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Video how they make Repro SAA


crooked jake,4371

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I have managed various departments and shops in metal products manufacturing shops. That video shows an incredible amount of manual work for a product that we can buy for $500 or so. I was always amazed that the original Colt's cost about a month's wages for a cowhand and that they were so commonly owned. How many of us could/would spend the thousands that we bring home for a month on a single gun that would see hard use?

Thanks for the video.

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I saw that on TV. The part I looked the best was the precision "stick" used to tighten the barrel and the fact that it is "eyeballed" into alignment.

I was thinking the same thing.

Especially since I always wondered how the manufacturer got the front blade to align with the rear.

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You guys that are amazed that the barrel is aligned with a stick and then checked by eye will be really amazed to know that all barrels on Savage firearms are still straighten by hand and that a tech checks straightness of the barrel by eye (ie. looking through the bore) and making corrections as needed.

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You guys that are amazed that the barrel is aligned with a stick and then checked by eye will be really amazed to know that all barrels on Savage firearms are still straighten by hand and that a tech checks straightness of the barrel by eye (ie. looking through the bore) and making corrections as needed.

 

Never said I was "amazed". Said I lliked that they showed how to install the barrel. All the wire experts say to use only a frame wrench or you will bend the frame trying to install or remove a barrel. Yet here is one of the largest revolver makers in the world using a tried and true piece of wood. Years ago I watched one of the best single action smiths in the country install and remove a barrel. He used an oak ax handle for a wrench. And, a lot of people wonder why their front sight isn't perfectly straight. This shows why. A lot of match grade barrels in the old days were inspected by shining a light down the bore and then manually straightening them. A trained eye can see fairly small errors. Very good show and like an earier poster said with all the hand work, what is truly amazing is that they can deliver a quality product for such a decent price.

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Not a toy gun...A factory cutaway to show the internals...Doc

 

In between the shots with the cutaway gun, they show a cheap non-firing replica against a white background (from about the 0:20 to 0:39 portion of the video). Easiest way to tell is the weird bolt notches on the cylinder.

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I wish that "case coloring" was really as simple as shown. But it was interesting.

 

DD

 

What was shown wasn't even true color case. The first pic is parts going into hot salt for blue-ing. The second pic is parts heated then going in to the cyanide chemicals for the fake color-case.

True color-case the parts are packed with bonemeal and charcoal in a heavy metal container heated to a low red them imdiately opened and dumed into a vat of cold water.

 

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Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

I like the fact that they are assembled one by one not on some assembly line by robots.

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The barrel fit and tightening to the frame seems so simple. Unless I am missing something, it would seem as if that would be a potential problem area for parts becoming loose over time on a SA, yet I don't believe I have ever heard or read about this being a problem. The video shows what seems to be only a small amount of torque applied to hold the parts together. Any chance they use Locktite or something similar?

 

Are the barrel and frame threads cut in such a way that the fit will only be proper (and safe) after a certain amount of threading the barrel into the frame is reached, thus getting proper torque to hold securely in place?

 

Thanks for the video! Excellent learning opportunity.

 

Dan

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Howdy

 

Very interesting video. The narrator gets a few details incorrect, but still very interesting.

 

First off, they show the frames being forged on a hammer forge. A red hot blank goes through several progressive dies to bring it to near net shape. That part alone is worth watching a few times. S&W and Colt still make frames this way. I suspect USFA does too. Ruger does not, theirs are investment castings.

 

Interesting to see they still assemble the frame, backstrap and trigger guard to match the outer contours. That is the way Colt always did it.

 

Can't comment too much about the case hardening process shown. No, it is not old fashioned bone case hardening. And you ain't paying for bone case hardening with an Uberti.

 

Interesting to see the filing fixture used to bring the cylinder ratchet teeth down to final height.

 

First and Second Generation Colts had tapered barrel threads. Kind of like pipe threads. They were an interference fit, the more you screwed the barrel in, the tighter it got. Third Gens do not have tapered threads, and neither do Ubertis. That is why he can spin the barrel almost all the way in by hand. I strongly suspect a thread locker like Loctite is used to keep the barrel from backing out. And yes, a skilled technician can discern whether or not the front sight is vertical. I had one cattleman though, that was assembled by a cross eyed technician. The front sight was not vertical. I think I have also heard a couple of accounts of barrels backing out. Sometimes somebody forgets the Loctite.

 

I thought the proof house shots were pretty interesting. Notice the narrator mentions they were proofed at a government proof house. That is correct. We have no such requirements, although many of our makers proof their guns in house. I watched some rifles being proofed at the Remington factory once. Pretty interesting.

 

Of course nothing was mentioned about any fitting or tuning of the internal lock parts. Looks like they are just slapped together straight off the machines.

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Hey Nate

 

I have a video of the gunsmith at Colonial Williamsburg making flintlock rifles. He case hardens all the parts for the lock. He puts all the parts into a crucible, dumps in bone and leather, then covers the crucible. He puts the crucible into his hearth and waits while it heats to the right temperature. Then he removes the crucible and dumps everything into a bucket of water. Everything dumps out pretty much like you do it.

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In between the shots with the cutaway gun, they show a cheap non-firing replica against a white background (from about the 0:20 to 0:39 portion of the video). Easiest way to tell is the weird bolt notches on the cylinder.

Thanks Abiline Didn't think I had gone wall eyed :blink:

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