wax, some clicky-clicky function tests to verify that we still had a 7lb DA pull and a 2 1/2lb SA pull, and we're ready for a range trip tomorrow.
What a Beauty!! You never fail to amaze me with your work! I have read many posts, but I have a question about the polish on the cylinder. What do you do, or not do, to the flutes on the cylinder to get the contrasting look? I am going to attempt polish on my model 64, and would like to have that look when finished.
Protocall_Design
Vendor
Hey! You got lucky again! Quality work and attention to detail always seems to make a feller lucky. Can't figure that one out... Oh well, another beautiful gun to shoot with. Who doesn't want that?
OP
You guessed correctly that it's mostly not doing.
I use a backing block with the scotchbrite pads and cut them to be just slightly larger than the block.
With a 7446 pad, I use the corner of the pad to polish along the length of the flutes…..and then I never touch them again.
The rest of the cylinder is polished around the circumference. The flat backing pad keeps the scotchbrite from falling into the flutes.
The circumference of the cylinder gets polished with 7446, 6444, 8447, 7447, 6448, and 7448 in that order. The flutes stop at 7446.
When it's time to burnish, the cylinder is held so that the brush motion follows the circumference AND only half of the area between the flutes is burnished at one time so that the brushes are always slipping off the edge and never impacting the edge. The cylinder gets flipped over to burnish the other half and keep the brush only sliding off the edge. It's easier to do than to explain…
I hope that helped…
I use a backing block with the scotchbrite pads and cut them to be just slightly larger than the block.
With a 7446 pad, I use the corner of the pad to polish along the length of the flutes…..and then I never touch them again.
The rest of the cylinder is polished around the circumference. The flat backing pad keeps the scotchbrite from falling into the flutes.
The circumference of the cylinder gets polished with 7446, 6444, 8447, 7447, 6448, and 7448 in that order. The flutes stop at 7446.
When it's time to burnish, the cylinder is held so that the brush motion follows the circumference AND only half of the area between the flutes is burnished at one time so that the brushes are always slipping off the edge and never impacting the edge. The cylinder gets flipped over to burnish the other half and keep the brush only sliding off the edge. It's easier to do than to explain…
I hope that helped…
YES! Thank you
