removing internal frame milling marks..

[toad67]

Recently took one of my model 25's apart and noticed quite a bit of internal milling marks. Gun wasn't overly rough, but hasn't been hardly shot either. How much does the internal milling marks affect the smoothness of the action? If I had to wager a guess, it would be that the milling marks where moving parts come in to contact with each other would make sense. Thoughts and input welcome. TIA...

T67

 

[armorer951]

As long as there are no obvious burrs that contact or impede the moving parts, polishing the internal surfaces of the frame is a waste of valuable time. The hammer and trigger ride on (between) bosses in the frame and sideplate, so they are not in direct contact with the frame when they are rotating. The back side and bottom of the rebound slide can be lightly stoned (polished) if desired.

 

[Abflyboy]

I wouldn't try to do that as you will take the internal dimensions out of spec and potentially cause misalignment.

Hopefully someone with more expertise will offer guidance ...

 

[lefty_jake]

If the gun has been shot a bit, then the wear patterns will tell the story about where things are in contact and where they are not. If you look very closely at metal, it will probably tell you what you want to know.

If you are not sure whether you are looking at old marks, or whether things still make contact in a certain spot, you can use dye. You disassemble, mark the parts, reassemble, work the action, then disassemble again and look at the fresh marks in the dye. There are commercial products for this purpose, but I generally use a sharpie marker.

Manufacturers are unlikely to polish surfaces where there will be no contact.

 

[Hondo44]

Think of the machining marks as retention areas for lubrication. The sides of the early Model 1917 Army 45 DA and the 357 Registered Magnums purposely had grooves machined for just this purpose many believe:

Photo credit: Peter M. Eick

 

[steelslaver]

about all the really counts is the circles around the frame studs (bosses) and the area the trigger rebound slide rides. You just don't want any burs. If you cycle the gun a bunch of times and the dissemble you should be able to see wear arcs on hammer or trigger where a tiny bur is rubbing. Find it and just take the top off the bur. No moving parts actually touch the vast majority of the internal frame cut out areas.

 

[Doc1500]

I would think that just putting a little shine on metal-to-metal contact points would not change the dimensions unless you go too far.
Smooth ER is better but going too far can cause problems.

 

[ken158]

If the engineers thought smoothing the interior was necessary, it would be done. As noted, the boss area around the hammer and trigger is where the parts ride. Now, you can look for proud pin marks which would go in a circle. Remove the H or T and set the pin level to fix that.

 

[bigggbbruce]

Here is a picture of a side plate with the rub marks identified. You can take a stone and smooth some of those areas..

 

[Doc1500]

Resistance is resistance no matter how you look at it.
Do you know why UPS keeps all their trucks so clean?
Because somebody actually calculated the amount of resistance caused by a dirty truck slicing through the air and determined over a period Of Time how much money it would actually save in fuel costs by having a clean truck as opposed to a dirty one.
Physics. Not something I know about but it just all make sense.

 

[steelslaver]

Nothing touching means no friction. I don't believe any of the parts are big enough or going fast enough to have any wind resistance. Plus, the UPS trucks making delivery around here must get horrible mileage. Hard to keep shiny when they have to go off the pavement every day.

 

[Doc1500]

Uhhhhhhh, oh boy
Okay instead of friction we can call it resistance.

 

[2152hq]

Obvious high spots on the inside surfaces can be polished down. Smooth out any gouges in there from internal parts that have been rubbing.
Then check the internal part that is making that rub mark on the side plate or other part of the frame. Remove high spots, burrs left from machine operations, level out pins that are standing proud of the surfaces and give the squared edges & corners of small parts a small chamfer with a stone or diamond hone stick.
No need to remove all the internal machine marks.
You'll never get them all and keep the area with in any sort of spec for the internal parts to operate.
Trying to hand polish & remove the mill marks off the interior of the frame surfaces isn't going to leave those surfaces anywhere near flat and square as they should be.

They would have to be machined to a finer surface to begin with to avoid the milling marks.
That's something that is easily done but requires much more machine time & tooling costs.
The surface can be left with a precision, sparkling bright, smooth finish right off of a machine if they wanted to. But who would be willing to pay for such stuff.
You are getting into the custom built side of things when those types of precision spec, high quality metal finishes are done internally.
The guns work OK with the machine tool marks in them and make a profit. Not many complaints.
That's why they don't do precision polishing on the outside much anymore either. Most is done by vibratory methods, various particle blast finishes w/ mechanical surface ground flats .
The customers have accepted the look.
Not many complaints.

 

[steelslaver]

The hammer and trigger should only contact the frame and side plate at the stud bosses. If either are dragging anywhere else they can be shimmed with thin hardened shims. The rebound slide should be smooth on sides and bottom as should the area of frame cut out it rides in. Small low spots are not a problem, as a mater of fact they hold lube. Any high spots in theses areas will cause increased drag (friction resistance whatever) Mill marks in the rest of the frame do not touch the moving parts. The hammer sears ride on a smooth sears on hammer, The cylinder turns on a raised ring on yoke and the end of the yoke tube inside it. These need to be smooth and square. Once again hardened shims used to adjust end shake can help here. The rear of the cylinder rides on the center ring of the ejector against its spot on recoil shield. If all those spots are smooth and bur free and the hammer, trigger are aligned on their studs you will have minimum friction no mater how many mill marks on the rest of the action cuts. Once again a part can't drag on something it does not touch

Go study them . LOOK at what happens, read some books by guys like Jerry Kuhnhausen.

 

[chief38]

My suggestion would be that if the gun functions smoothly and properly - leave it alone! Trying to smooth out machine marks in an area that no one would ever see is not only a waste of time but just might get you into trouble! If you screw up the Frame - the Revolver is history! "If it ain't broke - don't fix it"! ONLY if you have a Bur or hang up should you actively address a specific area (IMO).

 

[Skwirl]

I did a little work on a few of my revolvers. Mainly for looks. The hammers were getting scratch Mark's on them. I wanted to get rid of the cause of those scratches. A little stoning here and there, added the shims mentioned earlier and preserved the case hardened colors.
Wasnt difficult at all, bought some tools, a book, then just some time.
Overall, it came out great. As a bonus, the action is better also.