Smith and Wesson No3 DA timing

wbaad

wbaad

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Wondering if anybody has any knowledge or experience working on the old smith and Wesson old model no 3 da? Gun made in 1881. Timing is just a tad slow and looking for the best way to bring back to timing. I'm not sure if the hand throws by length or width.

Thanks
 
Maybe cylinder but if it's the same on all rounds, it is the hand. I had a lot of them and tinkering always helped. Try rustywood.ca , he can help. Forget about getting parts, I ordered a main spring once in the US and it is just a guessing game.
 
How complicated a part to make?

Here's my two bits. Knock it down to as few parts as you can get it to and still test the function of each of the various parts and get to know them REALLY well, and all will become clear.
But yeah, it sounds like a hand that is worn or not quite long enough. Stretching the hand by tapping along the section between the pivot and the actual hand pawl itself can be done, but is a bit of a kludge and if the part has been done before, poses the risk of breakage. It is helpful to have a cross peen stump to use, which will cause the majority of the stretching to happen in the intended direction. A small cross peen hammer is OK but harder to control where the strike actually take place, for most folks. A game of silly small dimensional changes. Go slowly, test fit often!

I figure a drill press and a few decent condition files should do it, and you can skip the drill press if you are a half decent hand with a hand drill.
A Sharpie marker to lay down a layer of ink on your donor stock, and a sewing needle or other sharp pointed scriber to scribe and outline of the part.

Then file.

Easy no? :)

Like as not gonna take a couple tries.

The flash way to go would be to order yourself a Jewelers saw, a couple dozen blades, and some flat stock of appropriate thickness to be able to skip having to hacksaw stock off a bar and file it to thickness.

Starrett Flat stock in smaller sizes is pretty affordable. O-1 or W-whatever (for Oil hardening or Water hardening) would work well and both are easy to heat treat at home.
Otherwise a slab of old chevy spring, or a suitable chunk of some other carbon steel should do OK, depending upon your confidence levels, persistence, and skills.

Cheers
Trev
 
That was my second idea to just make new. I have a bit of experience fabricating parts so shouldn't be too bad. I'll take her apart and do some engineering.
 
Take it apart first, clean it, lube it, try again. What is the overall condition of the revolver and parts? Sure it sounds as if it the hand but could be something else. When you stretch the hand you may have problems with your cylinder. Those parts have been working together for how many rounds? You say the timing is slow? Maybe check the movement of the hand on the cylinder. Is it different in SA and DA?
 
This is likely a combination of two evils. One, the hand is worn. Two the cylinder hand catch faces are worn.

Usually neither of these parts are overly hard so that they won't stretch a bit when hammered. I wouldn't suggest hammering the hand catches on the cylinder because they all have to be done equally and are likely worn equally.

Take out the hand and using a very small 1.5 ounce hammer tap it until it lengthens a few thousands of an inch. Of course you will need a method of holding it while you tap on it and you will of course need a surface harder than the hand to work against.

I have done this in the past with Webley hands and I can tell you it is a lengthy trial and error process but if you have time along with patience, it works.
 
wbaad said:
That was my second idea to just make new. I have a bit of experience fabricating parts so shouldn't be too bad. I'll take her apart and do some engineering.
Click to expand...

The real advantage of not mucking with the original part is that the original part is always available to use as a reference, something that cannot be said for any plan that involves modifying it.
 
Same for both da and sa. I have worked primarily on colts so do have experience and patience stretching hands and fitting bolts, etc. But the Smith seems to rely on the width over length, so welding or making new seems to be the options. I'll try making a new hand before doing anything else.
 
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