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Dfariswheel · August 22, 2021, 04:31 PM

Armoloy of Fort Worth will hard chrome the inside of a barrel...........

http://armoloyfw.com/protect-your-fi...h-armoloy-tdc/

This has no effect on anything since this type of plating is not the thicker coating of a standard hard chrome lined bore as used in many rifles.
To be fair a couple of other plating experts told me that they doubted the bore plating was more then a "little color" as one put it, but that was years ago.

The possible problems with hard chroming a barrel THEN attempting to install it on a revolver are as follows...........

1. The barrel shoulder will need to be lathe turned to align the front sight at 12:00 o'clock.
NOTE that barrels do NOT just screw on with the sight properly aligned
Turning the barrel shoulder will be required.

2. The rear face of the barrel will need to be trimmed to set barrel-cylinder gap.
This is usually done after the barrel is installed and is done by using a special cuter tool that works down the barrel.

3. The forcing cone will need to be cut, gauged, and then lapped to a smooth finish.
Surprisingly, a shocking number of general gunsmiths have no idea this needs to be done.
The forcing cone is not just a funnel in the rear of the barrel, it's a CRITICAL area.
The critical dimension is the outer diameter of the mouth.
If the cone is too large you get poor accuracy.
Too small and you get poor accuracy AND spitting bullet metal out the barrel-cylinder gap.
The difference between too large and too small is TINY and it can NOT be eyeballed, only the plug gauge will be acceptable.

The cone is cut to the proper diameter with a special cutter that, again, works down the barrel, and a special plug gauge is used to measure it often during the process to insure it's the correct size.
After the cone is right, a brass lapping head and fine valve grinding compound is used down the barrel to smooth the cone.

The problems with all this is that the hard chrome is HARD.
The tooling can't cut it so the barrel can't be installed after plating without grinding off the plating, which defeats the purpose of having it plated to start with.

I strongly suggest you talk to you gunsmith about all this.
If for example he tries to sell you on no forcing cone work needing to be done.........find another, real gunsmith, because this one is NOT competent and you won't have a good shooting gun after he's done.

The proper procedure is to have the barrel installed and adjusted, then have it hard chrome plated.
That way the gunsmith can simply screw the finished barrel on and torque it in place.

August 22, 2021, 04:31 PM	#8
Dfariswheel Senior Member Join Date: May 4, 2001 Posts: 7,478	Armoloy of Fort Worth will hard chrome the inside of a barrel........... http://armoloyfw.com/protect-your-fi...h-armoloy-tdc/ This has no effect on anything since this type of plating is not the thicker coating of a standard hard chrome lined bore as used in many rifles. To be fair a couple of other plating experts told me that they doubted the bore plating was more then a "little color" as one put it, but that was years ago. The possible problems with hard chroming a barrel THEN attempting to install it on a revolver are as follows........... 1. The barrel shoulder will need to be lathe turned to align the front sight at 12:00 o'clock. NOTE that barrels do NOT just screw on with the sight properly aligned Turning the barrel shoulder will be required. 2. The rear face of the barrel will need to be trimmed to set barrel-cylinder gap. This is usually done after the barrel is installed and is done by using a special cuter tool that works down the barrel. 3. The forcing cone will need to be cut, gauged, and then lapped to a smooth finish. Surprisingly, a shocking number of general gunsmiths have no idea this needs to be done. The forcing cone is not just a funnel in the rear of the barrel, it's a CRITICAL area. The critical dimension is the outer diameter of the mouth. If the cone is too large you get poor accuracy. Too small and you get poor accuracy AND spitting bullet metal out the barrel-cylinder gap. The difference between too large and too small is TINY and it can NOT be eyeballed, only the plug gauge will be acceptable. The cone is cut to the proper diameter with a special cutter that, again, works down the barrel, and a special plug gauge is used to measure it often during the process to insure it's the correct size. After the cone is right, a brass lapping head and fine valve grinding compound is used down the barrel to smooth the cone. The problems with all this is that the hard chrome is HARD. The tooling can't cut it so the barrel can't be installed after plating without grinding off the plating, which defeats the purpose of having it plated to start with. I strongly suggest you talk to you gunsmith about all this. If for example he tries to sell you on no forcing cone work needing to be done.........find another, real gunsmith, because this one is NOT competent and you won't have a good shooting gun after he's done. The proper procedure is to have the barrel installed and adjusted, then have it hard chrome plated. That way the gunsmith can simply screw the finished barrel on and torque it in place.