How to ream/hone C&B cylinders to get them right

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Howdy, gunsmiths and fellow tinkerers!  And int'rested onlookers, too!

I measured the cylinders of my 1860 Army (Uberti made; Iver Johnson marked) and they're averaging about .443" or so.  I'd like to fix that to .450" or so.  I also have a Pietta NMA with the same problem.

Now, first I looked in my friendly Brownells and Midway catalogs, but the tools I saw there would be more for bored-through cylinders.  OK; I then called my favorite auto parts store and asked 'bout brake hones.  The nice folks there said their hone would go down to .500".  So close, yet so far away.  (Hey - that'd be a good title to a song!  Er ... nevermind! )

Any ideas?  I gotta do this myself, as the pocketbook won't support the work of a pro.  (Gotta save up for the 2006 NCOWS Convention, ya know!)

Any help or ideas are welcome.  Oh, I fergot to mention: my 29/64th" drill bit is the closest I could find at .4531".  Besides, I don't think a drill is the way to go in this instance - too rough of a hole.  By the time it was drilled, my balls wouldn't seal!

[Hell-Er High Water]

Steel Horse,

A possible solution would be to use a taper pin reamer of the proper size.  This will put a slight taper in the chamber mouth so as a ball is seated it will get slightly compressed as it is seated.  Tool supply houses usually have these in stock.  You might check locally as most cities have at least one tool supply house.

HHW

[Hemlock Mike]

Also, a drill bit tends to drill a triangular hole !!  A reamer might work if you put a pilot on the end.

However, I'm not yet of the dark side but I do have an old early production Ruger C&B.  I thought that the mouth of the cylinder shaved the ball to fit the barrel.  Are you getting a loose ball to barrel fit ??

Mike

[Delmonico]

Slug the barrel first and let me know what it comes out.

[Big John Denny]

What Delmonico said. Been down this road before. If you don't slug the barrel and determine its bore size, you could be ending up trying to shove a too oversized ball through the forcing cone and barrel. You can't fix the cylinder till you know the forcing cone/bore size. You may even find out the cylinder is already the right size. It should only be slightly larger than the bore size for best accuracy.

[Capt. Augustus]

I once did a .36 using a reamer to open the chamber of the cylinder deep enough to seat the ball, using my tabletop drill press.  Different size reamers are available through tool companies.

[Manyirons]

Check out "BigIronRifledBarrelWorks" Lancaster Ohio, 322 Whiley Avenue, 43130. Guy there is THE Cap&Ball Go-To, simple reaming&lapping job (Matching cylinder&bore) about 50.00 last i checked.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Thanks, Many Irons and others!

[geichal]

I fixed Fox Creek Kids 60 Army using a .4515 reamer.  It seems to me that I had to take the pilot off to get it to work with the CB cyclinder.  I was REAL careful and it turned out very well.
geichal

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Wher'd ya find a .4515" reamer, Geichal?  Brownells?

[Fox Creek Kid]

Yes he did, but the finish is rough. That's nothing agianst the 'smith as one needs a machine to properly do this for a mirror finish & he did the best he could given the hand tool. Any 'smith that does rechambering can do it. In conclusion, yes it can be done by hand. Is it a perfect finish & a controlled depth? No.

[Montana Slim]

I'll chirp in with a comment....A lot of off-the-shelf reamers are available with a slight taper, which will center & help get them started. A reamer without a taper can be modified to have a taper. One of the "right" ways would be using a tool grinder, or lathe w/grinding attachment....poor mans solution could be a reversible drill and a fine india stone. Believe you'd want to run in "reverse". I've considered many of these options myself, but haven't got beyond the drawing board yet.

Slim

[44caliberkid]

Several years ago I did a web search of reamer companies, looking for sizes that were close.  Found this one then, don't know if it's still a good "e" address but worth a try.

www.calvalves.biz/reamers

They had one that measured .4530 that is a valve guide reamer.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Thanks yo you all!

[Buffalow Red]

so what did you try on the cly's

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Howdy, BR!

Well ... nuthin'!

I ended up shooting them a lot more, and it seems that, for MY shooting (  ) it's fine as is.  I went by my old stand-by theory of Life:  "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"