Need help with OM SBH cylinder problem

[Cholo]

About 18 months ago I bought a very nice OM SBH. I took it to the range and had a hard time getting my cartridges to seat in 2 of the recessed chambers. You could give them a nudge and they'd snap in place. Good luck getting them to eject though. I had to remove the cylinder 2x and firmly tap them out. Time to quit and I put the gun back in the safe.

The other day I decided to see what was up. Same thing. It happened in other chambers, but most often with one. Usually if I turned the cartridge just right it might drop in place. They all drop right in place with my OM .44 Flattop. Yup, they're my reloads. I remembered I bought some factory .44 Special's for the RF East that didn't all get shot. Same thing!

The rim of the case seems to hang up in/on the recess of the cylinder. The worst recess does seem to have been a cut a bit rough, the rest look ok. My guess only is that the recesses in the cylinder seem to be about .001 too small. Has anybody ever seen or heard of this?

So I drank a 5th of Jack and...JK :wink: I'm open to suggestions. I don't have the tools to polish the resesses in the cylinder and keep them all square, but I did get a bright idea :idea: Would taking a fired case inserted backwards, primer side in, and some polishing compound iron out the rough chamber recess and maybe with some elbow grease, smooth out the others and open them about .001? I don't want to end up with another paperweight, and this man really does know his limitations :wink:

Thanks in advance...

 

[tek4260]

Sounds like you are on the right track. If the polishing compound doesn't work, you can try some valve lapping compound.

 

[flatgate]

Odd, but, with Ruger, I'll believe anything..... :D

I'd inspect with a really good "loop" (magnifying glass). If indeed they are as you say you need to find a .44 mag. headspace reamer and could probably "touch up" the headspace machining by hand. A careful twist or two of the wrist would probably take care of things. Extra caution is the order of the day since going too deep could cause misfires and also accuracy issues. Most revolvers have some "room" in that critical dimension so everything doesn't have to be "half a thou"......

Or, it could be "fouling" and might come out with some light scraping.....

Again, please inspect closely and keep the discussion going here....

flatgate

 

[Cholo]

Thanks for the responses! I edited my OP where it's highlighted in bold. The chambers all look fine.

I deep cleaned the cylinder and used a really hard plastic dental pick to scrape around the recesses. Squeeky clean! I took a piece of brass and put the rim in the recesses and gently turned it. I could feel resistance and there would be a shiny spot on the rim of the brass in a couple of the recesses. This was with my handloads, so I took them out of the equasion because they'd been loaded several times and can get little nicks etc on the rim.

So now I'm using only .44 Special factory loads in never fired Starline brass. It's not as bad, but it's still there. If I fill the cylinder by dropping the loaded cartridges straight down, I can sometimes dump all 6, other times only 3-4. I took the cylinder out of my OM Flattop and no problems whatsoever. I did notice this though:

In the Flattop all the cartridges were perfectly flush with the cylinder. Sweet! In the OM SBH I could feel every one of them, 2-3 more than others, standing "proud". I know this is all about minute tolerences. I believe somethings off about .001".

I'm about to get started. Is there anything I need to have that's not in the pic? :wink: Seriously, I appreciate your help! Only on the RF...(thumb's up!)

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Don't you need some type of power tool just to make sure you really mess the cylinder up good? I'm thinking 18v cordless maybe. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

...Jimbo

 

[MOUNTAIN WILLIAM]

I know that you've undoubtedly done it already but are the chambers squeaky clean?

 

[Cholo]

I know that you've undoubtedly done it already but are the chambers squeaky clean?

"I deep cleaned the cylinder and used a really hard plastic dental pick to scrape around the recesses. Squeeky clean!" Cholo

Yup, MOUNTAIN WILLIAM, already did that. Those chambers/recesses are cleaner than a dog's mouth :wink:

Jimbo, I have 4 DeWalt 18v cordless drills. I forgot to put them in my pic...

Thanks for all responses. I'll get 'er right on my own, hopefully "With a little help from my friends". The Beatles

 

[tek4260]

Ooh a Jager powered file has to be better than a regular ol beer powered one!

 

[braud357]

----- you need a bigger hammer !! :D