Now Idaho has two reasons to be happy. The first being they got rid of me last year after 49 years of trying and the second is Joe's wonderful nickel. They may start their own currency.
Andrew, I cut a copy of the Idaho guy tonight. I forgot to reverse the printout, so I left out the Idaho or Bust, but I must say... I had FUN, grinning all the time I was cutting. My boss on this project is from Idaho and he will get a kick out of this one. This is the first thing I've engraved for a few weeks, vacation and busy... and I was afraid to pick up the PC again. I'm a beginner and have a huge investment in the tools for just 'playing', but I must thank you for that neat little design. It got me going again.
Thanks!
Ken
I haven't been on the forum for a long while but this has gotta be one of the funniest threads I've ever read!!! The nickel is killing me!!! It's time to build and engrave a potato cannon!!!
Potato guns are great!!!! they also fire oranges, cucumbers, broccoli left over sandwiches and cake and if you want grape shot..........then grapes work really well.......................kind of messy, but a real hoot
`My brother was in the army in the early seventies and found that a canned fruitcake from a C ration would fit in a beer can cannon, an early form of potato gun. If you took the lid off the cake, it made shrapnel. Not an engraving post, but funny.
Hahaha!!! I love it. I wonder what the muzzle velocity of a ham & cheese sandwich or a fruitcake is????
Hey Andrew ... gotta question for you ... did you get the barrel back on that beautiful revolving carbine? I'm (ever so slowly) working on my Uberti 1858 and don't know how I'm gonna get that barrel torqued back in without damaging the engraving or the inlay in the flat area of the the frame. I don't think the frames on these things a strong enough to be twisted anywhere else but on that flat spot that the barrel screws into.
If it's my mothers fruitcake then I wouldn't want to be standing in front of it. They tasted real good but could bowl and Elephant over!!!!
No I never did. I engraved the frame and then got side tracked. It's on the "to do" list.
But I know exactley what you are saying. The frame is a pretty flimsy thing alright and yip, that flat spot that the barrell screws into is the only thing that you can hang onto with any confidence. To get it off was a mission. I went to a local gunsmith and he had to hold the thing in a 2 million ton press and had sweat coming off his forehead trying to get the barrell out. I just said "go for it" and had my fingers crossed behind my back as extra insurance...............what didn't boost my confidence was when he started regailing me with all his gunsmith stories of bending modern steel actions and barrells trying to get them apart!!!!
Getting it back in, perfectly alligned, makes me wonder a bit. The gunsmith said it would be OK so I hope he's right when I come to do mine.
Chris;
Would you be able to take Thermolock, and use it to form to your engraving , and use it in the vise jaws. Seems that you could use it, and protect, while putting quite a bit of pressure on it. Food for thought.
I'll again pop in with some of my gunsmithing background here.
Usually, if you get the barrel off it isn't that bad to put it back on. A lot of times they were "crush fit" to the action and once that was done, indexing them back isn't as hard. If it is a long way from indexing, you can use a lathe and make a very minor back cut on the shoulder so it indexes easier. If it is real close, I will install the barrel to "fairly" tight and then loosen it several times. This will relieve the shoulder a bit as well to allow it to index easier.
Regarding indexing the barrel back into a revolver: Before I remove a barrel I make very small index marks on the frame and barrel. The marks are under where the ejector rod housing will hide them on an SAA or where the rammer will hide it on a C&B pistol. This way the sights will be back in exact alignment when the barrel is reinstalled. When I put the barrel back into the frame I place the barrel into a large bench vise using hardwood jaws. If the barrel is round I have a set of wooden jaws with a half round cutout on each and I put powdered rosin on the cutout to prevent slipping. I then screw the frame onto the barrel and finish tightening by placeing a wooden hammer handle through the cylinder window. As the frame becomes tight on the barrel I tap the hammer head with my hand while checking my index marks using my Optivisor. I have never bent anything with this method. As Rex indicated, It is much harder getting the barrel to snap free of the frame than to reinstall. When taking the barrel and frame apart the key is to do it quickly with a sharp blow rather than slowly twisting.
I hope this is of some help to those of you who have been struggeling with engraving revolvers with the barrel attached to the frame.
One technique I use for removing stubborn barrels like on a rifle is.......
Put the barrel in a vic and attach a long bar clamp like a woodworker uses to the action. Now put a bucket of sand or anything else you might have in the bucket for wieght onto the end of the clamp. Now go to sleep and in the morning it will be lose. The slow steady constant wieght seems to break free the most stubborn barrels and actions. Much easier and safer than trying to force it free with muscle power.