Making a Revolver

In our last post, we looked at the overall process of gun manufacturing. Now we'll look at a specific factory that makes replicas of revolvers used in the 1800s, except with some modern tools involved. The company is an Italian firm named Uberti and they make replicas of Colt revolvers.

As you can see, the process starts off by using forging machines to shape the gun's major components and then machining them to the final size. Then, a milling machine is used to carve out the cylinder and a technician hand files some of the parts to fit properly. Then he does a little bit of assembly and stamps the model # and serial # to the frame. Another artist adds engraving. Then they do some metal treatment to the parts, a process called case hardening that we studied a while ago. Then, assembly of all the parts proceeds, as the barrel, cylinder, frame and trigger assembly are all put together into a working revolver. Finally, the revolver is sent to a Government facility to perform proof testing.

Enjoy the movie!