Getting a free Uberti ...needs work

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Delmar

New member
Hanging out on the gun forums has been such a blessing! Take a look at the private message I got yesterday...

Delmar, I don't think we know each other very well, you were in the chatroom earlier this evening. You mentioned and showed your cap and ball revolver. I just may be in an unusual position to help a brother out. Back in'83 or '84 I bought an old cap and ball revolver, an Uberti in serious disrepair. It's been a great wall hanger over the years but I've never got around to fixing it up. The wedge is the wrong size the screw above the wedge is missing and one of the pins that align the barrel to the frame is missing. the frame is brass, it is an open top (no backstrap) and the barrel is blued. it is a .44 cal and I cannot identify it for sure but looking around at the schematics on Numrichs' site it looks like an 1851 army. If you want it it's yours (you can post pictures when you get it running). I've never mailed a firearm of any type before so any instructions you can send my way sure will help. I'll be able to mail it in a week or two and just to prove this isn't some kind of scam I'll foot the postage if it isn't too much. Do black powder firearms have to go to an FFL? If it does you'll have to pay your FFL's fees on your end. If you do want it let me know where to send it to and let me know anything you know about mailing it. Lets consider this one of those pay it forwards. Oh yeah the serial number is 14623 it's located forward of the trigger guard.
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If this comes through it will be the second BP gun I have received free by talking to people on the wire! The first was a CVA .cal inline muzzleloader. Dang, BP shooters are good people!
 
Good deal. Fixing up these old replicas is a lot of fun. Having machine tools is a big help but you can get by with hand tools and skill. It's not rocket surgery, these are pretty basic and simple machines.
 
Yup!

Delmar,

I think your good fortune is an indication of the way you treat folks. You are clearly among those people who you refer to as good folks.

To MCB,

"Fixing up these old replicas is a lot of fun."

You got that right!
 
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It's here, and it is a sweet looking pistol. I do have a couple of questions. Like the guy said the wedge appears to be to narrow. How tight should the wedge fit, front to back? The screw above the wedge, is that what actually holds the wedge in place? The base pin (that the cylinder slides onto) How big of a deal is it that it wiggles a little? Is this common or should it be rock solid to be safe to shoot?
 
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If this comes through it will be the second BP gun I have received free by talking to people on the wire! The first was a CVA .cal inline muzzleloader. Dang, BP shooters are good people!
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Thats good karma at work :cool:
Just remember how karma works :rolleyes:
 
My Karma must be pooh, the only pistol someone has given me in recent years(if at all) was a rusted up top break off brand 38 that is broken and only opened up after alot of Kroil, and has no value or usefulness whatsoever. Even the grips are shot, so no 5$ freebie there! Well I might throw it at a burglar, konk him on the head and save the day, thus proving me wrong?
 
How tight should the wedge fit, front to back?
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There should be no free play front to back. The wedge should be so tight that finger pressure is not quite enough to drive it out.
The screw above the wedge, is that what actually holds the wedge in place?
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The screw keeps the wedge in the gun when is driven out of the slot; the screw head rides in the slot on the top of the wedge and catches on the lip of the leaf spring in the slot when the wedge is driven out.
The base pin (that the cylinder slides onto) How big of a deal is it that it wiggles a little?
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Kind of a big deal. It should not 'wiggle' at all. Is this a brass frame gun? It will only get looser and some day perhaps even become detached. It can be repaired, however - that's why I asked about the frame material. Steel is easier to repair and lasts longer. Brass may not be worth the effort.
Is this common or should it be rock solid to be safe to shoot?
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It's more common in brass frame guns that have been abused with high loads. It's generally safe to shoot but accuracy will be lousy as the chamber/barrel alignment will be poor, thus shaving or deforming the ball.
 
It is a brass frame and I probably am not going to spend a lot of money trying to get it going. I will go ahead and replace the wedge and the missing screw and pin. I have played with shooting plastic bullets bullets in the back yard. This pistol may become more of a 4th of July noise maker than any thing else. Should be fun to play with.
 
Think of it like taking in a stray dog. It will cost you a few dollars up front and it will never win "Best in Show", but you will get years of enjoyment from it, and it gets well taken care of.
 
I just got off the phone with VGI gun parts. The wedge, barrel pin and wedge screw I need should be here in 2-3 days! When I get the right wedge in I should have a much better idea where I'm at.
 
Guy! Don't let me talk out of turn here!

