Eli Whitney, Jr. made Colt’s Walker models.
-
Friends, our 2nd Amendment rights are always under attack and the NRA has been a constant for decades in helping fight that fight.
We have partnered with the NRA to offer you a discount on membership and Muzzleloading Forum gets a small percentage too of each membership, so you are supporting both the NRA and us.
Use this link to sign up please; https://membership.nra.org/recruiters/join/XR045103
How were Colt 1860-61 revolver barrels contoured?
- Thread starter bullshot
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
Think you guys are short changing a lot of these programs. While CNC programming/operation is a major part, they are all still taught basic manual operation.I suspect they'd be very annoyed at not having DROs anymore though. And no indicators until the late 1880's.
Tyler L
40 Cal
Oh I'm not talking about CNC machinists, but any modern machinist. The 19th century ways aren't too bad on a lathe, one can do good work with spring calipers and a scale/rule, but on a mill it kinda stinks. Maintaining your X/Y positions with only graduated dials and scales can be a headache.
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2009
- Messages
- 4,537
- Reaction score
- 8,060
And jigs… and government inspectors overseeing every step of the process with gauges to ensure uniformity. There are some excellent drawings in Paces book. The factory was modern in almost every respect except it was all driven by one giant steam engine, driveshafts and belts.
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2011
- Messages
- 9,338
- Reaction score
- 4,514
A forging most definitely to begin with as were the receivers and then mills and shapers and finally hand fitting with files and stones. The wedge slots were broached I believe.
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2021
- Messages
- 336
- Reaction score
- 537
Great thread, history needs to remembered as to who we owe for the advancements made. I was taught 50 years ago so CNC, DROs and the Internet didn't exist for me. All my work is old school, including dealing with back lash LOL.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2011
- Messages
- 9,338
- Reaction score
- 4,514
The parts of the guns that had to be case hardened were soft fitted by file initially and then hard fitted after heat treating with stones and emery paper. Warping is always present to one degree or an other when case hardening , even when jigged/blocked down to prevent it hence the requirement for final hard fitting .
Just about every gun part I have case hardened needed to be refit by stoning upon reassembly and even when they would go together without it I could still detect that the tolerance had changed and a small amount of warpage had occurred.
Last edited:
I dug out several books on Colts C&B I had not looked at in ages. The one shown here by Wm Edwards goes into some detail regarding how the Colts C&Bs were made. In summary, "... the Root designed and Colt inspired machines took steel and carved it like soap." p 279. Book as several photos of various machines including shapers. I'm selling this book and 2 on Paterson-Walker revolvers on General Merchandise. Three treasure troves if one is hooked on C&B revolvers,
Looks like a VERY nice lathe and I bet it has a price to match it. I got an older 12" X 36" Jet and LOVE it.
I admit I don't have the first clue what yall are saying nor some ( ok ya got me all of the termilogy yall are using) but seeing these photos of some of the old machinery to make our beloved Colts I find highly fascinating. Bullshot, thank you for posting what ya did of this book. I love history anyway but nice to see photos and descriptions always helps me soak the info in better. Nice thread yall got going on here.
I reduced the price on the 3 books to $75 plus $20 shipping.I admit I don't have the first clue what yall are saying nor some ( ok ya got me all of the termilogy yall are using) but seeing these photos of some of the old machinery to make our beloved Colts I find highly fascinating. Bullshot, thank you for posting what ya did of this book. I love history anyway but nice to see photos and descriptions always helps me soak the info in better. Nice thread yall got going on here.
