Wider Wedges?

[Singing Bear]

Hoi!  I been trying to get my match guns back into shooting condition after being in pieces for over a year.  Found the wedges for my 60's and such are way too narrow.  Don't know what happened to the originals.   Anyone sell a wider wedge?  Is there a way to rework the hole in the arbor to allow the narrower ones to fit properly?  Can it be done without  welding equipment?   Any suggestions will be much appreciated.   

[Singing Bear]

Well, it took me all morning, but I finally got my guns back together again.  Some needed the arbor repeened and needed a small "spacer" at the under lug of the frame where there are 2 pins.  Seems the frames may have stretched a wee bit and the barrel will wobble without the spacers.  This could also be due to the fact that the frames and barrels are mismatched also.  Now they lock up solid even with what I thought were "narrow" wedges.   

[Frenchie]

As I understand it from reading Gunsmithing Guns of the Old West by David Chicoine, the length of the arbor is critical to the fit of the barrel to the frame. The frames and barrels are matched at the factory, so I think the mismatched parts on your guns is the problem - I'm not a big believer in "stretched frames", but that could change if I ever see a gun with visibly bulged metal around the base of the arbor.

The shim on the barrel "leg" tells me the arbor is too long and may benefit from being shortened. It might be better to make the arbor hole beneath the barrel a tiny bit deeper. That might result in the wedge being too wide, but that's easy to fix.

[Singing Bear]

Frenchie, I see what you're saying and it sounds like it may just be the case.  The arbor holes in the barrel need to be about 1/32" deeper.  Not much, but it's enough that it'll throw everything off abit. 

Can't rightly say if it is the frame stretching as there are no real indications of that especially where the arbor is screwed into the frame.  BUT, the arbors have loosened a bit and will wobble up and down or are able to turn just a tad giving the impression that something "stretched" out of spec.  The "locking" pins are still in place and I may have to replace them with larger ones?  I remember someone once mentioned that he had done that by drilling and tapping the holes for a larger diameter machine screw.  Turned the screw in tight then cut and stoned the stub flush with the frame.  Hmmm.  Think long term project.  Good thing I got backups.