Virgin gunsmith's first project

[woofo1]

Hi Friends,

Without giving you all a history lesson, I haven't worked on a firearm in 50 years but I'm relatively handy in the shop. I have a box stock SP 101 that has been my wife's bedside defense arm for 20 years. I have replaced the originals stocks with a Hogue monoblock grip. The action is butter smooth with no creep, no over travel, etc but it is very stiff (strong), the hammer spur has painfully sharp edges and there is a sharp edge on the trigger that bites me every time I shoot it in single action. My plan is to put in a Wolf spring kit with 9# hammer spring and 8# trigger return spring, grind and polish the hammer spur and chamfer the sharp edge on the trigger. I have a Dremel 4200 with a flex attachment for the grinding/polishing work. My intention is to make this weapon a 3 season concealed carry piece. I should mention that I have moderate arthritis in my hands. Any upfront suggestions or cautions for this old goat?

 

[contender]

Welcome to the Forum!

Many of us tinker with our guns,,, so you are no different there. But you asked for advice,,,and as such,,, I will offer this;
Do NOT use the dremel tool! I have seen way too many ruined parts & guns due to the quick & overuse of these tools. Hand tools will be MUCH better. With arthritis, you can easily go a bit overboard by the potential lack of control over the dremel. It does not take much to break a sharp edge on a trigger, or reduce the sharp points of a hammer spur. Files, sanding cloths, sanding stones all are MUCH better for this kind of work. Even the best gunsmiths use power tools sparingly.

 

[Aqualung]

Besides what Contender says, once you change the springs, be sure to test the ignition extensively to ensure you don't get misfires. This is essential for a gun to be used for defense.

I made the same spring swap on my Stainless Pig and didn't regret it at all. I think I put in the 10# spring.

I tested mine thusly:
I took about 50 empty .38 spec cases and deprimed them. I then bored out the flash holes with a drill bit to enlarge them*
I then reprimed them with CCI small pistol primers (reportedly the "toughest" primers to set off). With hearing protection in place, I proceeded to load the primed cases and fired them into a bucket with water in the bottom (I was in my basement). When those were all fired, I deprimed them, reprimed them again and fired them all. I think I ran through about 200 primers in testing with 100% success rate. I then took it to the range and shot it a bunch, too. Never had a misfire.

*Why bore out the flash holes? If just firing primed cases (no bullet or powder), the primers can back out and bind up the cylinder. Boring out the flash holes allows the primer to pop without generating the back-pressure that backs them out.

Aqualung

 

[Precision32]

Another Welcome to the Forum.

Your project sounds like a good one to begin on. As others have pointed out, put the Dremel down! Learn to do the work by hand. You get into trouble a lot SLOWER then you will using power tools.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Many SP-101 owners have done exactly as you want. Get rid of the sharp edges and put lighter springs in it. Get a spring pack with several springs. Test ignition of several brands of ammo. It is pretty well known that Federal primers are the softest, Winchester is in the middle and CCI are the hardest primers.

 

[woofo1]

Well, as expected, I was heading over a cliff and didn't even know it. I will put the Dremel on practice mode for the time being. The last thing I need to do is screw up the wife's gun right out of the chute. I do still want to use the Dremel for a variety of projects if for no other reason than to keep my hands active and challenged. The best medicine for arthritis is activity. I have a Dillon 550B reloader and have reloaded handgun ammo so I know that different primers vary in percussion but I have no idea what the drilling is about much less how to do it with out a specialized jig. More info would be helpful. Mostly, thanks to all. I'm impressed with the helpfulness to a newbie. Bill

 

[RoninPA]

Take a deprimed piece of brass and fit a drill bit into the flash hole. Then go up about 2-3 drill sizes. They're easy to drill out so you can hold one in your fingers. If you can't, just hold the case with a pair of vise grips set to just hold it so it doesn't spin when you drill it. You don't want to clamp down on it so hard the jaws leave indentations or you deform the case. In this case, if you have drills for your dremel you can use it.

 

[Chuck 100 yd]

Just be sure NOT to reload those drilled out cases with a normal load afterwords. They would be fine with wax bullets though.

 

[woofo1]

Drill with my Dremel? Hell, I have a Grizzly floor mounted variable speed 1/2 inch 3 axis drill press. Of course, it does take me 20 minutes to change bits....not really. Thanks again. Bill USAF E-5 Korat RTAFB '70-'71

 

[woofo1]

Well, the new springs are in my SP 101. I didn't need the Grizzly drill press but did get to use the Dremel to put a witness mark on the hammer spring strut to keep the orientation correct (my memory span is shorter than a gold fish). It took me about 30 minutes (one scotch) for the entire job and all went smoothly. Getting the new hammer spring on the strut was a bit of a challenge for my arthritic hands and I had to puzzle for a few minutes to figure out the need to use a screw driver to depress the trigger latch plunger to get the trigger assembly to snap back into place. I had mentioned at the beginning that this particular gun had a "butter" smooth action. Well, with the reduced power springs that is not "exactly" the case. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy with the action as is but there is room for some stone work (on order) somewhere down the line. First things first is to get to the range and touch off a few thousand rounds (just kidding) Once the reloader is back up and running, I'll load up a few hundred rounds with CCI primers and ring it out for real.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

Congrats on that work. Now that you have done it once it won't be so difficult if you have to do it again. Make sure your trigger return is crisp and that the primers all go bang.

...for getting the sharp edges off I have used small files and 400 grit sandpaper wrapped around dowels and such. To dress the brushed stainless finish on a SP-101 a Scotch Brite kitchen scrub pad works pretty good.

This link will take you to all the info you need to tune up your SP and then some.

http://www.sp101trigger.com/index.html