New to me Dan Wesson

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I paid $2.99 for my feeler gauge set from Harbor Freight. I just keep it in my range bag for gaping my 744. Leave the shim between the cylinder and the forcing cone while you are tightening the barrel nut to keep the barrel from tightening closer to the cylinder. What the OP described sounds a lot like a barrel without enough gap which is often caused by removing the shim before tightening the barrel nut.

I haven't seen any barrels coming from EWK in a few years. I am guessing they can't really compete with CZ in barrel prices. I do really like and recommend the EWK muzzle brakes. They are very nicely designed, very well built, quite effective and a heck of a good deal for what he charges. $75 for a muzzle brake that you can mount or remove in a minute is a heck of a deal in my book!
 
Not sure what the brake does, but they would look good on the 6 inch barrel. Actually got a few sets of feeler gauges from working on old motorcycles.
 
hemiram said:
Every time there is an EWK barrel I want available, I don't have the money to spare. I still want one of those super heavy 3" ones.
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Noting that they are completely sold out across the line, your post makes me ask; Do they normally have periods of being sold out?

If so, there is hope that they will once again be available - if only for a while?

Todd.
 
ApacheCoTodd said:
Noting that they are completely sold out across the line, your post makes me ask; Do they normally have periods of being sold out?

If so, there is hope that they will once again be available - if only for a while?

Todd.
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The short answers are yes...and yes.
It's a one-man operation and barrels are made in batches. The majority of older DW's are blued and a bad bluing can ruin a reputation for quality. That's why it's important to get on his notification list so he knows what the demand is. Right now, short barrels are desired. It wasn't that long ago when longer barrels were the most popular. You can't fault the guy for making what he knows he can sell and insuring customer satisfaction.
 
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DWFan said:
The short answers are yes...and yes.
It's a one-man operation and barrels are made in batches. The majority of older DW's are blued and a bad bluing can ruin a reputation for quality. That's why it's important to get on his notification list so he knows what the demand is. Right now, short barrels are desired. It wasn't that long ago when longer barrels were the most popular. You can't fault the guy for making what he knows he can sell and insuring customer satisfaction.
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Will-do, thanks.

Todd.
 
Thus far, I am unimpressed with the functionality of my DW Model 15-2. I am sure it is my fault. But after getting the gun back together, mechanisms working fine, I took it to the range last night (with my granddaughter for her to get some pistol work) and it survived two full cylinders of double-action work. I had cleared out the cylinders with emory cloth and they were ejecting rounds fine. I had reset the spacing and action was good.
Barrel spacing closed up some and cylinder would not close after the second cylinder load and also needed to use a knife to prior the spent rounds out. At home, reset spacing to factory and used some blue loctite to secure the barrel. Will put the shroud on tonight after the loctite has set and see if I can get any improvement. So far this gun is a waste of $500.
 
Pistolpositive said:
Thus far, I am unimpressed with the functionality of my DW Model 15-2. I am sure it is my fault. But after getting the gun back together, mechanisms working fine, I took it to the range last night (with my granddaughter for her to get some pistol work) and it survived two full cylinders of double-action work. I had cleared out the cylinders with emory cloth and they were ejecting rounds fine. I had reset the spacing and action was good.
Barrel spacing closed up some and cylinder would not close after the second cylinder load and also needed to use a knife to prior the spent rounds out. At home, reset spacing to factory and used some blue loctite to secure the barrel. Will put the shroud on tonight after the loctite has set and see if I can get any improvement. So far this gun is a waste of $500.
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That's sad to hear.

The emory cloth use is a bit distressing as is the prying with a knife.

As to the barrel, I have always counted upon the barrel nut as having the final say in spacing rather than the initial threading onto the receiver alone - as indicated by loctitiing it over night before the shroud is installed.

I guess if I felt the need to loctite a barrel, I would do it in conjunction with the final tightening of the barrel nut rather than decidedly beforehand beyond the curing tome of the loctite.

I hope you have better luck with it.

Todd.
 
Cylinder issue surprised me as well. I have seen issues with 357s after prolonged use of 38 special ammo causing build up, but nothing the brass barrel brush wouldn't take care. Ammo is factory ammo, not any of my reloads which typically are lighter on the 357 side. Wished I had some 38 special when I tried it out this time. Liked to have seen if that prompted different behavior.
The loctite approach was just what seemed like a good way to attempt a fix as when I installed the barrel and shroud previously, I got the barrel on per specification (.006) and then when I added the shroud, it tightened up my spacing again. I was able work it out. Guessing the blue loctite won't stand up to barrel temps anyway but no way would I use red. Probably will find a gunsmith after this effort fails and see what he/she says. The seller is a gunsmith. I contacted him via his facebook store account and he wouldn't even respond. I didn't point fingers, or bemoan the purchase, etc. Just asked if he had experience repairing these DWs and would he have a look at this one.
 
Pistolpositive said:
I got the barrel on per specification (.006) and then when I added the shroud, it tightened up my spacing again.
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The shroud and nut are supposed to be attached when you're setting the gap, you tighten the whole assembly as a unit to maintain the spacing...they aren't separate operations.

Tightening the nut should apply tension, by pulling from both ends, to the barrel
 
^^^^^^^^^^what he said.
The muzzle nut doesn't only hold the shroud in place. It places the barrel in tension and locks in the cylinder gap. Cylinder gap should be checked at each chamber and set at the closest one. Typically, if your groups begin opening up, check to see if the muzzle nut is still tight. Hand tighten only. I do not recommend using Loc-Tite.
 
