Rebuilding an uncommon critter

I've always had a thing for top break revolvers, as well as for unusual gun, so when a parts kit for a Cody Thunderbird popped up on gunbroker for $60 shipped, I had to grab it.



Of course, I didn't actually know much of anything about this revolver, and didn't bother to look and see if there were any exploded views or even a photo of the internals anywhere on the interwebs before buying. There are not! Nothing, nada, just a few auction photos, an original advertisement image, a blog on Pyramid air and a couple blurbs on bulletin boards.

The 1957 ad:



Not much to go on. Luckily, all the parts except the frame and pins were present, and the side plate on this gun is pretty much the entire frame profile less trigger guard, so I had a template to work with. I traced it out on a piece of 1" 7075-T6 plate and went to work





Once I had it roughed out, I drilled all my holes & tapped the ones for the side plate screws



With the side plate affixed, I was able to trace very close with the cutter. It was painstaking to match all the radii, but if you're gonna do it, do it right!

With the outside profile done and pin holes drilled, I could start laying out parts, figuring out where to mill for those



There would be some finishing touches later, like the cut for the hand, but most of the hogging was done while it was still attached to the thick plate.


Of course, it was still attached to the thick plate, which meant inverting it and milling away everything except the material that would become the cylinder shroud.



After this point I didn't take many more in-process photos, but remembered to do a couple before anodizing



Polished & ready for the bath

I was a bit concerned about how my anodizing would come out, as I’ve never gone for a polished anodize. The 7075 did reveal some grain in the bath, but it came out alright. Not quite as glossy as the factory finish, but close.





There was a fair amount of time spent on final fitment, which wasn’t all that great from factory according to what I’ve read, and I believe it, as there was no forcing cone, and the thing shaved lead badly & keyholed bullets until I gave it one. But it’s fully functional now, and looks pretty good, IMO

Thanks for the compliments, everyone!

Monac said:

It mostly seems like an excellent article to me, but I would object to one point the author makes: He thinks there will be a galvanic reaction between the steel and the aluminum parts of an aluminum-framed revolver. I believe I inquired about that here, and no one had ever heard of that happening in firearms (boats and cars and other things exposed to possibly salty water, yes).

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Carbon steels are slightly more noble than aluminums, but no, galvanic corrosion is not really an issue with firearms. What he was talking about is good old fashioned oxidation rusting the pins into the aluminum frames. Which would, of course, happen with steel frames as well under the same conditions.

There was a decent bit of rust on the trigger & hammer with this one, not a trace of corrosion on the barrel lug or side plate.

I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure galvanic corrosion is virtually impossible with anodized parts anyway, unless the anodic layer is damaged & bare metal exposed. The anodic layer is dielectric.

I did consider making the frame out of steel, but they were originally aluminum, I couldn't anodize steel to match, and it takes a lot longer. This was a ~12 hour project as it is.

460Shooter said:

I'd love to learn to do things like that, but alas, my home is too small, and my wallet to light to support the equipment.

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There's no reason this kind of work couldn't be done on a small, inexpensive benchtop machine like the Seig/Harbor Freight/Grizzly mini mills. Just takes longer, and would require more hand finishing without tooling like a rotary table.

Personally, I think anyone who's remotely handy could benefit greatly in their day-to-day life having a small mill & lathe on hand. Everyday stuff you'd never really think about, but you realize the value of that capability when you find yourself needing something like a very specific sized spacer for a screen door gas cylinder mount or something, and instead of spending two hours hitting various hardware stores and ultimately having to either cobble it together or order the right part on line, you just whip one out in a few minutes without having to go anywhere.

Heck, even my wife found a use for the machines. I taught her the basic functions so she could use the mill for inletting the rear of her custom clocks to recess the movement.



The clocks themselves will probably appeal to this crowd