Gunfunpow wrote on Jul 12
th, 2018 at 12:57pm:
I have a nice old roller I would like to convert to 40-65. I called Curt Hardcastle and he said it could be sleeved to that caliber and converted to cf.
IMO, this thread would be better located in our gunsmithing section.
I've converted a few RF rolling blocks to CF, and found it to be a fairly simple 30min job.
First, the breechface must be marked at the bore C/L, which I do via dropping a black Sharpie downbore against the closed breechblock.
Once that's established, remove the breechblock from the action and the firing pin from the breechblock.
Using a 1/16" sacrificial drillbit, drill through the face of the breechblock at the marked spot from the front, ensuring the resulting hole will be perpendicular to the breechface in all directions.
Grind/file off/away the old RF firing pin tip from the face of the firing pin body, taking care to not cut/grind into the face of the old FP.
Reinstall the altered firing pin back into it's breechblock recess & clamp it from moving rearward in the recess.
Using the same sacrificial 1/16" drillbit used to drill the CF firing pin hole in the breechface, drill through the new FP hole, into the now flat face of the firing pin just enough to mark it.
Remove the altered RF firing pin from the breechblock and use that same 1/16" drillbit to deepen the hole in the now flat face of the FP to about 1/8" or so.
Make the new CF firing pin from the shank of that same sacrificial drillbit, grinding it to a length of about 1".
Try-fit the new FP tip into the body of the FP, then install the FP to check the protrusion of the new FP tip when it's held in the forward/fired position.
Mark the body of the new FP tip at about 1/16" from where it protrudes from the breechface, remove the new FP & grind it from the forward tip, back to the mark.
(If the shank is too short to protrude, use a 2nd 1/16" drillbit shank to make a 2nd/longer FP tip)
Once the rough length is determined, the new FP tip can be either soldered or epoxied into the face of the breechblock.
The tip of the new FP can be shortened to the proper protrusion, then the roughness polished off the new FP tip.
I epoxy the new FP tip into the body of the FP, so I can easily heat the FP to melt the epoxy & redux the FP tip as req'd.
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