gun smiths help pick one

[louisc]

howdy pards in need to find a good gun smith ,I would like to tune up and just a good going over .thre were tons months ago now i found one captain eagle,sounds nice but i like to hear about the company first if posible who have you guys used ?
        next question do you think the owner thought if he shaved the front of the cylinder thinking it would slide back and stay ther.but it don't but is there a space supposed to be there,between the barrel and cylinder?even psuhed foward there is still a gap,would any one know the gap setting ?i imagine a feeler gauge to find it .and chould you tell me were to get a new cylinder VTI wants $195 for it  thats ok if thats the only one but i hope theres more shops out there .

[St. George]

I've always done my own work.

All it takes is infinite patience and deliberation, and you can do your own, as well.

I'd head over to Barnes & Noble's and buy a copy of Chicoine's 'Gunsmithing the Guns of the Old West' and read it thoroughly before I did anything, though .

Most will benefit greatly from a 'very' thorough cleaning and an equally thorough checking for any burrs.

If those are encountered - stone them away and don't change any factory angles, and lube appropriately.

There are a lot of self-styled 'gunsmiths' out there - some doing 'action jobs' that are nothing more than replacing springs that can be gotten from Brownell's, but acting as though there's a 'mystery' to the affair, and charging appropriately.

These things are things that 'you' can do easily, and besides - you'll enjoy the book.

Good Luck!

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Camille Eonich]

What kind of guns are you wanting worked on?  Some do better with some than others.  Also, what are of the country are you in?

[Professor Marvel]

Greetings Louis -
I can't help you with 'smiths in Ft Meyers, FLA, but I can always offer free advice ... :-)

As I recall from your prior posts, Louis, your working on your "used ss Cimarron 357" model 1873 revolver. If I remember correctly,  that cylinder has a solid "bushing" as part of the cylinder, instead of the removeable cylinder pin bushing in the original Colt design, and  the prior owner had removed too much metal from the front, resulting in too much cylinder endplay, right? 

The best bet is a replacement cylinder, but as you said that is pretty pricy! I have already picked up the book that St. George recommended -it is reeally the book to get, lots of great details.

While I have not done this to an 1873 yet,  I have worked on a few Remmies .  Here are  a few less expensive ideas:
1) have a "washer" made good quality steel of the correct thickness to take up the space, and solder it to the front of the "bushing". even soft solder would suffice here, and the low temp should not affect the hardening of the cylinder. One who knows how to solder Stainless properly and can pay attention to temps is needed!

2) you could "slipfit" a good steel washer onto the cylinder pin - no real hard gunsmithing, just filing the washer to the right thickness.

I don't know for sure, but I don't think the washers need to be very hard, as the pressure goes rearward.

3) A more expensive idea is to have the cylinder reamed out to accept a correct bushing, then fit a bushing to it. I am working on that for my
Remmies in order to reduce BP fouling on the cylinder pin. It is not *that* hard, just a matter of paying attention (and practicing on scrap stuff first!)   

Hope your holding up well, did you get  a chance to try the Ginger for the nausea? The only other thing that I heard helps when doing chemo is if you can get a prescription for the Evil Weed, which they can get in CA but I don't think you can do in FLA . Good luck!

your humble servant
Prof Marvel