What to polish? 1851 action job

[Rube Burrows]

I have a couple questions that I was hoping you guys could help out with.

If I was going to slick up my action on my 1851 Piettas which parts would I actually polish up? I took it apart yesterday and its pretty simple in there but its hard to see which parts really would be helped by a good polishing.

Also, what is everyone using to polish with? I have a Dremel but I guess im looking for suggestions on which works best.


Thanks for the help guys. 

[St. George]

Put it down and step away from the Dremel...

Power tools 'can' get away from you and that's never good...

Look carefully for any burrs and high points.

Carefully stone them away - but do not change any factory angles. (use an Arkansas stone)

Now - clean the surfaces you've stoned (you don't want any vestige of grit) and clean the interior surfaces while you're at it for the same reason.

Use a 'good' lubricant (I use 'Pro-Shot's 'Pro-Gold' - there are others) on the areas where you've done your work and inside anything that constitutes a bearing surface.

Reassemble and try...

You 'should' feel a marked difference, making this an easy and successful project.

Good Luck!

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Fox Creek Kid]

Put it down and step away from the Dremel...

Internet gunsmithing rule #1: if you own a Dremel then lock it up. 

[Charlie Bowdre]

Internet gunsmithing rule #1: if you own a Dremel then lock it up. 

I can sure relate to that . Every time I look at the stock on my 45-70

Dutchy

[Rebel Dave]

The only thing I use my dremel on, sometimes, is the cylinder hand channel, I have found some bad burrs in it, on some of my C&Bs. Otherwise,  I use stones, and 300-1000 grit, wet or dry sand paper, on the rest of the parts. You can also use a grinder mounted buffing wheel.
I have a large selection of stone wheels and cutters, for for my "Precise Corp." Dremmel type tool.

Rebel Dave

[Rube Burrows]

I have def not used the dremel. I have just not been able to find a good place to get stones and stuff.
Thanks for the help.

[Digger]

Carefully stone them away - but do not change any factory angles. (use an Arkansas stone)

Hi Y'all,

Brownell's has a set of stones specifically made for slicking up a SAA.  "COLT SINGLE ACTION HAND SLOT STONING KIT".  I will leave it to you to search for it, because curiously the individual stones are cheaper than the set. 

Digger

[Rube Burrows]

Thanks Digger. I will check it out.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

The stones that come with the COLT SINGLE ACTION HAND SLOT STONING KIT are fine, but they are too small to be of general use in stoning most parts. They are fine for reaching into the nooks and crannies of the frame, and they are fine for stoning the inside of the slot where the hand rides, but they are too small for general lapping. You want a stone that is large enough to use to lap the part. That means laying the part down flat on the stone and rubbing the part back and forth across the stone with light finger pressure. With practice, this is a very accurate way to smooth a flat surface without removing more material from one area than the rest of the surface. It is important to keep the original flatness of the part while polishing it smoother. Go to Brownells and do a search on STONES, they have quite a selection.

Polishing and smoothing the parts in a single action revolver is really pretty simple and does not take very long. First of all, there is no value in polishing any surface that does not rub directly across the surface of another part. It might look pretty, but polishing a surface that simply moves through the air does not accomplish anything. Polishing surfaces that slide across each other is the way to reduce friction. The other thing to bear in mind is that with two flat surfaces that rub across each other you don't really want to bring them to a mirror finish. Look carefully at the flat surfaces of the parts in your revolver. Most likely you will see swirling patterns left behind by the tools that cut the parts. On a microscopic level, those swirling patterns are like miniature mountain ranges, with ridges and valleys. When two such surfaces slide across each other, the high points on each surface snag across the high points of the mating surface, increasing friction. What you want to achieve is for those two surfaces to slide across each other with a minimum of friction. What you want to do is cut off all the highest points of the ridges, leaving a series of tiny flat surfaces, but leave the valleys untouched. Bringing the entire surface to a mirror finish will increase the surface areas in contact with each other, which will tend to increase friction, not decrease it. You can also polish off too much material, interfering with some critical fits. Try to polish each surface so that about 50% of the surface has been polished, but the valleys still remain. This way, the smoothed tops of the ridges will all be on one plane, they will ride smoothly over each other without snagging, and the valleys will remain as miniature reservoirs for oil. It should only take about 5 minutes or so to lap a part this amount. Any more and you are probably overdoing it.

The same thing applies to machine marks in the frame. If a part slides or rotates against it, then smooth it.

Separate from smoothing mating surfaces, you want to remove any burrs left behind from the machining of the frame and parts. Generally speaking, with most Italian made guns, the parts are made using such high feed rates that a lot of burrs are generated. These can break off, monkying up the works, and they can just be ugly.

Lastly, you may want to slightly break any sharp edges left on the parts. This doesn't so much affect the friction as it protects you from cutting yourself when working with the parts. But be carefull you are not breaking an edge that is intended to remain sharp, like the hammer cocking notches and the tip of the trigger (sear) that fits into these notches. I strongly recommend leaving them alone and not touching them at all, unless you have done trigger work before and know exactly what you are doing. A few careless swipes of a file on these surfaces can make a firearm unsafe and dangerous to handle.

Oh yeah, don't even think of using the Dremel tool for any this. Use good stones and your fingers.

[Johnny McCrae]

Howdy Driftwood,

Great information and instructions! Thank you for posting this.

[Rube Burrows]

Thank ya kindly.