Slop in 64-5

[Beladran]

My action pistol rig is starting to get noticible amount of wobble in the cylinder. I am not tech savy on what the parts are called that I am looking at but I call them the cylinder stop stud(part in the frame that sticks out and makes contact with the exterior cylinder grooves) and the exterior cylinder grooves. The grooves on the cylinder seem to be wore the most. Do they make a oversided cylinder stop stud that I can install to take up the slack in the cylinder? the round count in this gun is in the mid to high tens of thousands. Could it be time for a overhaul?

[Toolguy]

That's not an overhaul, just a tune up. Brownell's has a wider cylinder stop that can be fitted.

What I normally do is peen down the burr on the straight part of the cylinder grooves with a small hammer and flat ended punch. Then I peen down the ramp leading into the groove with a 5/16 diameter hardened steel dowel pin. This operation puts the material back where it came from and in the process work hardens it slightly. Often that will take care of the problem. If the cylinder stop window is too wide, it can be peened back too, but that takes a special anvil and punch.

If you fit a wider cyl. stop, care must be taken to keep the chambers lined up with the barrel during the fitting process. It's easy to have the chambers end up a little to the left or the right of the bore.

The art of revolver smithing is in the ability to adjust that which is non adjustable.

[Service Desk]

My action pistol rig is starting to get noticible amount of wobble in the cylinder. I am not tech savy on what the parts are called that I am looking at but I call them the cylinder stop stud(part in the frame that sticks out and makes contact with the exterior cylinder grooves) and the exterior cylinder grooves. The grooves on the cylinder seem to be wore the most. Do they make a oversided cylinder stop stud that I can install to take up the slack in the cylinder? the round count in this gun is in the mid to high tens of thousands. Could it be time for a overhaul?

Seems that stainless guns just show signs of use faster than blued ones - I have one Model 10 PPC gun with over 100K rounds through it and the gun has less burrs and slop in it than my M64 with 30K on it.

They all get lots of oil and are cleaned the same way ???

[Carmoney]

Absolutely true. Several years ago we discussed the whole issue of cylinder stop notch peening, and noted that it was almost always stainless guns which were affected. I am convinced the stainless alloy used by S&W for cylinders is softer than the carbon steel alloy.

Excessive rotational cylinder shake can usually be fixed in the manner Warren describes above. If the cylinder stop notches have widened badly, fitting a new cylinder (if the cylinder is still available) may be another option.