Smithy Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Can't remember if I ever posted this or not, but while messing around my photo bucket account I found this album of photo's that some folk here might have an interest in? So first the pictures not necessarily in any kind of order. http://s563.beta.photobucket.com/user/5kwkdw3/library/Inter%20works%20of%20the%20Birdshead%20Grip This is not the first one of these guns that I have put together. I started making these way before Ruger had a mind to and this latest one had the added benefit of the caliber conversion cylinder making it a 45 LC. The first element was the barrel and that was by far the easiest part to do. I struck a witness mark between barrel and frame. Brownells use to sell a tool just for this job as it was a punch that had two 45 degree sharpened angles coming of the center on both sides to where it formed a 90 degree edge: 45 on one side and 45 on the other, but with your hammer strike straight down the middle. I wish I still had one but I had to make due with a single punch and just made sure that the strike I put on the barrel was in line with the strike I put on the frame. I then had around 2 feet long pieces of 3/4" square steel that I drilled 5/16ths holes through and had the same size schedule 8 bolts and nuts to go with. I then cut out a frame negative of both sides of the revolver and covered everything with Brownells rosin. Grabbing different sizes of circular saw blades I was able to make a rounded dado cut into two pieces of oak. When paired together (covered in rosin and placed into my bench vise) it made the best barrel vise I've ever used. You see frame wrenches that are only a foot long and just have a handle on one side of the operation. My wrench was just shy of four feet with a handle on both sides. I had tremendous torque and with that large of a handle It was easy to sneak up ever so slowly to the witness mark it was just plain easy. So the barrel got shortened to 3 1/2 inches long. I then used a woodruff's cutter to make a front sight slot. I used an old silver coin as my front sight. Looked sharp. The main part of the frame was fairly easy as well. Out with the old cylinder and after taking off seven thousandths of material on the breech side of the cylinder, it popped in to work like a champ. Now comes the big hole under the cylinder pin (replaced with a knurled Belt Mountain Stainless Pin). I had two pieces: The old ramrod and the old ramrod lever. Well the lever went into the trash. The ramrod front was turned flush and knurled about the last half an inch. On the other end in the rounded portion of the ramrod I drilled and pegged into those holes two side by side pins that just happened to fit into the screw slot of the cylinder pin lock screw. Then within the hole of the ramrod I turned a groove into that opening. That groove mated with a ball detent that was placed at the correct spot for the old ramrod portion to catch and stay just below the Belt Mountain Cylinder Pin. Shooting SASS with this gun, all I had to do was to pull the modified ramrod section out of the gun and place it over the cylinder pin lock screw. A quick twist and the cylinder came right out. The cylinder I used one alignment pin and on the other side 180 degrees away, I cut a safety notch (since the cylinder had none) in that spot. With the pin and safety notch it was easy to load knowing which chamber would end up being the empty one. One of the last parts of the puzzle was the grip. I've always had a thing for birdshead grips, but as you know, Ruger only makes the frame full width at the absolute edge of the grip frame. Cutting into it would mean that the metal between the grips would get mighty small when you got to the cut part. So with some 304 stainless rod I built up the metal just behind the outer Ruger frame material. This was done only on the back bottom corner of the grip frame (reason later). I then initially used a 14" electric chop saw to make the large cuts into the grip frame and then just the bench grinder to get a little closer. After I got the new profile ground in I switched to my 3M wheel (think Scotch Brite). Since it was a stainless gun I was working on, after the 3M wheel I was done, at least with the metal portion. Now the reason I only went after the backstrap portion of the grip was so I could send the grip frame into Bar S Grips for a custom pair of their tru-ivory grips. They already had stock grips for a standard grip configuration so the front was OK. All they had to do was to remove just enough off the backstrap and bottom of the grip to match my new profile. I think that one picture has the whole gun in the frame. So then I had an Old Army in 45 LC that looked sharp and with a quick pull and a twist reloading was a snap, using the Belt Mountain Cylinder Pin to shuck out empty cases. I hope you all enjoyed this kind of lengthy tour of my last major project and hopefully it may have given you some ideas. Smithy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie Dawg, SASS #50329 Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 It's fun to shoot as well! A fine addition to my Avenging Angels stable! Thanks Smithy! --Dawg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCandless Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Nice work! Great looking result. Smithy, Can't send you a PM, that area is not active in your profile... I'm looking to buy a part you might still have. Could you drop me a PM? Thanks, Duc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Mesa, SASS #63240 Posted May 12, 2013 Share Posted May 12, 2013 Very nice! I'd love to have one of these but have no talent!! Let me know if you ever want to part with. Nice job!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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