Using a magnet for gunsmithing a Model 1924 S&W .32 auto

[REPEATER]

Not to sound over confident in my own mechanical abillity here, but why isnt this done yet? lol... It aint that hard. and i guarantee you can find a spring for that thing for relatively cheap, if not find one close enough to replace it. either way, there's one out there that can be had. even if you ruin that plunger. seams like a simple part to have custom made. any manichinist could do it on a manual machine to cut cost down. Literally a 30 minute job tops. it sounds like you might want to take this pistol in to have it serviced. not knowing your gun, you need some education in this area as well.

[rlee5349]

Originally Posted by REPEATER

Not to sound over confident in my own mechanical abillity here, but why isnt this done yet? lol... It aint that hard. and i guarantee you can find a spring for that thing for relatively cheap, if not find one close enough to replace it. either way, there's one out there that can be had. even if you ruin that plunger. seams like a simple part to have custom made. any manichinist could do it on a manual machine to cut cost down. Literally a 30 minute job tops. it sounds like you might want to take this pistol in to have it serviced. not knowing your gun, you need some education in this area as well.

Yeah, I know I can just drill it out and have a new one machined, but I'd like to keep it all original if possible. I only started this post last night though, cut me a break! I don't have either the magnet or the air compressor off hand, so it'll take a few days before I can exhaust those options and have to resort to the drill.

[JLA]

Im bettn money the air chuck works.

[rlee5349]

Well guys, just had my cousin over for the holiday and told him about my problem here. He's kind of a mad scientist and he had an idea of how we could rig up a little compressed air with what we had on hand. We cut some makeshift rubber gaskets to keep air from escaping anywhere, and then pumped up a bb gun to the max. We then pressed the muzzle of the bb gun to the gasket we had around one side of the retaining pin hole (with a hole through the gasket of course) and discharged the compressed bb gun air into the hole. No luck. I know this was just a shot in the dark, but for a second I had hope. He seems doubtful that even the air compressor at his house will help me. He thinks the hole is too small to allow enough air pressure through. I'm still gonna head down his house to give it a try on Wednsday, but what do you all think? Hole too small?

[REPEATER]

turn the gun over, smack it over a chunk of wood. if the forces created with the sudden stop dont put that plunger on the ground, aint nothin short of drilling it will. wood doesnt marr metal last I checked, so dont be a whimp about. if you aint taking chunks of wood out, your not trying hard enough. watch your finish. wrap the gun in a cloth if you feel you need to. start off soft. don't beat the poor thing anymore than necessary.

[BillM]

Originally Posted by rlee5349

Bill, how do you suggest I apply the heat without ruining the original blue on the frame? The other thing is, I talked to Roy Jinks, the S&W historian, and he said the plunger might be turned a little and something about a corner might be caught on something. In that case, oil and heat won't do the trick; it will need to be turned slightly as well, although maybe smacking it with the hammer might do the trick.

200° or so won't harm the blueing. Heck--most hot salts blueing is done
at twice that. I would do it with a small butane torch GENTLY. You
could do it with a heat gun, even a hair dryer would get there maybe.
I'm not thinking "expand the metal and make the hole bigger"---more
along the line of "soften up the gunk and varnish".

Roy has forgotten more about Smith and Wessons than the rest of us
will ever know collectively---I would think if it was caught on a corner
you might be able to tell by seeing if it will push down just a bit and then
pop back up until it "hits the corner"?

[rlee5349]

Originally Posted by REPEATER

turn the gun over, smack it over a chunk of wood. if the forces created with the sudden stop dont put that plunger on the ground, aint nothin short of drilling it will. wood doesnt marr metal last I checked, so dont be a whimp about. if you aint taking chunks of wood out, your not trying hard enough. watch your finish. wrap the gun in a cloth if you feel you need to. start off soft. don't beat the poor thing anymore than necessary.

Repeater, I'm kinda likin' your style. You don't think there's any chance that I'll damage the rails or bend the frame?

[Bobitis]

Originally Posted by rlee5349

Repeater, I'm kinda likin' your style. You don't think there's any chance that I'll damage the rails or bend the frame?

