Do you remove side plate for cleaning and lubrication?

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dekibg

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Have Taurus 692 , maybe five hundred rounds fired all together ( 357, 38, 9mm) since I purchased it several years ago. Sadly, most of rounds were probably 9mm instead of 38/357 due to ammo pricing and availability. Anywho, I did remove side plate once several years ago , did some light cleaning and lubrication there , and honestly I was intimidated by the revolvers internals! All those little springs and parts etc…
I didn’t even cock the revolver without side plate bc I was afraid that somehow something may come out of it’s place or fly off. It has been several hundred rounds since the last cleaning and lubing of internals ( excluding a drop of oil in the mechanism from above with hammer cocked ) . Should I just leave it alone, or go ahead and clean and lube complete internals again after several years?
If I use one of those highly pressurized gun cleaners for dissolving powder residue and crud, can that remove all those tiny parts from their place or they are firmly held in place by the main spring pressure ? Sorry about so many questions but I am obviously not familiar with revolver’s internals.
P.s. guns sits in the safe and it is not carried so there is no lint , etc.
 
Every once in a while, depending on how much I have shot a particular revolver, I remove the side plate and flush the insides with Hornady One Shot CLP. I let that dry and then add small drops of oil to pivot points and the rebound slide.
If the interior is really dirty or gummy then I disassemble and clean, but that is usually after buying a used gun and the prior owner never cleaned the inner works.
 
Usually, I hose them out with Hoppe's gun scrubber or something similar up through the trigger guard or down through the hammer slot, (brake cleaner), some kind of stripper, then spray Rem oil down in there and let it drain out. I'm not big with putting extra wear on screw heads, or an accidental scratch from a screwdriver that slipped.

I take mine apart only when I have to, my Rugers about once every few months they have to come apart. S&Ws- never have to.
I just recently got rid of the M Pro 7 bore cleaner and went back to Hoppes, so I hope the Ruger's cylinder binding problem improves . The gas seal on the front of Ruger cylinders don't seal at all.
S&W's gas seal does a decent job keeping the crud out.

Edit: had to fix my verbage.
 
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I have S&W and Ruger revolvers that have never had the side plate off and they are over 20 years old all I have ever done is what tightgroup tiger does spray them out with spray cleaner then I give them a healthy spray of Hornady One Shot cleaner/lube let it drain out well and I am good to go. I only do it twice a year and in between I give them a light spray of REM Oil . This has served me well and have never had any problems with either of the guns doing this.
 
It is obvious that American designed revolvers were not meant to be completely disassembled by the owners. There is nothing easy, logical about them. It is also interesting to see that the design philosophy of early European service revolvers was to make them easy and intuitive to disassemble




Many of these old European revolvers were made so the user could easily expose the innards, and clean them.

I have disassembled my Colts, S&W's, Taurus revolvers. I don't recommend disassembling a Charter Arms. Sometimes you have to take the side plate off to remove old, gummed up, oxidized grease or oil. If you can simply blast them with carb cleaner, followed by compressed air, without taking off the sideplate, it is better to do so. And if you have to take off the side plate, if you can get carb cleaner under the parts, without removing them, it is better to do so. Once the sideplate is off, you run the risk of parts flying away if you hit them with compressed air.

Springs will take off, so if you are going to remove parts, don't do it over shag carpet (parts disappear in the tuffs) and if you can dissemble the thing inside a paper bag, you are more likely to catch the spring loaded parts if they take off. Nothing is perfect, especially when you have to reassemble.
 
.38 Special said:
On a heavily used gun - meaning at least a few hundred rounds per month - I will pull the side plate once a year, flush the lockwork, and lightly lube. I never remove any lock pieces unless there's something wrong with them.
Click to expand...
This is what I do. I'll spritz brake cleaner, let dry, and lube with a synthetic. Synthetics don't dry out. Pulling a gun out I've cleaned and lubed with synthetic years ago, the lube is still good, gun works flawlessly.

I used to be the Primary Firearms Instructor for an office of about 200 agents. They were issued a semiautomatic and a Model 60 for backup/off duty. Once a year I pulled the side plate, cleaned and lubed. No issues.
 
Seeing the Swiss, Swedish service revolver guts reminds me of
the Colt design for its DA revolvers such as the Police Positive,
Officers Model and pre-2020 Python.

Be that as it may, the more "complicated" S&W DA design has
stood the test of time as the most sought after and copied.
 
