Norton Commando
Member
My Uberti Colt Walker had the ubiquitous deep-hole syndrome, meaning the frame would make contact with the barrel before the arbor made contact with the bottom of the arbor hole in the barrel.
I read Pettiffogger's article on correcting the problem using a Dillon Locator Button and a drill press but was aprehensive about doing a neat repair using his approach. You see I do not know a Dillon Button from a coat button and have no idea where to find one. Also, I had reservations about drilling my arbor. For one thing, I wasn't too comfortable about being able to securely clamp the frame to my cheap-ass bench top drill press. Also I was concerned about being able to drill a centered hole that was parralel to the arbor axis.
However, I do have a small 110VDC MIG welder, so I decided to build up the end of the arbor with weld metal. I needed to add about 0.150" of material to the end of the arbor and was concerned about slopping my weld metal all over the end of the arbor. So I made a weld metal capturing device out of a short piece (0.125") of carbon steel tubing that had an OD just slightly smaller than the arbor. I then clamped the frame with the arbor looking upward in my vice followed by clamping the tubing to the top of the arbor with shims and a pair of vice-grips. I struck an arc through the open end of the tubing and onto the end of the arbor. I kept adding weld material until the tubing was filled with a slight dome rising out of the top.
Getting the exact arbor length was then a file and fit process and I finished the job with some 125 grit sand paper.
It was a pretty easy procedure even for a novice welder like me. And the end results look fairly neat; see pics. So for those of you out there that have been wanting to fix the deep hole problem on your Walker but don't have Dillon buttons or a drill press, you can make an effective repair with a MIG welder.
I read Pettiffogger's article on correcting the problem using a Dillon Locator Button and a drill press but was aprehensive about doing a neat repair using his approach. You see I do not know a Dillon Button from a coat button and have no idea where to find one. Also, I had reservations about drilling my arbor. For one thing, I wasn't too comfortable about being able to securely clamp the frame to my cheap-ass bench top drill press. Also I was concerned about being able to drill a centered hole that was parralel to the arbor axis.
However, I do have a small 110VDC MIG welder, so I decided to build up the end of the arbor with weld metal. I needed to add about 0.150" of material to the end of the arbor and was concerned about slopping my weld metal all over the end of the arbor. So I made a weld metal capturing device out of a short piece (0.125") of carbon steel tubing that had an OD just slightly smaller than the arbor. I then clamped the frame with the arbor looking upward in my vice followed by clamping the tubing to the top of the arbor with shims and a pair of vice-grips. I struck an arc through the open end of the tubing and onto the end of the arbor. I kept adding weld material until the tubing was filled with a slight dome rising out of the top.
Getting the exact arbor length was then a file and fit process and I finished the job with some 125 grit sand paper.
It was a pretty easy procedure even for a novice welder like me. And the end results look fairly neat; see pics. So for those of you out there that have been wanting to fix the deep hole problem on your Walker but don't have Dillon buttons or a drill press, you can make an effective repair with a MIG welder.