excessive wear on action parts?

[Luv2rideWV]

I'm an amateur, but I have performed some work on my 625 after asking some questions here on the forum and after watching the Miculek video. The gun turned out well; DA was a little over six pounds. That was about 1 1/2 years ago, and it made me very proud to do my own tinkering.

I took the gun apart for cleaning and to bob the hammer not long ago. The areas on the hammer and trigger that were stoned during the action work now appear shiny, as though I went too deep. These areas don't look like my other revolvers. As a matter of fact, there is even a little creep in the single action now.

Did I do something wrong? Is the service life of these parts severely shortened? What is going to happen down the road? You guys know better than me.

[entropic]

I'm guessing it is a stainless/chromed gun. It is possible to go too far very easily. I'm sure you learned that in Jerry's video. Only you can tell.

if there is too much slop in the hammer and trigger pins, you can shim them. I only know about doing this to a Ruger revolver, but triggershims.com has some information on tightening up these tolerances with relitively cheap shims. Why are you worried about the single action? Is the creep showing positive or negative engagement?

[Carmoney]

If you stoned the single action cocking notch on the hammer, you are going to have trouble. That is the one spot to avoid stoning.

[bountyhunter]

There is a product called kasenit that will re harden the surface of steel but I am not sure if it works on stainless.

I recall the surface hardening on SW parts is about .006" so it's easy to stone through.

I have not seen the Mikulek video but telling amatuers to take stones to the triggers and hammers is a very bad idea in general. SW may be able to re harden the parts (?)

Edited November 19, 2014 by bountyhunter

[Toolguy]

A shiny surface is usually a sign of a very fine surface finish, as in highly polished. I would just use it as is, will probably go for years double action. It's pretty hard to diagnose the single action without seeing it, you may be able to just stone the back part of the trigger to fix the creep, don't really know though.

[PatJones]

I believe the new mim parts are hard all the way through.

[bountyhunter]

Nope. same as always:

However the job is not yet done and the MIM parts are brought to our heat treat facility for hardening and in the case of hammers and triggers, case hardening. Depending on the particular metal alloy that was used at the start of the process we apply a heat treat process that is the same as would be used if the material were the older wrought style. Final hardness, case thickness and core hardness are for the most part identical to parts manufactured the older way.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-revolvers-1980-present/219641-use-mim-parts-s-ws-explanation.html

Edited November 20, 2014 by bountyhunter

[Service Desk]

Warren is on the money, bob the hammer, forget single action and shoot until it stops.

[Luv2rideWV]

Thanks guys...here is a follow up to some of the above replies. The single action notch was left alone; only the areas indicated by my hero (Jerry) were stoned. The creep in the single action is actually a little bit of take up present before the shot breaks; all my other S&W's have zero take up before breaking the shot.

It does appear I've went a little too deep, especially on the trigger because the top is like a mirror. It didn't seem like that when I put the gun back together when I did the work.

I appreciate the replies. I will continue to shoot the heck out of it until some problem actually develops. It still has a great double action. I'm still kind of proud for having done some work, and I shall do it better the next time (although most of my guns will remain stock).

[bountyhunter]

I highly recommend the Kuhnhausen shop manual for SW revolvers if you are going to work on them. It is a wealth of information. can't tell you how much I learned from it.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/314178/the-s-and-w-revolver-a-shop-manual-book-by-jerry-kuhnhausen