In the heading I accidentally left the "s" off of "guys". I am concerned I might be putting out some bum gouge and I would love to have others either endorse or correct my comments.

Del,

The arbor (at least I think you are talking about the arbor) might not just turn out as though you were taking out a screw. If you look at the back of the frame at about the location where the wrist of the hammer would come close to resting against the frame when the hammer is forward (Pistol fired) you will see that the arbor comes all the way through the frame. You may have to clean the pistol up a bit to see it. But if you look carefully you might also see a pin driven into the frame engaging both the frame and the arbor. Every pistol I have except one (a brass frame 1851 pattern sheriff's model which has a loose arbor) is put together in this way. This pin prevents axial movement of the arbor much the same as a key on a shaft prevents axial movement of a pulley. The arbor will not come out with this pin in place.



Guys....Am I right?

I believe I remember someone on this forum speak on the topic of silver soldering the arbor in place. It was about a year ago.

On that Sheriff's model I tried everthing I could think of to get the thing to tighten up. I finally retired the pistol.
 
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The parts list at VTI guns, unless I am mistaken, calls it a base pin. http://www.vtigunparts.com/store/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=15&cat=Uberti+1860+Army I am looking at part number 21

The arbor will not come out with this pin in place.
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It does appear to me that there is a pin in the arbor, (In fact if I am reading the parts list correctly, it seems to be the same pin they use as a "barrel pin") but I don't understand how to take it out. It can't be punched through, and it is not sticking out to pull. Any ideas?
 

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I think....

I think this is why a collector on this forum who is more experienced than I am suggested silver soldering the arbor in place. A good craftsman can get the solder to flow such that the arbor is more solid than it was on the day the pistol was made.

I have done an awful lot of soldering of electronic components and a fair amount of copper plumbing but never silver soldering. I have a couple wrecks I would try this on but wouldn't do it on anything that had any value until I had developed my technique.

I know the process rests upon a very clean joint. That is difficult to achieve when you can't get the assembly apart to clean it. To a small extent you can expect the flux to do some of the cleansing in other forms of soldering. Some one with more experience might comment on how that would work in this specific application.

Another challenge is holding the arbor in the right position while doing the soldering, so that the pistol can be made to operate properly after the arbor is in place. My thought there would be to do the operation with the barrel installed starting with the back of the frame. I would put the wedge in but not tight.

In all other soldering applications the solder flows to the heat. So if you start from the back of the frame and then heat the pistol near the recoil shield the solder would wick forward.

All of this is very hypothetical as I am concerned since I have never silver soldered anything in my life. I just like to act like I know what I am talking about.
 
One fellow told me he untreaded the arbor and put locktite on it and it has helped the problem for years. Might help but I am not inclined to go to the trouble of having the pin drilled, just to try that.
 
Del,

On that Sheriffs model I was talking about, there is no pin, so the arbor can be taken out just by unscrewing it. I tried hardening Lock Tight and teflon tape and neither fix worked for any length of time. I think that the damage to the arbor/frame on that pistol is just too significant for those measures to work. I tried buying a replacement at DGW but never could find an exact match. The one I bought doesn't fit.

Others on this forum have suggested Lock Tight saying it worked well for them. So it might be worth a try, if you could get the pin out. You have to be extremely careful drilling it since the drill bit will seek the softer metal.

I have an Armi San Paolo steel frame 1860 in which the pin is quite large. Easily large enough to keep a drill bit centered and work to a larger size until the pin is done for. It looks a good bit like the photo you included. On the other hand I have an FIE brass frame in which the pin is so small you can hardly see it. It appears to be between a sixteenth and three thrity seconds.
 
I got my parts in from VGI, but I am back to square one. The wedge they sent is exactly the same size as the one I have that doesn't fit. I was starting to wonder if the gun really isn't an Uberti, but I checked and it defiantly has the Uberti logo.

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I guess I'll call VGI Monday and see if they have an idea what the problem is.
 
Hrumph!

Is the logo on the barrel? Is there a serial number match on the barrel?

Could be a replacement.

A call to VTI is a good idea. Before you dial, you might want to know the width of the wedge.

I love messing with these pistols.
 
Sure would be nice if old guns could talk and relay all the great ideas that were tried on them... Could it be wedge slot has been filed out ?? Don't think anything will work right until barrel pin (arbor) is sorted out and tight. Perhaps someone with similar gun could tell you measurments of slot. Sure is fun figuring out....Good Luck
 
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