CRACKS

[papart1]

When you are doing your layout/drawing using a aluminum box...........make sure you check that your 12" plastic T- square is NOT cracked. Thank you for your attention. Rob Oh and by the by, I just found out the circumfurental spacing of of the chambers are not the same either.................just so you know

 

[T.G.III]

Curious, are you talking about a wheel gun, if so what maker.

In my limited experience I would assume that they would have to be somewhat close due to the timing of the cylinder

 

[AllenClapp]

Are you referring to the spacing of the flutes around the cylinder or the spacing of the chambers themselves?
I remember back in the day when shooting revolvers in bullseye matches, we tested each chamber separately for accuracy and marked the best one to use for slow fire matches and the one to leave out when firing 5 at a time in timed and rapid fire matches. It was not unusual to find one chamber that shot significantly worse than the others. Less often we would find one chamber that shot much better than the others. The assumed cause was differences in timing caused by worn gearing on the cutting machinery and/or crud interfering with a machine stop.

 

[papart1]

Allen your response makes sense and on this Taurus Judge, 45410, there is an X next to a bore, maybe the makers mark, maybe not, there has only been 5 shots out of this gun. The flute positioning and notch position is off considerable. I will send pics after I get this miserable gaming computer to cooperate. Thanks for your time.Rob

 

[papart1]

TG........I have spent at least 30 hours with transfer film trying to sync the notches. I'm now going to switch to paper and continue my journey. A single flute layout is good for 2 flutes, a double flute layout is off about 15k for 3 of the others. Just of the notch portion, I think some adjustment with a single might be the best route. Thanks Rob

 

[T.G.III]

Interesting, thanks for the information, I'll file it away for future reference when I get around to cutting on firearms.

 

[AllenClapp]

TG........I have spent at least 30 hours with transfer film trying to sync the notches. I'm now going to switch to paper and continue my journey. A single flute layout is good for 2 flutes, a double flute layout is off about 15k for 3 of the others. Just of the notch portion, I think some adjustment with a single might be the best route. Thanks Rob

I have found that, when I wrap a cylinder with transparent tape and mark the edges of the flutes and notches, the thickness of the tape adds to the distance between the items when I tape it to a flat piece of card stock and scan it or print it. I have scanned such drawings and then done some shrinking trials until I found the size that transfers correctly. The way to think of it is that your marks are on the outside of the tape, but the transfer design will be on the inside of the transfer film or paper when they are wound around a cylinder. Once I found the right shrinkage, I saved that as the master file for later use.

Instead of spending that much time and energy, it is easier to smoke the cylinder and do a smoke pull. That will turn out to be actual size when you tape it down and scan it. You can also smear some transfer wax on the cylinder and pick that up with tape. If the lines are not distinct enough for you, you can outline them. Because the smoke or transfer wax is on the inside of the tape, it will be actual size on the paper and in the scan.

I think many engravers just do a single-flute transfer to avoid the issues. It is easy to do as many as you want and you do not need to worry about something slipping when you apply it. I do the multiple flute marking when I want to experiment with the design flowing from one area to another while dodging flutes and notches along the way. If the same design is used between flutes all the way around, there is no reason to do a multiple section transfer.

 

[papart1]

Allen, I found the correct timing, thanks for the help

 

[papart1]

please describe your shrinking trials Allen...........there are quite a few

 

[AllenClapp]

I found out two things over time: (1) when you wrap a barrel or cylinder with clear packing tape and mark boundaries on the outside of the tape, the size of the image will increase when you apply the tape to paper or card stock due to the thickness of the tape, and (2) all printers will not necessarily print the same file to the same size.
If the size is critical, such as matching multiple points over a distance, I make a trial print on a piece of inexpensive transparency film and check it for fit. If it needs to be reduced slightly, I tell the printer to reduce it by one percent and try again. Some printers allow use of a half percent, but others only allow you to reduce or enlarge in whole percentage points.
I discovered the variable printing size issue when I printed several laser prints on paper to draw different trial designs. I scanned my final design to print with an inkjet onto transparency film and found that the transparency wasn't the same size. I printed the final scan on both the laser printer and ink printer and found that they did not print the same.
I have mentioned this issue to several folks over the years and a couple of them said that they had found that their scanner did not scan to exact size, but I have not confirmed that. I have mostly heard that this was not an issue with a flatbed scanner but could be an issue when you had to scan a drawing by running it through a roller system. Again, I have not verified that as such, but I have did have an issue several years ago with an older printer where the rollers had gotten slicker over time and did occasionally have a slight issue. I have not seen that kind of issue in a couple of decades.