Lonesome Dove Walker

[Bad Karma]

Those cylinder notches look a little shallow on a "questionable" cylinder make ( for a prop gun). Making sure the bolt is contacting the bottom on the tall side of the notch should keep that from happening. The cylinder may not have much if any kind of heat treatment.
The Uberti cylinders should hold up pretty well though usually the material will "upset" slightly on the tall side when cycled rapidly. That's a lot of weight spinning even when unloaded. If you tap it down ( I use a tack hammer that was my dad's) a couple of times, it'll work harden it enough to not be a recurring problem.
Since I install an action stop, I make sure there is slight play in the cylinder at full cock ( thumb still on hammer) meaning no hand / ratchet contact. That's obviously a notch saver in itself. A bolt block is always a good addition as well to keep throw-by at bay.

Mike

Ps, I always "back cut" the tall side of the bolt. That keeps the bolt from contacting the edge of the notch but the "bolt head" (down in the notch) is still full width.

I’d be interested in seeing the hammer and firing pin on that gun. Safe for shooting blanks but I wouldn’t want to see it fired with live ammunition, even black powder.

 

[M. De Land]

Just a heads up that one of the chief complaints from the War department back in the day was that they needed to replace wedges too frequently. They also ordered a few thousand replacement frames and arbors for field repairs. This refers to the 1851, and 1860 of course.

Huh, kinda sounds like arbor end fit was an issue then as well as now days if that is the primary cause of wedge deformation because they certainly knew how to case harden them to depth in the originals.

 

[Bad Karma]

Huh, kinda sounds like arbor end fit was an issue then as well as now days if that is what actually causes wedge deformation because they certainly knew how to case harden them to depth in the originals.

Hard to say. Material composition would be a likely culprit as well. Colt advised people to drive the wedge into place. Well, there’s driving and there’s DRIVING. I know a young man who had his ratchet wrench handles shortened to about 4” long because with any more mechanical advantage he would accidentally destroy wrenches, bolts or both.

 

[45D]

Just a heads up that one of the chief complaints from the War department back in the day was that they needed to replace wedges too frequently. They also ordered a few thousand replacement frames and arbors for field repairs. This refers to the 1851, and 1860 of course.

I'm sure this was because some of them thought "just thumb pressure" was all ya need . . . ( just like some today . . . ). The reproductions handle that kind of thinking better than the originals because originals are pretty soft. There's no reason a wedge or arbor should be deformed if the wedge is in properly.

Mike

 

[M. De Land]

That's good but I can't stress enough about the action stop. It will save hand, a block will do the same for the notch and bolt.
Here's a profile of the "back cut" for the bolt head :
View attachment 288064

M

Hard to say. Material composition would be a likely culprit as well. Colt advised people to drive the wedge into place. Well, there’s driving and there’s DRIVING. I know a young man who had his ratchet wrench handles shortened to about 4” long because with any more mechanical advantage he would accidentally destroy wrenches, bolts or both.

I've always given them a seating lick with the butt of a screw driver handle then tested to see if I could push them out with double thumb pressure, if not then we're good to go. I've had to replace several battered factory wedges on various models of guns but none yet of the ones I make of tool steel and fit them up snug vertically as well as horizontally. Some of them were never arbor end fit either which causes my skepticism of short arbors being the only cause. Usually part failures have combinations of causative factors involved in their demise.
I'm wondering if the vertical fit I put on these wedges I make is mitigating the speculated bounce back possibly occurring with short arbors.

 

[M. De Land]

Hard to say. Material composition would be a likely culprit as well. Colt advised people to drive the wedge into place. Well, there’s driving and there’s DRIVING. I know a young man who had his ratchet wrench handles shortened to about 4” long because with any more mechanical advantage he would accidentally destroy wrenches, bolts or both.

I can only remember one "creeping rack" loading lever failure where I had to build up the points with weld and refile to engage and do their work. I much prefer the "screw axle" pivot scheme as it is much simpler to replace and repair.
I've yet to bend a loading lever but then this new Walker may be a whole new learning curve shooting the resized ACP bullets that seat pretty hard. I think the key is to not use lever extensions and possible hard alloys .