Wow, what an interesting thread. I missed this one until now. That's the problem with being out of the loop every other 2 weeks.
Thanks for the great photos and sharing the progress of your project.
Thanks guys. Never considered doing it as a business. For one, I don't have an FFL. Secondly, there're a lot of great pistolsmiths already out there (Clements, Linebaugh, Bowen, Harton, Stroh, etc). It's hard to compete with established names.
Thanks Lee, I have no practical knowledge of these kind of things. Your posts are better than any book. Thanks for taking your time and giving us a behind the scenes look. Much appreciated!
I love it a true work of art. If I had the equipment and knowhow to work it I would never buy a gun again. This way you could build it exactly like you wanted in every detail. Awesome work.
Thanks Lee, I know you put a lot of time into this post. I know it gives me a better insight of how things are done along with the time envolved. Makes it a little easier to lay out that cash for those conversions.
I finally heat-treated the cylinder this afternoon:
17-4 is held at 975 F for four hours then air-cooled. Rockwelled @ 41 so it came out just right. The next step is to hone the basepin hole and throats. Length wise shrinkage came it at 0.0002", so there's virtually no impact to fit.