S&W 1880 questions

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kBob

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Amongst Dad's shop junk now that he has passed is what appears to be most of the remains of a S&W 1880 .32 S&W.

I am hoping some one has an interest in BP era top breaks here.

I believe the gun to be one that was "left to" Dad when his best stomping buddy passed a couple of years ago. If so then I am impressed Dad got as far as he did with the gun. 'Vane got the gun from the local PD where it had been on a display of seized guns for decades in about 1965 and I handled it at that time. It had been made in operateble by being dipped in a bucket of enamel based black paint. Dad seems to have gotten most of the paint off ( I am thinking aircraft stripper is my next move)

Before he died Dad asked me about a side plate screw and I could not find one.
He managed to open the pressed in side plate and clear the action enough that it works as a single action, but lacks the power to return for normal DA firing though it can be manually set up to cycle once as a DA.

He managed to get the cylinder off after speaking to me on the phone. I now find it will not go back on and so the gun does not lock closed as the cylinder will not engage the threaded cylinder post and slip on far enough to allow proper locking.

I have a fear Dad did not know to screw the cylinder back on and may have used one of his favorite shop tools....a large rubber faced hammer.... to try to force the cylinder back on.

Now no amount of turning in either direction will engage the cylinder.

Suggestions?

I am already planning to simply shadow box the thing but would like it to go together correctly before I do so and I will admit it would be nice to at least fire a few pressed wax and primer loads through it before honorable retirement.

Anyone know of a place specializing in parts for old Top breaks?

If anyone actually wants me too I might post pictures. probably should take some of the salvage project any way.

-kBob
 
kBob said:
Suggestions?
Click to expand...

All S&W Top Break cylinders screw back onto the interrupted threads of the arbor by lifting the latch so the cylinder will clear the latch, then turning the cylinder clockwise. If the cylinder is removed you can inspect the threads on the arbor for damage. If the threads inside the cylinder are damaged the piece is probably toast.

Just out of curiosity, you mention both single action and double action. Is it a hammered or hammerless model?

No, I am not interested, just curious.

Regarding that E Bay stuff - I can't believe somebody thinks he is going to get $200 for a S&W blue box and papers.
 
Driftwood,

Thanks for the response. Dad was surprised back when I told him he had to both lift the lock and unscrew the cylinder.

I have looked at the threads on the arbor and they looked fine. Sad to hear this means it is likely that the matching thread or guide in the cylinder is likely bad. I may go ahead with stripping and a light polish and couple of coats of cold blue anyway for display. May be after aircraft stripper and a good brushing out the cylinder might grab the arbor, so I will give that a try.

There was a set of grips with it but they are not for the S&W. They are a one piece set I suspect were for some sort of older H&R holster gun.

The gun has an exposed hammer.

When I was a elementary school kid sitting on the ice cream box at Grand daddy's service station a lot of the men older than I am now carried top breaks. A couple even carried at an "Uncle's" funeral when I was in high school. One of those carried a S&W much like this one but with the shorter barrel and its black grips were worn smooth. The other favored Mother of pearl. Oddly all these old men seemed to favor nickel finishes but for one actual great uncle that carried a very worn blue finished gun. Given that the S&W cost two or three times as much as the IJs or H&Rs I suspect most carried the lower priced guns. I can't recall any that carried on in .38 S&W as most simply called their gun a "thutty-two." Grand Daddy favored a Colt swing out though which I unfortunately did not get, but it was also a .32. It was a four inch barreled gun though that he carried in his cash box going to and coming home from work. His cash box being a cigar box.

I still kick myself for being stupid when in the late 1970's I was offered any top breaks I wanted from a full filling cabnet drawer of them.....but only if I promised to never try to shoot them. The gunsmith offering them to me considered all top breaks useless dangerous junk.

-kBob
 
Ephraim Kibbey said:
If the cylinder threads are damaged, the correct tap should be able to refresh them.
Click to expand...

We are not talking about modern threads here. I have no idea what the dimensions are for the threads inside the cylinder of an old Top Break S&W revolver, but they you are not going to find a tap for them anywhere today. Unless you have access to some of the tools these things were made with over 100 years ago.
 
The threads on the arbor are right there to be measured and would correspond to the interior cylinder threads. I thought American screw threads had remained pretty constant over the years (though the troughs became rounded in the 1949 agreement with Great Britain) until the drive for metrics began in the 1970's!?!
 
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Ephraim Kibbey said:
The threads on the arbor are right there to be measured and would correspond to the interior cylinder threads. I thought American screw threads had remained pretty constant over the years (though the troughs became rounded in the 1949 agreement with Great Britain) until the drive for metrics began in the 1970's!?!
Click to expand...

I guess I did not make myself clear. The threads on the arbor of a Top Break revolver were a proprietary thread. Not something to be found in any standard catalog of screw threads. The threads appear to me to be a square profile thread, and they generally only go through one turn. I'm sure there were lots of specialized taps and dies in the drawers at the S&W factory, but you would have to have access to those to find the correct tap or die for any particular model. Or else you would have to be a pretty good tool and die maker to duplicate the thread.


Arbor%20Threads%2032%20Safety%20Hammerless_zpsqhvsdp22.jpg
 
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