Customizing cap and ball revolvers

[Clark]

I have a Colt made in 1859 that has very little of the grips left. It was all rust when I bought it. I have new grips made of Cherry that will take a lot of fitting. I have a whole bag of replacement parts to get it running again.

[AbitNutz]

Man, there's nothing like the real thing.

[Clark]

I ordered and received some replacement parts.
Yesterday I took the 1849 colt pocket revolver apart. It was made in 1859, covered in rust, and not working.



The trigger spring / bolt spring was broken.
The new trigger spring was too long and square.
I ground it down.


The hand was missing when I took the revolver apart.
The pin on the new hand is 0.131"
The hole in the old trigger is 0.128"



I drilled out the hammer with a 0.136" drill.
The hole is now 0.134".
0.134" -0.128" = 0.006" clearance -> 5 degrees of wobble.
I guess I could have ground down a drill in diameter, but I was moving at mach 3.
The hand is stuck in a narrow channel, and will not wobble.



The trigger spring screw was too short to get started, so I made a spacer from Aluminum and clamped the spring down to get the screw started.









The revolver will no longer do full cock.
Through experiments I can see the cause is the the new hand is too long in the vertical direction.
I can fool the revolver into cocking by getting between chambers so the top of the hand is not hitting the cylinder star.
I can then rotate the cylinder and fire normally. Not desirable with heavy bolt drag on the cylinder.

The replacement wedge screw is too short.

I need to:
Find another wedge screw
cut down the hand
fit the new cherry stock
Probably replace rusty nipples.

[Clark]

I was grinding on the new hand until I had the cylinder timed.

This may be the first time this revolver worked in 150 years.

[HangFireW8]

Very nice work.