Author Topic: A man has to know his limitations..... (Read 863 times)

Cheyenne Ranger · « **on:** March 22, 2006, 01:26:29 PM »

Time to admit that my shadetree gunsmithing needs to be straightened out by a pro.
When I got my SxS "project gun" I figured I would learn a bit on it--and, boy Howdy, have I :grin: :grin:

All but one problem I've been able to fix but it's hard to grind ON more metal when you're messing with a leaf spring.

I took one down a bit (OK, a bunch) too far so I've contacted one of the gunsmiths on the web who says he can manufacture hard to get parts and asked what it would cost to "correct" my over-zelous grinding.

As we say in teaching, "Education is usually painful, expensive or both." :grin:

C (who hopes he learned his lesson) R

howdy doody · « **Reply #1 on:** March 22, 2006, 10:42:16 PM »

What are you working on? Colt, Remmie? I never had good results grinding hour glass main springs and found just the ticket at Brownells and they are made by Wolfe.

Well, having a project gun is fun and doing it yourself is satisfying, but sometimes it does get frustrating. I know from experience. I used to have a pair of Model Ps from Uberti. I fooled around with them a lot and I converted them to coil springs and they worked pretty good, but after a while I decided to sell them. A pard bought them for his wife and though she doesn't shoot all the time they are still doing a good job for the past 4 years or so.

Hang in there pard, it is part of the hobby is all. :grin:

44 Man · « **Reply #2 on:** March 23, 2006, 10:09:33 AM »

Ah yes........... a dremel is a wonderous thing! Don't feel bad Cheyenne, we've all been there. I'm have a friend weld a little bit of metal back on to a part that I took too much off as we speak. How are you doing anyway? Have you gotten past most of your physical ailments for a while? Hope so, we've been praying for you. 44 Man

Cheyenne Ranger · « **Reply #3 on:** March 24, 2006, 02:15:31 PM »

Hey All,

Doing much better health-wise. Been almost a year and still not back but not going the other way, which was a posibility there for a bit.

The shotgun I have is marked Charles Daly, made is Spain by Astra. Turns out after doing some web-searching that you can't find parts for these.

So I'm going to learn making and heat treating flat springs. Brownells sells the flat spring steel so all I "think" will be the challenge will be tempering/hardening/whatever you call it process.

Got my other SxS working (again with shortening the springs--think I would learn) so this one isn't even the back-up now.

I'll be casting and loading this week-end. We started a brand new club here in Houston so I get to play cowboy again in a week.

CR

leverfan · « **Reply #4 on:** March 24, 2006, 08:27:31 PM »

CR-

I'm glad you're doing better. I posted an answer, and a smart-aleck comment, to your spring tempering question over on your SASS thread. It looks like a fairly easy, straight-forward method to spring tempering. If you have a Brownells catalog, you should find the complete text in the spring section. It's on page 151 of my catalog number 57. Or, you can just read what I copied over on SASS (probably violated some lousy copyrights rule, too).

Cheyenne Ranger · « **Reply #5 on:** March 25, 2006, 02:21:24 PM »

Figured it was supposed to be funny! :grin: :grin:

Several people mentioned that if I call Brownells and talk to a Service Tech they may have some springs that will work. I sure beats learning a new skill at my age.

Still have the "make it myself" plan to fall back on if needed.

CR