Cylinder reaming before/after

[hawkeye2]

Charlie does and it's much cheaper to have some one do the job right than it is to buy the reamer.

http://hahnmachineworks.com/index.html

 

[M. De Land]

Where would a guy find a reamer of that size ? Stacey

I use a simple chucking reamer with a taper on the nose. You do not want to go all the way to the base in most instances in my opinion but you do want to go to the same depth in each chamber. Most cylinders are pretty thin already over the bolt notches so I don't like to ream under them , just the front of the chamber where the ball is seated is all that is needed.
The best most accurate way I have found to ream a chamber is to remove the barrel and make a reamer guide that screws into the barrel thread in the frame. The reamer shank sticks out where the barrel was. You lock up each chamber in it's respective notch and turn in the reamer which is aligned by the snug fitting reamer guide. This is about as close to line boring as you can get with a chambered cylinder.
It can be done by hand but I have never been as accurate with this method as with a reamer guide that keeps the reamer coaxial with the bore.

 

[roadgrader]

I use a simple chucking reamer with a taper on the nose. You do not want to go all the way to the base in most instances in my opinion but you do want to go to the same depth in each chamber. Most cylinders are pretty thin already over the bolt notches so I don't like to ream under them , just the front of the chamber where the ball is seated is all that is needed.
The best most accurate way I have found to ream a chamber is to remove the barrel and make a reamer guide that screws into the barrel thread in the frame. The reamer shank sticks out where the barrel was. You lock up each chamber in it's respective notch and turn in the reamer which is aligned by the snug fitting reamer guide. This is about as close to line boring as you can get with a chambered cylinder.
It can be done by hand but I have never been as accurate with this method as with a reamer guide that keeps the reamer coaxial with the bore.

Thanks for the heads up I will try it when my reamer gets here. Stacey

 

[Bad Karma]

Thanks for the heads up I will try it when my reamer gets here. Stacey

Don’t use power tools to accomplish this... I have used a drill press but I chucked the reamer in the press and then turned the reamer by hand with plenty of cutting oil. This worked very well but sending the cylinders to Charlie Hahn worked even better!

 

[sourdough]

Now, if you want the most accurate revolver, the size of the chamber (and the ball after it is rammed into the chamber) should be the same size as the rifling grooves in the barrel. Usually this resizing is done by using a reamer.
A hone could be used to do the same job but hones to fit the size needed are rather hard to find. Also, with a hone it is possible to make the chamber tapered or out of round. Reamers won't do that.

I use a simple chucking reamer with a taper on the nose. You do not want to go all the way to the base in most instances in my opinion but you do want to go to the same depth in each chamber. Most cylinders are pretty thin already over the bolt notches so I don't like to ream under them , just the front of the chamber where the ball is seated is all that is needed.

When designing the Colt 1860 New Model Army .44 to replace the 1848 3rd Model Dragoon Old Model Army, in an effort to get the weight down to approximate the 1851 Navy .36, Colt came up with the rebated full-fluted cylinder in which the chambers were originally bored .44 caliber for the entire length. After numerous US Army proof tests where the cylinder chamber ruptured, Colt redesigned the cylinder chambers in what he termed as the "cavalry cylinder' chambering, wherein the rear of the chambers were tapered down to about .36 caliber around the cylinder stop slots, preventing chamber ruptures.

This is from Charles W. Pate's excellent book The Colt Army Model 1860 Army Revolver (2018)

I have an Armi San Marco 1860 Army .44 (BD/1994) that I purchased used several years ago that had the standard engraved rebated cylinder, but I wanted a full-fluted cylinder for it. ASM had been out of business since ~2002 and there were no full-fluted cylinders for it on the used market. After taking measurements of the original cylinder and comparing them to both Uberti and Pietta cylinders, I took a chance on the Uberti cylinder (purchased from VTI in 2018), and it fit perfectly. I also noted that the chambers of the Uberti cylinder have a step near the rear of the chamber, even in this modern day and age of metallurgy, possibly to somewhat emulate the Colt chamber.

Regards,

JIm

 

[M. De Land]

Don’t use power tools to accomplish this... I have used a drill press but I chucked the reamer in the press and then turned the reamer by hand with plenty of cutting oil. This worked very well but sending the cylinders to Charlie Hahn worked even better!

Yes,you can certainly ruin a cylinder if not experienced in this sort of work so if there is any doubt it makes much more sense to send the work out. However it is not beyond the ability of any competent home machinist/mechanic . As the saying goes "It ain't rocket science" !

 

[Lippy984]

Charlie does and it's much cheaper to have some one do the job right than it is to buy the reamer.

http://hahnmachineworks.com/index.html

Yes,you can certainly ruin a cylinder if not experienced in this sort of work so if there is any doubt it makes much more sense to send the work out. However it is not beyond the ability of any competent home machinist/mechanic . As the saying goes "It ain't rocket science" !

yeah, I learned this the hard way the first go around. I wasn’t using my head, and somehow really screwed up my cylinder. Took forever to get a new one in stock. Either spend the money for the proper tools, or if you don’t have many to actually ream, just send it to Hahn.

 

[Bad Karma]

Yes,you can certainly ruin a cylinder if not experienced in this sort of work so if there is any doubt it makes much more sense to send the work out. However it is not beyond the ability of any competent home machinist/mechanic . As the saying goes "It ain't rocket science" !

A wis man once told me that he could do more damage to an expensive part in 3 minutes with a power tool than he could in 3 hours with a hand tool. Or something...

You’re right though, use the proper tools and go sloooow and carefully and it’s not beyond the abilities of most of us hobbyist Gun cranks. Measure twice, cut once.