Little Gunsmithing Rant

[opaul]

Took my S&W flat latch j frame to a new gunsmith shop as the cylinder would stop rotating if I put the slightest pressure on the cylinder when I pulled the hammer back. The smith looked it over and said it was off timing a bit and it could be fixed. Got a call today to pick it up. When they brought the gun out I looked at the bill - replace rebound spring, clean and polish rough parts, test fire. I picked the gun up and expected the cylinder to spin (just like all my other Smiths) with pressure on the cylinder while pulling the hammer back (this test was recommended by Larry Potterfield btw).
First they tried to say it was normal and I shouldn't put any pressure against the cylinder. Then something about the crane and a shim and leave it with them.

So, it didn't get any work that it was originally taken in for and got work performed that, in my opinion had nothing to do with the cylinder issue. OBTW, I paid the bill before I inspected the 'repair'. My mistake there.

Thanks, I feel better now.

 

[JJEH]

Call them and tell them not to perform any other "repair" anymore.
Pick it up and send it to a gunsmith with a better reputation, even if the wait time is longer.

How can anyone sell you a different repair for the same problem that they just repaired? Then it was a wrong diagnosis in first place and you should not pay full price for that.

 

[brucev]

Re: OP. With respect, if they could not get correctly repair the revolver when you first gave them the opportunity, it is exceedingly unlikely that they will do any better the second time around.

With their references to the crane, etc. one would be wise to question just exactly what they are going to do to the revolver and if they in fact actually are able to bring the revolver into spec.

It would seem the better part of wisdom to send the revolver back to S&W for any needed repair. They have gunsmiths who are experienced in diagnosing problems with and making repairs to S&W revolvers. More than likely whatever is wrong with your revolver is something they have seen before, repairing it should be something they are able to do right the first time around. JMHO. Sincerely. brucev.

 

[opaul]

Good advise. That is exactly what my instincts were telling me; should have listened

 

[RonJ]

If it's a flat latch will S and W even work on it?

 

[shouldazagged]

I'd cut my losses but tell the smith I'd discussed the matter on the S&W forum. But then I'm not a nice man.

 

[Vulcan Bob]

S&W revolvers are a bit like a Harley Davidson motorcycle, they are not quite as simple to work on as they appear. If the flat latch is model marked S&W will work on it, they will not work on non model marked revolvers.

 

[cttechguy]

A good reason to always pay with a credit card. Allows you to stop payment later if they won't or can't make things right.

 

[BigBill]

I was cursed with every new 1911 I purchased. I cut my losses and purchased every how to 1911 DVDs out there from Jerry K book and DVDs to the Wilson combat DVDs and the AGI DVDS. I just purchased the s&w DVDs on revolvers.

In the past I had problems when I had people work on anything. I finally gave up and do my own work now. With my machine building experience, my fabrication experience, my car and 4x4, light truck experience plus my 20 years as a lead tech in a engineering lab I can build and design anything n the planet. Working on guns isn't that hard. I built my first race 1911 from the education from the DVDs. It's common sense too.

I don't mind paying people if there doing the job that I need to get done.
But good honest people are hard to find.

If any of my s&w revolvers mess up and I cant address the problem I trust only s&w to work on it or ask the gurus here.

I got the 1911's down and I purchased all the 1911 tools from brownells. If I was younger I'd go to a gun smith school but I'm 64yo.

 

[BigBoy99]

I had sorta the same gun smith problem with a shotgun. I got the shotgun in a trade deal and didn't examine it too closely as the price was good, $50. If the shotgun had a shell (fired or unfired) in the chamber, the only way to open the slide was to press the slide release button. It would not cycle with the normal pump action. Depressing the slide release button was the only way the action could be opened. I took it to the gun shop and showed the person behind the counter exactly what the problem was. He tried it and discovered that I was right and the only way to cycle the action was to depress the slide release button. He took it and said the gun smith would look at it. Several week later, I got a call saying that it was ready and the bill was $150. Fortunately the same person who I left the shotgun with, was at the store when I went to pick it up. The first thing I tried was to cycle the action with by sliding the bolt open with a pump. It was locked solid. I had to push the slide release button to operate the slide action. I handed it back to him and asked him to show me how it had been fixed. He couldn't get it function correctly and finally admitted that it had not been fixed. I then asked him why should I pay the $150 for something that had not been fixed? (The bill had items listed such as clean and lubricate, tighten screws, etc.) I told him that I wasn't going to pay the bill because it was in the exact same condition as when I brought it in and they did NOTHING to fix it. He agreed with me, tore up the bill and let me walk out of the store with my shotgun.

I finally discovered what caused the problem. A small part had been left out when the shotgun had been reassembled. I looked for a year to try and find the missing part but was never able to find it so I went into my shop and made the missing part. I installed it and the shotgun now functions like it is suppose to.

 

[Grayfox]

With a little time, patience and the internet, you can fix most common problems yourself. I haven't taken a gun to a Smith in years.

 

[rwsmith]

There are a lot......

There are a lot of 'Bubbasmiths' out there.

 

[tedog]

Check out Sand Burr Gun Ranch on the web.

 

[BigBill]

There are a lot of 'Bubbasmiths' out there.

I feel the same way. I was responsible for building machines in the early 80's worth over 1 million dollars back then. The do it right the first time and failure isn't an option. I'd rather do it myself and do it right.

Plus we have so much knowledge here to ask for help?

Just explain exactly what's wrong and pictures helps too.

I have a brand new 1990 Springfield armory series 90 in black park that stove piped one round per mag in the safe till a few years ago. I never used it because of it jamming. I forgot about it because I had Others to shoot. After building my Norinco and having some 1911 experience I remembered my new SA in the safe. Since I had the extractor tuning tools already I tuned the extractor exactly to the specs. I also flared the bottom side of the extractor so the next round loads smoothly into the slide. I trusted no one all these many decades to work on it. She now functions flawlessly. Only five minutes to tune the extractor. It's done right. Go figure. I'm sorry I traded in two other 1911's I had problems with. I got fed up losing money so I kept the SA 1911 all these years refusing to let any gun smith work on it. There are good gun smiths and others that were meat cutters. Who do we trust. I do not believe any gun needs break in time if it does the parts aren't fitted right in the first place.