I pulled the sideplate off the first handgun I owned, a Model 19, and being dumb as a brick, I pried the sideplate off and chipped it. Since then I've been very reluctant to do it again, even thought I know how to now, and have done it with no problems. I just don't like to, so I don't. Spray 'em with gunscrubber, through every nook and cranny I can find, put a drop or two of oil here and there, and work it in dry firing. It finds itself where it's supposed to go. Any extra runs out on it's own. It's worked for 45 years or so.
 
I've had some revolvers for more than 40yrs and have never felt the need to remove the side plate for cleaning or lube reasons.

If it gets gritty feeling, flush it out with gum cutter and blow out with air but put a heavy oil lube in afterwards. Remove the grips so the spring can be cleaned and lubed and the dirt can flush out. Clean grips seperatly and don't forget to oil the threads and screw heads regularly.

Hot soapy water works also but be sure to lube well afterwards.
 
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If and when you decide to remove a sideplate, be sure to watch a few videos first: do not pry the plate up. And be sure to relieve tension on the hammer spring first, either by backing out a flat spring's strain screw or pinning down a coil spring; this relieves strain on the hammer pivot stud once the sideplate is off. If OTOH you decide to lube and blast through frame openings, at least remove the grips first so XS oil and any crud has a place to escape through.
 
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No one has asked but I thought anyone reading this might want to know the proper way of removing a S&W and probably a Taurus side plate.
EDIT: It appears me and @Col. Harrumph were posting at the same time. :)

From Brownells on YouTube:
youtu.be

Quick Tip: How to properly take a side plate off a Smith and Wesson Revolver

Gun Tech Steve Ostrem demonstrates the proper way to remove a side plate from a Smith and Wesson revolver.K/L/N Reduced Power Kit 080-665-2014-in-1 Combo 080...
youtu.be youtu.be
 
The last time I took the side plate off my S&W Model 642 to do a detailed cleaning, it was after a few thousand rounds... yet, the internals of the revolver were still so clean, that I came to the conclusion it was ultimately a waste of time to do this. Now, I just don't worry about it anymore, unless something actually feels wrong with the action, or the gun is submerged in water or something. For normal use, there is no need to ever take the side plate off.

I do take side plates off new revolvers though, to clean out the factory petroleum based lubes and replace it with superior Seal1 CLP.
20230402_143134.jpg
20230327_184044.jpg
 
GRIZ22 said:
This is what I do. I'll spritz brake cleaner, let dry, and lube with a synthetic. Synthetics don't dry out. Pulling a gun out I've cleaned and lubed with synthetic years ago, the lube is still good, gun works flawlessly.

I used to be the Primary Firearms Instructor for an office of about 200 agents. They were issued a semiautomatic and a Model 60 for backup/off duty. Once a year I pulled the side plate, cleaned and lubed. No issues.
Click to expand...
What sythetic do you recommend?
 
Yep, just to be thorough. Take good pics in small steps. And if a parts diagram is available: that too. spend a cup of coffee on looking at the parts layout in the diagram. Also MAKE SURE you have a GOOD set of revolver gunsmith tools. (Brownell's Mag N tip sets) or a complete Chapman set. Get a magnetic gunsmith matt or parts bin. and jolly ranches to help focus the mind, lol
 
dekibg said:
What sythetic do you recommend?
Click to expand...
I know you asked Griz22, but I use the Hornady One Shot CLP and Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil. One quart should last you…Oh…the rest of your life. ;)

I bought the lightest weight Mobil 1. I think it was 5W20.
Amazon has some pretty nifty needle oiler bottles cheap.
 
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unless the gun has obvious issues like the hammer or trigger sticking, difficult trigger pull in DA or something in the action is definitely broken, I never take off the side plate. My newest revolver is 43 years old and oldest is over 55. The only one I've had to take the side plate off of is a M48 that the thumb latch kept sticking in the open position, which kept the bolt from allowing the hammer to retract. That was a purely mechanical issue from a lack of proper fitting, easily cured with a fine stone. All but a couple of my revolvers have been fired and let sit for long periods, and none have needed opening up to clean or lube the action parts. A couple of squirts of WD40, or PB Blaster or even brake cleaner up through the trigger slot or down through the hammer slot, and then clean up the outflow, will clean the action, and then a drop of oil through both slots sufficiently lubes the action . Too much oil collects dust and eventually causes more problems than too little oil if the gun is otherwise taken care of. I also don't want to bugger up the slots on the side plate screws by repeated removal and installation on a gun that has a good collector value either.
 
I only own 3 DA revolvers and it has been years since I removed the side plate on two of them as I don't shoot them much at all. One is much newer and it's side plate has never been removed. As long as it functions as it should I see no need. By the way, the last time I removed those two side plates it was just wasted time as everything was fine inside.
 
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