I have read the post below, and I was in the same boat, but I have an excellent selection of fine files, stones, straight edges, punches, picks, gauges, polishing agents and burnishers. The information cited in the other post is excellent, as are Khunhousen's and Iowegians publications.
In order of work to be done first, take off the grips, of course. Before you begin to remove the main spring, make sure that the main spring strut does not come down and touch any part of the frame casting during the cycle, as two of my three showed. None of the manuals mentioned this problem, which is why I posted it here several weeks ago. You will never get what you want unless you grind the casting away for clearance.
The mainspring strut keeper at the bottom has a rectangular hole which I believe to be a significant source of mild grittiness. It is a stamped part, so flatten the thing on both sides with 400 to 600 grit sandpaper on a granite or glass flat. A triangular shaped tapered burnisher from Woodsmith (expensive but worth it) forcefully worked around the edges of that hole will relocate some metal, so flatten it on both sides again. Small various grit model making abrasive sticks are available at Hobby Lobby....There are four grit choices, from 220 to finer on both sides of these little foam six inch x 3/32 strips.
Those strips are also great for cleaning up the hand channel. Nothing else will get up there all of the way, including the commercial hand channel files which I have.
Next flatten all of the inside of the frame with Gershwin 320 and 600 small stones. Get all of the small ones. You will be glad you did. Cheap. You must also remove the trigger group parts to flatten the inside surfaces. Burnish the trigger slot of the trigger guard. There is a lot of pressure/friction against the right side for some reason.
Then do everything that the manuals say to do, and more as you see fit. I used rotated abrasive rubber three inch wheel on a small Harbour Freight mini bench grinder. I followed that with a two inch loose muslin wheel at high speed on a Baldour buffer. The muslin was heavily dusted with rust brown Tripoli powder. Again, the main spring strut was made very smooth to reduce friction while the spring is being compressed.
With the work completed, and the stock springs in place, I had a smooth ten plus double action and a crisp single action weighing four pounds. I have Wolff springs, but used a Wilson Combat ten pound main spring and the ten pound trigger spring. That got me a nine pound DA, and a 2# 14oz SA. As others have found, the reset was not comfortably strong enough to overcome my finger pressure at all times. Restoring the stock trigger spring took me back to four pounds SA. Removing 2/3 of a coil from the stock trigger return spring and really carefully grinding the spring flat gave me exactly the feel that I wanted.
The SA is now 3# 9 oz.......good luck with your kitchen table gunsmithing.
In order of work to be done first, take off the grips, of course. Before you begin to remove the main spring, make sure that the main spring strut does not come down and touch any part of the frame casting during the cycle, as two of my three showed. None of the manuals mentioned this problem, which is why I posted it here several weeks ago. You will never get what you want unless you grind the casting away for clearance.
The mainspring strut keeper at the bottom has a rectangular hole which I believe to be a significant source of mild grittiness. It is a stamped part, so flatten the thing on both sides with 400 to 600 grit sandpaper on a granite or glass flat. A triangular shaped tapered burnisher from Woodsmith (expensive but worth it) forcefully worked around the edges of that hole will relocate some metal, so flatten it on both sides again. Small various grit model making abrasive sticks are available at Hobby Lobby....There are four grit choices, from 220 to finer on both sides of these little foam six inch x 3/32 strips.
Those strips are also great for cleaning up the hand channel. Nothing else will get up there all of the way, including the commercial hand channel files which I have.
Next flatten all of the inside of the frame with Gershwin 320 and 600 small stones. Get all of the small ones. You will be glad you did. Cheap. You must also remove the trigger group parts to flatten the inside surfaces. Burnish the trigger slot of the trigger guard. There is a lot of pressure/friction against the right side for some reason.
Then do everything that the manuals say to do, and more as you see fit. I used rotated abrasive rubber three inch wheel on a small Harbour Freight mini bench grinder. I followed that with a two inch loose muslin wheel at high speed on a Baldour buffer. The muslin was heavily dusted with rust brown Tripoli powder. Again, the main spring strut was made very smooth to reduce friction while the spring is being compressed.
With the work completed, and the stock springs in place, I had a smooth ten plus double action and a crisp single action weighing four pounds. I have Wolff springs, but used a Wilson Combat ten pound main spring and the ten pound trigger spring. That got me a nine pound DA, and a 2# 14oz SA. As others have found, the reset was not comfortably strong enough to overcome my finger pressure at all times. Restoring the stock trigger spring took me back to four pounds SA. Removing 2/3 of a coil from the stock trigger return spring and really carefully grinding the spring flat gave me exactly the feel that I wanted.
The SA is now 3# 9 oz.......good luck with your kitchen table gunsmithing.
