Frozen cylinder damage?

B

brotherg

New member
Hello,
A buddy brought me an fie 1851 navy .36 that was displayed in a bathroom for years. It looked fine except the cylinder was frozen. I soaked it in penetrating oil for a few days but it would not budge. I used wooden wedges but it was really stuck. I settled for a brass drift and a hammer. Really had to whack it to get it separated. It came apart, cleaned up real nice and looks great. I am wondering if we cracked the cylinder with the force it took to get it apart? It looks just fine but we want to shoot it. I can not see any cracks or damage. How should we go about test firing it? Should he just hang it on the wall?
 
I wouldn't think you would have cracked it. You can always tie it to a tree or something and fire it with a string. Is the frame brass or steel? If it's brass you want to keep loads down to 18-20 grains.
 
My concerns when hammering is not cracking, I am always concerned about upsetting. In the old days the Navy had ‘GLUPE’ makers, I purchased 3 10” chucks that had been abused, I paid $5.00 each for them; it took 2 + years to get them apart. All of my resource people kept telling me to hammer on them; I could only imagine what the chucks would look like after creating all those glupes.

I did not need the chucks but 3 chucks for $15.00 was impossible to pass on; one is a WS heavy 10.

F. Guffey
 
Good Stuff, Thanks. Will let you know if I find a magnaflux my local machine shop should have one. Of course, if it blows up. :-P
 
Nix on the vise, unless it can be rigged up like a ransom rest.
The gun needs to be able to recoil to avoid damaging it, especially a brass frame version.
 
Displayed in a bathroom where the shower was used? It'd be rusted somewhere. Likely inside the cylinder. Firearm don't just seize up like that.
Like G. says, no vises. You need to look at lot deeper into the innards first.
 
There was just a little surface rust on the face of the cylinder and down the bore. It all cleaned up without any serious pitting, if any. The action was clean, must have been pretty greasy. I took it all apart, cleaned it up and it is smooth working. It surprised me. As for the vise we can give it some room to recoil. Appreciate the advise. I think it was in a case of some sort. As for decoraring a bathroom with a firearm? That escapes me.
 
And then; reminds me of an old song about John and Nell, seems someone tied her to the rail road tracks and then here came the train. Drama was added because John was slow walking, slow talking.

There is a possibility the owner thought he wanted to fire the pistol but did not realize the amount of work generated when shooting black powder. There is a chance the pistol was not cleaned after the last round of shooting.

F. Guffey
 
Rust is a very powerful adhesive when you are dealing with items that have close tolerances.

About 50 years ago, when I got my first Luger, which had been hanging on a nail in a country grocery store, it was seized tight with rust.

I ended up having to soak the rails and finally used a wooden mallet to beat on the end of the barrel. It came loose, and, much to my surprise, there wasn't much rust at all inside.

All it takes is a little bit of rust in a tight place to cause problems like you have.

Unless you were beating heavily on the cylinder, I doubt very much you did any damage.

For future reference, use aluminum or plastic if you have to beat on a gun. Brass will eventually work harden and start to mar and dent softer steels, especially on Italian replicas. Aluminum will leave a silver stain, but it doesn't mar the steel. The stain comes comes off with solvent.
 
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