Best tool for cutting loading gate relief?

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rajb123

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...obviously, cutting into hardened steel is not easy. ...how about a 6" power (electric) grinder; what cutting wheel would work here?

...anything else that might be fast and easy? I have some air tools but I need ideas for a cutting bit....?

Thx.
 
You do understand that the "case hardening" on the C&B revolvers is merely coloring don't you? You can make that relief cut with a file.
 
I did a gated Kirst conversion last week on a blued Pietta Remington, and used a Dremel with a grinding wheel and sanding drum. Worked fine. If you use a tungsten carbide cutter it will go faster but be careful.
 
The frames on the bp revolvers are soft.

I taped up area around where work was to be done to prevent file nicks &c and layed out the location where metal was to be removed. I used a large rat tail file, followed by sanding drum using coarse to fine grits in a Dremel tool and cold blued.

Was no problem at all and work went fast.
 
If the CCH is just fake CH, then I could cut the groove, strip the fake CCH, and give the frame a good Kasenit surface hardening. Then, I could hot blue it. Or, brown it and then blacken the browning with boiling water. Hmm.
 
StrawHat said:
You do understand that the "case hardening" on the C&B revolvers is merely coloring don't you? You can make that relief cut with a file.
Click to expand...

I wasn't aware that it was only coloring. Wikipedia indicates that some case hardening produces only a very thin shell. From what folks have described, the surface of the hammers are noticeably harder. Are they processed any differently than the frames?
Even cyaniding is a case hardening process. Do they use a process other than cyaniding?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_hardening
 
articap,

Not sure what process are used to treat frames nowadays but they are not hardened. As for hammers, I routinely square the notches on the C&B revolvers I purchase with nothing more than a Swiss needle file. If they are harder, I have not noticed it. I will say, I have not bought a C&B made after about 1980, so maybe the newer ones are different.

Firearms do not need glass hard frames. Same with the barrels. If the file skips across it, it is probably too hard. Triggers and hammers do need harder bearing surfaces and may be so treated. I have recieved internals that were butter soft and needed to be replaced. ASM was notorious for that.
 
5/8 sanding drum i did not use a dremel i have done two of them. i use a 5/8 grinding drum put it in my makita hand drill then go do town. once it starts taking shape then i use the 5/8 sanding drum. if you go spend i think $15 at lowes you can get a sanding drum kit with about 5 of the sand paper rings. I prefer the 5/8 grinding drum though.
 
Good stuff to know. Thinks for the teaching. :) Got to ask. Dose Uberti use real CCHing or is there's fake also? :confused:
 
Got to ask. Dose Uberti use real CCHing or is there's fake also?
Click to expand...

I don't believe any of the Italian manufacturers use "real" casehardening. Too expensive, not enough folks would want to pay for it. How many folks send their revolvers to David Chicoine or Doug Turnbull and have the process done? Very few!
 
Last edited:
Jaymo

blacken the browning with boiling water.
Click to expand...

I've browned many o' gun but haven't heard of this. Care to elaborate?
I ask coz if i buy one o' those Piettas i'm givin some serious thot to strippin the bluin off and brownin it.
 
I bought a Tamang knife from Himalayan Imports a couple of years ago. It had what they call a "villager fit and finish".
That means the blade is left in the "as forged" state, and not polished.
It had nice black iron oxide on the entire blade, except for where the bevel is ground.
I wanted the whole blade to be black, so I bought some Laurel Mountain (I think) browning solution from Brownell's.
I then, browned the entire bevel/edge and after browning it, poured boiling water over it until it was black enough to stain charcoal.
I like it much better this way.

Anyway, I read about that on the homegunsmith forum. Good info to know.

I blued the blade on one of my carbon steel Mora knives with Brownell's Oxpho-Blue.
It turned out well, too.

BTW, the reason I bought the browning solution was to re-brown my DGW Tennessee Mountain rifle.
I bought some Birchwood Casey Plum Brown and apparently got the new formula, which didn't work at all, for me.
Never did get around to browning that flintlock.
I need to.

Anyway, sending my howdah pistol and Piettas to Doug Turnbull for CCH sounds like a plan. I've seen his CCH and it looks fantastic.
 
in response to JIM

in order to use a conversion cylinder to load from the gun side port you need to port the gun so that you can slide in a cartridge. here are some pics
before
Picture005-1.jpg

after
Picture047.jpg
Copy2ofPicture045.jpg
 
scrat said:
in response to JIM

in order to use a conversion cylinder to load from the gun side port you need to port the gun so that you can slide in a cartridge. here are some pics.....deleted...
Click to expand...

Scrat,

Which cylinder is this if I may ask?

I'm thinking very strongly about converting an 1858 Pietta to .45 LC.

My wife is interested in civil war and I'm interested in both civil war and CAS. So I would like to be able to roll the C&B cylinder back in easily.

Do you have the extractor rod mounted permanently or is it easily removed?

MB
 
Thank you Scrat.Now i understand.
BTW, nice job ;)
Michael brings up a question i was gonna ask. How do you extract the empty cases ?
Also, does cutting this 'gate' into the frame bring up any strength issues now that you'll be burnin modern powders on a BP gun ?
Does one have to very carefully tailor loads ?
 
im shooting using a Kirst cylinder i picked up from Buffalo Arms.

as for ejecting the cases. they sell an ejector you only take out the arbor and replace and on the side is a slide ejector like what you would see on an 1873 colt. for me i found if i just tilt up the gun open the loading gate pull hammer to half cock and turn slowly they slide right on out. The end plate of the gun is not case hardened or anything. cutting a port for a loading gate is the same thing that was done on guns back in the 1870's when cartridge conversions were made up. i have never heard of a port causing a problem. Only problem i have ever heard was due to handloads being done improperly.


to put in the mason side eject you remove a screw on the left side of the arbor put the gun half cock lower and remove loading lever 1 screw the arbor shaft pulls out. put in mason side eject replace screw then reinstall the loading rod. However now its just for looks.. Then your good to go


on my gun after i did the loading port i stripped it all then did a rust blue finish on it. then i put the grips in a coffee can with a bunch of nutts and bolts and shook it up. then i took it to the stove to darken it up and give it that burnt look.
 
You guys who have done the cut/sanding, do any of you have a step by step how to or a video or something? I'm considering this but I don't want to mess something up. :D

Also, I've seen (I think) an ejector assembly that has to be dovetailed into the frame or barrel... are there other options? Scrat in your post it appears there's at least one ejector assy that doesn't need to be dovetailed... can you provide a website or other location where it can be purchased?
 
With a Remington conversion of this sort another option, if the cases are a little sticky due to fouling, is to simply go to half cock, lower the loading lever, withdraw the cylinder pin, roll out the cylinder and use the cylinder pin to eject the cases. Sort of like a big version of the little NAA .22's.

Scrat, are my eye's playing a trick on me or does that cylinder have a rather odd hole spacing? I can see the idea of only 5 holes to make it elligable for CAS. But the "space" is neither large enough to hold the missing chamber nor small enough to make it an evenly spaced 5 shot. So that means that the missing space is a half space? That must make the indexing of the cylinder rather odd?
 
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