44 Special Project

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freakindawgen

Single-Sixer
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Messages
283
Location
Perryville,MO
Very awesome! One question,since you built a cylinder from scratch,why not take the extra step and counterbore the chambers like an old model? I wish all my revolvers were like that makes a cleaner looking gun with out the gap. Not knocking your choice just wondering.
 

Gun_Cat

Bearcat
Joined
Dec 18, 2011
Messages
33
Location
Western Kentucky
Mr. Martin,

I just signed up for this forum yesterday while searching for some No. 1 information. Your pictures, information, and skills may be the best use of Al Gore's internet I've ever witnessed. Thanks for taking the time to document the project.
 

Dregg

Single-Sixer
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
177
My uncle is a machinist and would appreciate this thread. Your shop actually looks like his garage.

Nice work and nice informative thread.
 
Joined
Dec 11, 2002
Messages
8,966
Location
Ohio , U.S.A.
I guess I gotta finally say "something", been following Lees' thread and it was an "awesome" undertaking and GREAT job, and I hope that any and ALL of you realize just how complicated ,time consuming and COSTLY this sort of thing really is.....I THANK YOU Lee for putting it out for all of us to see and follow, ,,,,,,but it bothers me when some folks take it upon themselves to pass judgement ,pis & whine when they do not get what they want...it is hard enough to just do the work, time and ;lots of it is involved and then they want a blow by blow, measurement for measurement,hell I cannot type out and describe EXACTLY how I even polished the last cylinder we did!!!! it is ALL in the machinist manual, if you guys "think" you are a machinist then you should already have the manual, and be able to "do the math..." heck, I do MOST of MY stuff by eye, touch and feel!!!!!was shown how over the years and learned to do it myself........
do you know how many cylinders or barrels you have to "make, turn, clean up" just to pay for ANY of that equipment you see in Lees' pictures!!!!
WOW.....................

Again, great job Lee, I for one "thank you" immensely" for the entire thread, I worked in the shop, we did this sort of thing, and NO I am NOT a machinist,we had guys who did, and as you "see" in Lees' thread, his comments as to the "others" involved, the barrel supplier of the blank, Ron Mahovsky, good friend of mine and what he does through his shop for the finish, and the great job Cary and his grip making,all take a place in the entire project, and that adds to the "time",,, shipping, delivery, work to be done.......now you know "why" some of the 'big boys' get the money to do for the work that is done.................and NO I;m NOT going to get into the "why that caliber...??? ( we did it in a 256 Win.....) 8) AND in a D/A.... :roll:
Thank you Lee :wink:
 

Tommy Kelly

Buckeye
Joined
Apr 24, 2008
Messages
1,045
Location
MISSISSIPPI
Lee's shop would be a dream place for me. I have never even owned a lathe but I know if I did I would spend all my time trying to learn to use it. I have friends that own lathes and one that is a gun nut. His specialty is 700 remington rifles. I have 2 that he did for me they are awesome shooters. He likes douglas premium barrels air gauged. One of them is a 30-06 in a #8contour the other is a 300 ultra mag with a #5 contour both are stainless barrels. The 30-06 was a 30-06 to begin with and the 300 ultra was a 7mm mag from the factory. Both guns from the factory were just average shooting rifles after the rebarreling they both are super shooters going from about 2" groups at 100 to small cloverleafs around 1/2" if I do my part. The 30-06 ended up right at 16# and the 300 ultra is 8#. It's amazing what a difference a hand fitted barrel and trued action face makes in a rifle's performance. I went into his shop one afternoon at 5:30 and had a barreled action in 1 hand and a barrel blank in the other and at 10:00 that night I left with a newly barreled action ready to be fit into the old stock. It was amazing to watch the whole process and he answered every question I asked him as he was doing the work. It was truly a great experience for me and I admire his work everytime I take the rifles out and use them. There is nothing that compares to a great shooting rifle in my book. And to say that I saw these rifles made into great shooters from just run of the mill shooters. Means a lot to me.
 

Joe S.

Hunter
Joined
Feb 4, 2011
Messages
4,801
Location
Central MS
Great job! Id love to have an unfluted cylinder for my OM 357. You like the flutes better or just wanted it for thinparticular project?

Its been said and i agree. I wish i had the talent and machinery for this type of project. Id probably be on someone's watch list. Ha!
Again, great job!!
 

Joe S.

Hunter
Joined
Feb 4, 2011
Messages
4,801
Location
Central MS
Oh and before you start your next project on such a pristine revolver, trade it to me for my rubbed finish one. :)
 

Denny

Single-Sixer
Joined
Dec 12, 2002
Messages
137
Location
Southern Indiana
Lee thanks for sharing your time and talent with us. I love tinkering on guns and hope you will do another in the future God Bless
 

Number9

Blackhawk
Joined
Aug 24, 2012
Messages
953
Location
Tennessee
"I was wondering what the relationship between the bolt stops and the ratchet cogs is. So if the cylinder is in your dividing head or 3 jaw chuck in the rotary table, what would be the offset of the cog from each bolt stop? Obviously the spacing on the cogs and stops is 60 degrees, but I was just curious as to how you get the two in proper orientation to each other."

If you are replacing a cylinder in an existing frame, the first question to ask is how well did the old cylinder work... was it flawless? If so, this would be your "standard" even over a set of blueprints.
Many times blueprints are a "starting point" and due to stacking and variations in production they can be off some. Unless you make changes to the frame, window, hand, etc. You would want to duplicate the dimensions and offset relation between the cogs and the stops from the old cylinder.
If you don't know how to measure and existing piece to be duplicated... you're lost before you even start!
 

Lee Martin

Hunter
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
2,313
Location
Arlington, Virginia
Denny said:
Lee thanks for sharing your time and talent with us. I love tinkering on guns and hope you will do another in the future God Bless

Thanks. And I am currently doing another build thread on my forum:

http://singleactions.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gallery&action=display&thread=8069

I'm cloning Ross Seyfried's famous "Buffalo gun" Seville.
 

Hondo44

Hawkeye
Joined
Apr 3, 2009
Messages
8,040
Location
People's Republik of California
Yes, they'd look like 1st generation 1/2" radius Colt flutes.
orig.jpg
 

Greenmando

Bearcat
Joined
Oct 18, 2012
Messages
1
Cool thread Lee. I enjoyed every page of it.

LAH said:
All I will say though, is that this is why crafts die off. Craftsman no longer take apprentices and they are unwilling to share the knowledge they have, thus keeping the craft from growing or surviving a lot of times. I personally believe that this is why a lot of crafts that used to employ people are now turned into just hobbies.
Possibly a sign of the times.
I have seen where training apprentices usually ends one employment. The bean counters usually pick off the experienced men in favor of saving money. Too often, subpar work is sold and a percentage is expected to return under warranty.
 

frankenfab

Single-Sixer
Joined
Feb 20, 2010
Messages
279
Location
Arkansas
Lee Martin said:
You could but they wouldn't look right. The rear portion of the flute would be much more rounded.

It's pretty much impossible on a manual mill, but on a CNC you can program the ball mill to cut a 3"-4" radius in the XZ or YZ plane (depending on which way your cylinder is oriented on the table) and get good looking flutes with tapered ends.

Awesome thread, Lee, thanks for posting.
 

Maximumbob54

Bearcat
Joined
Nov 1, 2012
Messages
34
I love threads like these. Now I'm hoping someone goes nuts on something tiny like take a Bearcat and chamber it in .17 Hornet or something crazy like that. I can't figure why it took me so long to join up here.
 
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