Exmilcop
Member
Good day all. As most of you know, the weak point in the old Mod.1-1/2 revolvers is the hinge. I have a pretty nice one in .32RF which I purchased for the wife. I was never happy with the amount of play at the hinge section. I had debated about having a machinist friend bore a new hole end-to-end and put in a through pin but given the construction, I had trepidation about removing any metal from what is the weakest point in the construction. The light bulb came on and it occurred to me that if I filled the area with JB Weld metal I'd be adding instead of subtracting material. First, I cleaned all the inside surfaces with Methyl Ethel Ketone on a pipe cleaner, and then used an ultra fine sandpaper (800 grit) to gently buff the inside of all the surfaces. I mixed up the metal compound and used toothpicks to work it into the holes. I used an exacto knife to scrape away any excess on the surfaces outside of the holes themselves. Here was the tricky part. I had to wait until the compound was firm enough to drill into, but not so hard it was set up. I have a small finger drill and I coated a small bit with oil and gently started drilling into the compound. When I had that pilot hole established, I waited a while more and drilled with larger bit, but still smaller than the screw diameter. I waited a while longer and then gently screwed the original screw back into the hole until snug. I oiled up the hinge surface to impede any residue from setting up inside the bearing surfaces, though I was pretty sure I'd scraped off any excess. Now the barrel pivots up cleanly with and there's almost no slop at all when it's locked up. Just thought I'd share.
