HomeSmith: Sticky Situation - Adventures in rimfire reaming

[cmansguns]

I leave as reamed on mine

I leave the charge holes and extractor star as reamed. I don't have any idea of how much "thickness" or "goop deposit" would be left if they were cold blued and I don't want to ream again.

All my guns are cleaned and after each range session and mine are all stored (securely) inside my house which is climate controlled so I do not worry about rust.

I would say that whether to cold blue or not may depend on how and where your guns are stored as if a high humidity area like a garage, etc. the bare metal may have a tendency to rust.

I would be interested as to what other members have reamed their cylinders think about the eternal question "to cold blue or not to cold blue"?

 

[Protocall_Design]

The blue adds no thickness, as it's a chemical reaction within the metal. Cold blue makes the gun look better, and adds a small amount of rust protection, if neutralized with a hot water bath, dried and oiled. I like to leave the oil on for a week or so, then wipe it dry. That seems to allow the bluing to cure some, making it a little more durable. Cold blue is never as good as hot blue, though. Others will have their favorite way of doing things.

 

[WR Moore]

I particularly like Bownells Dicropan for this type of thing. It's an indusrial blacking chemical. Unfortunately, it's expensive.

 

[Shotguncoach]

My package from Manson arrived last week....Jessica is fantastic to work with and they are an overall high-class bunch of people.

My first challenge was in overcoming the little voice that kept shouting "Do 'em all! Do 'em all!" I finally countered the voice by smacking myself in the head with the hammer handle I use to remove sideplates and reminding myself that this was the first time I've done this and if it turns out to not work well I would rather screw up just one gun and not four. Sometimes I'm a bit hard headed.

The second challenge is that it's been over 110 degrees several times this week and my garage simply has not been a fun place to be. I set up a temporary workspace in the spare bedroom. This "gunsmithing with air conditioning" thing may catch on. A remodel/reorganization may be in order....

The third challenge was in finding a handle for this itty bitty 1/4" reamer because I was waaaay to smart to order one when I ordered everything else. My Dad's Craftsman tap and die set from the 1960's provided a tool holder that worked. The proper tool is in the shopping cart in another tab as I type this.

Once the preliminaries were out of the way, I lubed up the reamer with the Viper Venom cutting oil from Manson and went to work. (Side note: I bought the quart jug of cutting oil. At the rate I used the oil on this gun, I estimate that the quart will last me approximately 187 years) The finish reamer worked beautifully: no chattering, no sticking, just a nice smooth shave.....right up until I ran into challenge #4.

Between the height of my temporary work table, the lighting in the room, the size of the reamer, the size of the puddle of cutting oil, and the recessed chambers I couldn't see when to stop. I ended up hunched up like the proverbial monkey with a football using the camera-zoom function on my phone as a magnifier to watch the last little bit of cutting. I wanted to just barely kiss the face of the cylinder so that I didn't change the headspace. It worked, but next time better lighting is definitely in order.

One empty case at a time was moved as I went around the circle so that the ejector star was always supported. After cutting the second chamber I was able to recognize the change in the "feel" of the reamer when it stopped cutting. (I hope that makes sense) Every chamber was done twice just to ensure that the feel of the reamer was the same in all of them.

So what was the final outcome? It truly was a "shave" and I never saw any real chips or swarf....just what looked like dirt in the oil. After all the chambers had been touched twice the cylinder/ejector star were cleaned out with brake cleaner and the pin gauge measurement routine was performed again. The data came out exactly as I was hoping for: the inconsistencies in chambers 3, 4, and 5 were gone and now the graph looks much more satisfying. Additionally, fired cases that used to require a push now drop into the chambers with an audible thunk and headspace on the rim instead of getting stuck part way in.

I'll do a range test tomorrow with every brand of .22 LR that I have on hand and report the results tomorrow evening.

 

[cmansguns]

Congrats! You got this

Congrats....you sure enough got this one. Now you not only have all the tools necessary, but you are located in an AC cooled "gun library", what more do you need to now "Git the rest of them done".

My wife would probably lock and load were I to bring any gunsmithing beyond grip removal into the house, and you do need to reduce the amount of reamer lubricant so I would say go ahead and ream any other 22's you have laying about. Your range time satisfaction increases tremendously. Do 3 or 4 more and you should get down to only 186 years left on your cutting fluid.

PS: I'm 79, retired 4 years now, the Tap Magic I had on hand is so old I don't even remember when I brought it home from the company machine shop, but at least 40 years ago and I could still do bucoo 22 reaming!

 

[Shotguncoach]

Today's range test was a short one because it was 108 degrees in the shade. I took 8 types of .22 ammo with me and ran them all through the K22.

Test ammo:

Remington Golden Bullet
Federal bulk pack
Federal Automatch
CCI standard velocity
CCI Blazer
CCI Minimag
Winchester bulk pack
Wolf match extra

12 shots from each were fired into the same target for a total of 96 rounds. All shooting was done double-action standing using both hands at 10 yards.

The end result was that the 6" K22 is now in the same state or slightly better than my pair of 4" guns. Remington, Federal bulk pack, CCI standard velocity, and Wolf all extracted easily. The high velocity rounds from CCI (Minimag and Blazer) as well as the high velocity Federal Automatch still stuck in the chambers and had to be removed with a cleaning rod. The Winchester ammo stuck the worst, but I was expecting that....the batch I have causes problems in everything except a bolt action rifle. Someday I'll work my through it all just reminding myself of how bad it is.

I'm going to call this a success for 2 reasons: first, I picked up 3 additional types of .22 ammo that now work in this gun, and second, I think I need to re-do this test when it isn't a bazillion degrees outside.

Let me 'splain that last one: due to the fact that I live on the outskirts of Hades and I didn't pay attention when I scheduled my range time, my ammo supply and the guns ended up sitting in the sun for almost 45 minutes. By the time I got to the high velocity ammo the shells were actually hot to the touch coming out of the box and the gun itself was hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold if I touched anything but wood. All of the Minimags and Blazers along with most of the Automatch ammo went supersonic when they were fired...and these were the ones that stuck. The same ammo also caused extraction issues in the GSG Firefly that I had with me. I have a feeling that the old 'pressure volume temperature' thing may have been involved.

We'll try this again when it's not so darn hot. For now, I'm happy with the way it turned out.

 

[Protocall_Design]

Now would be a good time to polish the chambers with a .22 cal. flex hone. Use some reamer oil on the hone, too. If you polish before reaming, you cut out the polishing with the reamer.

Great shooting!