No offense intended, but heating up the metal will affect ALL the metal. Unless you can isolate one portion from another, yer wasting yer time.

After reading all the posts here, my guess is yer gonna have to resort to drilling and extracting. It appears ya deformed the plunger when ya 'tapped' it. Smacking a pc of metal forces the metal elswhere. In your case, it (and every other) pushed it to the outside wall.

Looks to me like the only option is extraction, cleaning, resizing, and insertion of a new piston.

YMMV.

[cutter]

I would break a q-tip in half and mix up some e-poxy or jb weld and glue the tip on the top of plunger. Let it set up and try to turn or pull it out. This might work??

[Bill DeShivs]

Take the gun to a real gunsmith. It's worth it.

[Lanrezac]

Originally Posted by Bill DeShivs

Take the gun to a real gunsmith. It's worth it.

Very true, but he'd better be a real gunsmith the way StoneChimney and JimK are real gunsmiths. Someone who's not could easily make a bad situation worse.

BTW, the mention of a $2,300 price caught my eye; can you imagine what this particular gun would sell for if it was a Colt? Probably 5 times that, judging from the threads about Colt's 38 ACP models.

[Jim K]

Again I will show my ignorance, but have you had the backstrap off? I have found an X-ray photo of that gun. It is not very good, but it looks like the hole might go all the way through. If not, it might be easier to drill a small hole up from under the backstrap and push out the pin. The gun would be unoriginal, but the hole would be hidden by the backstrap and you could use the original pin and maybe spring.

Just a note on drilling. If that pin is meant to take any strain, it is probably hardened, so be very careful to use a solid drill press or milling machine setup and a hard carbide center drill. If you try to use a regular drill, it will wander and cut into the frame.

Jim

[REPEATER]

Originally Posted by rlee5349

Repeater, I'm kinda likin' your style. You don't think there's any chance that I'll damage the rails or bend the frame?

I dont. unless you go psycho on it. use your judgement. I know the impact will cause more force than any other options here. impact tools work off of this same concept and can generate a lot more force because of the impact it creates. again, dont get out of control here. it is possible to bend metal. I dont think it'd be easy though. you'd definately break a sweat and feel like your over-doing it. you shouldn't even need to come close to that amount of force though. and if it is caught up inside on something, it wont mushroom any edges or damage anything like tapping the actual plunger may have. try a couple good smacks. mark a line on the inside of the plunger cylinder to relate plunger movement visiually. try it. try it. try it. even if its soft blows. you may be suprised. if it did rotate and bind. the vibrations will create an opposite force, as there is pressures, and may even free it up. newtons law.

not a common practice, but effective and practical.

[rlee5349]

I ended up just dropping it off at a local gunsmith. I'll keep you posted and upload pics once it's fixed. Thanks everybody.

[da357mag]

I think after reading all this, that was a wise move! Doug

[Jim K]

That is called "passing the buck." I am reminded of the vintage 1960 joke about how the U.S. planned to put a man on the moon -- just put him in a box, stick on some stamps, and it was the post office problem from there on.

I just hope the gunsmith can do the job without messing something up; that is a valuable gun.

Jim

[BETH]

Would freezing the gun loosen it?

[BETH]

an ease out will work use them at work all the time we do freeze metal parts at work also to get them into another part and they expand after warming up that's why i thought of the freezer?

[Deacon_Man]

Don't you guys think it's time to bite the bullet and take this problem to a porfessional
gun smith.

[Lanrezac]

Originally Posted by Deacon_Man

Don't yo
u guys think it's time to bite the bullet and take this problem to a porfessional
gun smith.

The owner, rlee5349, said he is doing just that about 4 or 5 posts back. I'd like to see the gun once it is back together!

[JLA]

Originally Posted by BETH

an ease out will work use them at work all the time we do freeze metal parts at work also to get them into another part and they expand after warming up that's why i thought of the freezer?

That is exactly how I learned to install barrel liners. It is a one shot PITA doing it this way but its a superior way to line a barrel.