Chamfering Charge Holes?

[mac57t]

I was on the Performance Center sight and I noticed that they include chamfering charge holes in a lot of their gunsmithing packages.What is this and how is it a benefit?Do they just put a little chamfer on the cylinders?

 

[mete]

What's a charge hole ?? I know it's been a while since I went to gunsmithing school, but there seem to be many new words used for gun parts , and some are ridiculous .Chambers of cylinders of revolvers may be slightly chamfered [ about 1/32"]so the rounds don't catch on the edge. In an auto the magazine well may be chamfered for the same reason.

 

[mac57t]

I didn't know what they meant by charge hole either that is why I asked.

http://performancecenter.smith-wesson.com/pages/gunsmithing

 

[Brian D.]

"Charge holes" = the round open places in the cylinder that you put the ammo into... Somebody just had to gin up the terminology I guess..

 

[mac57t]

That is what I figured.Sounds like cannon terms to me.

 

[Sir William]

All they are doing is what used to be done to every revolver. They are cleaning up machining burrs and polishing the individual chambers of the cylinder. All of my older S&Ws and Colts had this from the factory as standard. Nowadays, they charge for it. It will aid with reloading and assists with placement when using speedloaders. It is a great benefit and should be standard.

 

[Dfariswheel]

"Chamfering" or beveling the "charge holes" is usually a reference to lightly breaking the sharp rear edges of the chambers in a revolver.

By beveling the sharp edge, you in effect make the rear opening of the chamber a funnel, and this makes reloads with a speed loader faster.

This is done on revolvers for the same reason automatics have the magazine well opening beveled to speed the insertion of a magazine.

Care must be taken not to make too deep a bevel, since this does weaken case head support slightly.

"Charge hole" is a term long used by S&W to refer to the chambers in a cylinder.

 

[justicentyme]

Chamfering Of Charge Holes - S&W 646

This is a cylinder done by SDM:

This is one I did on my 646
http://www2.tnweb.com/justicentyme/S&W/646.htm
This GREATLY increases the ease and speed of reloads. With correctly shaped bullets you can literally throw a loaded moonclip into the charge holes.
JNT

 

[Tacoma]

Justice, I've been thinking about doing this to my 625's for the same reason. Not really required for round nosed ammo with a good taper crimp but sometimes I'm jiggling semi wadcutter loaded moon clips to get them to feed.
I'm told they do it with a dremel and tapered stone. Did you use something special? IF so , where did you get the bit?
Thanks

 

[Sir William]

Before breaking out the Dremel, the use of moonclips allows actual chamfering of the chambers. When this is done to a unmodified cylinder, the ejector star is NOT touched. Be very careful.

 

[Trapp]

My uncle who was in the old school army (WWII) era did the same to the .45 autos on the barrels base (whatever fancy term it might have) with a ground sharp triangle file and a lil sandpaper......

 

[Hal]

What's a charge hole ??

Hole in the cylinder itself = chamber.
Extractor itself = star
Combination of chamber AND star = charge hole.

 

[Dave Sample]

I have a tool for that that. I do the Super Pistolero Tune Up and part of that is chamfering the chambers and then honing them. Makes for nice entry and exit. I only do SA's now and it is a simple thing to do and adds alot tom gun handling. The tool also chamfers the barrel after I face it off. We also cut the forcing cone to 11 degrees to help it shoot better.

 

[justicentyme]

Tool For Chamfering Charge Holes

Tacoma;
I am a retired Tool & Diemaker, Machinist, CAD/CAM Operator and CNC Programmer. I have spent literally thousands of hours using small grinders on dies and molds and I would NEVER consider using one to chamfer a charge hole. I do not believe that is the BEST way to do this particular task.
I use a machine tool and a properly ground countersink. The .40 / 10mm can be done with a standard .500" diameter tool ground to the proper angle. The 625 needs a tool ground with a diameter of about .596".
It is very important that the spindle of the machine tool is perpendicular to the face of the cylinder, that all depths are uniform and that spent cartridges be placed in the other five charge holes. After each chcarge hole is finished clean the chips away and put the spent cartridges in the other charge holes.
After I am finished I polish all charge holes with a VERY fine compound to remove the small burr left by the chamfering process.
If I can be of any help drop me an e-mail.
JNT

 

[rifle59]

Sir William is right. Don't chamfer the extracter star.

 

[G56]

Chamfering the cylinder is very common on target revolvers, back when I shot PPC that was done to most revolvers, we were using full wadcutters and speedloaders, the chamfering really helped!