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It sounds like you may be tightening the barrel nut without having the .006 shim gauge inserted. Finger tighten the barrel with shim in place. Leave the shim in, slide on shroud, tighten the nut with shim in place. If you don't leave the shim in, the barrel may screw in when you tighten the nut and close the gap some. If this happens, after a couple cylinders you will have binding.
 
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DWFan said:
^^^^^^^^^^what he said.
The muzzle nut doesn't only hold the shroud in place. It places the barrel in tension and locks in the cylinder gap. Cylinder gap should be checked at each chamber and set at the closest one. Typically, if your groups begin opening up, check to see if the muzzle nut is still tight. Hand tighten only. I do not recommend using Loc-Tite.
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stonebuster said:
It sounds like you may be tightening the barrel nut without having the .006 shim inserted. Finger tighten the barrel with shim in place. Leave the shim in, slide on shroud, tighten the nut with shim in place. If you don't leave the shim in, the barrel may screw in when you tighten the nut and close the gap some. If this happens, after a couple cylinders you will have binding.
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I am hitting myself in the forehead at this point - duhhh - why did I order that shim kit.
Somehow, I had completely missed the idea of using one of my shims.
I had ordered a wide selection from triggershims.com at the recommendation of some DW forum members. Ordered them and never used them and it didn't sink in none were found when working on the revolver. That provides some hope.
 
I was referring to the feeler gauge (shim) you use for setting the b/c gap not trigger shims. Hang in there, most issues with 15-2s are easily corrected once you isolate the problem.
 
Yep, loctite not good.
I identified what is causing my lock up when reassembling the barrel and shroud. The extractor shaft is hitting the shroud when fully pulled tight. Hope that makes sense. Leave the shroud off and gap and all is good. Put on shroud and pull tight, the forward end of the extractor shaft starts hitting the forward portion of the cutout.
 

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Spin your cylinder both slowly and then quickly while watching the extractor rod relateve to a fixed point on the gun.

Might be an illusion on my computer but it looks bent.

Also, along with DaleD's above observation, look to that it hasn't been cross threaded in the past.

Todd.
 
As soon as I saw you were using Loctite, I knew something was wrong. I've had over a dozen small framed (15-2's and 715's) DW's and never had a loose nut unless I forgot to tighten it in the first place.It looks to me like you need to screw the extractor rod in all the way. A trip to a gunsmith who knows about DW's (Some are amazingly clueless) would probably be a good move. I will be shocked if ll the problems with this gun are not operator caused. It happens, DW's are kind of a cult item, and anything not S&W/Colt/Ruger or a clone of them seems to confuse people, even though the DW mechanism is very simple and easy to maintain, and the barrels/shrouds are a great way to have more than one gun in one.
 
Well I feel totally clueless with this revolver. Everything I have watched and read has made what I am doing look easy. Suddenly miss just working on my 1911s and CZs.
Will check it out some more in the morning. Wife is out of town. Hanging low to stay out of the weirdness in the world. Just reloading and riding my old Honda and my Harley bagger this weekend. Might disassemble again and set parts out for a photo.
 
Pistolpositive said:
Well I feel totally clueless with this revolver. Everything I have watched and read has made what I am doing look easy. Suddenly miss just working on my 1911s and CZs.
Will check it out some more in the morning. Wife is out of town. Hanging low to stay out of the weirdness in the world. Just reloading and riding my old Honda and my Harley bagger this weekend. Might disassemble again and set parts out for a photo.
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At this point, I would stop any further work on it and clean the hell outa it and reassemble by DW instructions.

If no one else puts them up, I'll try to remember to dig out one of my manuals to get it verbatim from the source rather than just type out what I do. Probably exactly the same but it won't hurt to check first.

Too, note that ejector shroud issue as to seating depth of the shroud and straightness of the ejector rod.

Another thing to do is to confirm the correctness of your gage. I learned from an early age to check feeler gages with high quality calipers or preferably (for me) a micrometer with ball-fitttings.

It stopped surprising me LONG ago how many were incorrect. Never had a flawed Starett set but the crap from places like harbor freight, sears and for the last 10-15 years, EVEN Snap-On have disappointed.

Todd.
 
If the end of ejector rod is binding when the shroud is tightened it's possible the previous owner used locktite and didn't screw it in far enough. It's pretty common for them to loosen up as did mine. If you can get the ejector out, you could try cleaning the threads well and see if it seats far enough. Put empty casings in the chambers to protect the star when removing ejector rod. Just throwing out ideas since it's all anyone can do without seeing it.
 
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Bingo. You guys were right. Ejector rod was not seating correctly and the bushing was hanging up on shoulder of the ejector rod. Using the cylinder, a couple of spent casings and vice grips (wood protecting the rod), I was able to get it to seat fully. Barrel adjusted, shroud went on easily and retaining nut went on as it was supposed to maintaining proper barrel to cylinder spacing.
Cleaned up the the cylinders some more.
Hope to try it out soon.
Your help us is much appreciated.
 

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As I had hoped, that did the trick. Was enjoying the heck out the revolver at the range until a squib round shut me down. They were some of my earliest reloads (from several years ago) and I had made a notation about getting distracted and experiencing some powder charge issues. My system is much better now. Got to shoot it only to 15 yards. Switched to my CZ P07 for the remainder of the session going out to 25 yards. At least the squib round was easy to address with the removable barrel.
Again your assistance has been much appreciated. This group also dated an old "glove box" revolver I have. Ends up the old S&W .38 was from 1946.
 
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