Ok, here's the deal.  We all want a smith to work on our DW's, but realistically there is nobody out there we trust.  I'd send one to cylinder and slide, but quite frankly, I'm not sure they would know what to do with one either.

So…… I've been saying I'm going to do it–it's time to get started.  I'm going to take a highly neglected Monson 15-2 and give it the “Average Joe” home work-over.  No special tools, no big budget, just me and the workbench.  Hopefully I'll be able to provide a pictorial / process that everybody here can use.  I'll be using the standard instructions that have been posted on the site, (and I'll re-post them here).

1) Unload gun

2) Using the special spanner wrench, remove the barrel nut. Then slide off the shroud and unscrew the barrel.

3) Remove the grip screw with an Allen wrench and slide the grip off.

4) Remove the two Allen sideplate screws. (Note: they are different lenghts)

5) Vibrate off the sideplate by tapping the grip stud with a nylon hammer or wood screwdriver handle.

6) Just in front of the trigger is a small wire like, horseshoe shaped clip. Lift this up and out with a magnet or tweezers. Now open the cylinder and slide the cylinder/yoke assembly to the left, and out of the frame.

Okay, now stop and study where all the parts belong. Take a picture if needed. Pay close attention to the cylinder hand and transfer bar and especially the little spring that connects them.

7) Remove the cylinder hand by lifting it up off it's post and moving it to the left. Note how the tail end of the transfer bar spring fits into a small grove on the back side of the hand.

 8. Use tweezers to unhook the forward end of the mousetrap style trigger return spring from the ledge on the trigger.

9) Lift out the trigger and then the transfer bar and spring.

10) Push the cylinder stop (bolt) down to clear the frame and then lift it out to the left.

11) Grab the forward end of the trigger return spring again, and lift it over the hammer stud. This should completely remove it's tension.

12) Hold the hammer all the way to the back and insert the long sideplate screw into the hole in the bottom of the grip stud. Screw it in. It's going into the bottom end of the mainspring strut and captures it in place.

13) Lift the hammer and trigger return spring out.

14) I put the treaded end of a cleaning rod over the top end of the mainspring strut, and push down to hold the tension of the mainspring. While the holding the tension, unscrew the sideplate screw from the botttom. Slowly let up on the rod until the mainspring has relaxed and remove the mainspring strut and spring.

Now that you have a bench covered with parts, here's what I do to smooth the action and lighten the trigger pull.

1) Install a set of Wolff reduced power springs, especially the trigger return spring. http://www.guns……….prings.com

2) Polish the inside of the sideplate. Don't worry about removing any deep tool marks, just make it smooth.

3) Polish the sides of the hammer below the frame line (the part that doesn't show).

4) Polish the sides of the trigger above the frame line.

5) Polish the flat bottom of the cylinder bolt and the top of the trigger where they rub together.

6) Polish the inside flat of the frame, especially around the hammer and trigger bosses.

Note: All polishing is done with a couple small hard Arkansas stones and a few strips of crocus cloth. Don't change any angles or remove any decernable amout of metal. Just shine up the areas where parts rub together.

Put it back together and test fire. 1^st time through, you may want to skip the polishing and see if the springs alone are enough for what you want.

So, let's meet the guest of honor….

She has a lot of bluing wear, the barrel threads are pretty loose (not sure what to do about that yet), and even some rust in a few areas.  But, she is salvageable.  The only Money I plan on investing is a set of Wolff or CZ springs.

These are the only tools required to complete the entire job, and of course new springs if you decide to replace them.

And one with the hammer cocked back.  More rub spots on the frame under the hammer.  Take a look at the trigger spring in this pic (short end behind hammer boss).  You'll need this for re-assembly.

Remove the small half moon clip and you will be able to slide the cylinder out to the left.  As you can see this gun is filthy inside.

Take a look at this–those are some heavy duty factory gouges you see(after polishing).  I polished the surface with a pencil eraser in the drill press and brasso (it's now smooth as glass on the surface of the gouges).

Like I stated earlier–I'm trying to keep this project within everybody's reach.  Just everyday tools nothing fancy.  Here's my tools — a Lansky knife sharpening stone (extra fine), and some honing oil.  It gave excellent results.

The trigger work took some time, but the results were impressive.  The factory black coating is extremely rough compared to the newly polished surface.

So let's switch gears for a minute (I'm tired of using the stone on tiny parts!).  As I mentioned earlier, this gun had some rust spots, so cleanup was with the Dremel and a wire wheel followed up by 0000# steel wool.  The cylinder was bad, so it got hit with 600 grit emery cloth.

  Now I'm off to give it a quick blue job using Brownells Oxpho-blue.  In my opinion Oxpho is the finest/easiest cold blue on the market.

I won't show each part being polished, but the bottom line is I polished anything that moved against something else! You can't get all the scratches out, but it is super smooth now.

All the small parts got a quick blue job, and then take a bath in my favorite gun lube until the new springs come in the mail.

Where in !#$% is the !#$% mail !!!

Springs finally showed up!  The stock springs are on the left side, the Wolff on the right.  Notice the difference in the angle on the trigger return spring.  I went with 7.5 lb on hammer and  reduced weight on the trigger.

Assembly is straight forward-just reverse the steps.  The only thing to be watchful of is to make sure the short end of the trigger return spring goes behind the hammer boss(you'll know if it isn't).  ***Don't over lube–The parts are so smooth you will have cohesion problems with too much oil***

I slapped on a set of Grippers and a new Millet white outline rear sight–She's a shooter!

Is it better..?  It sure feels smoother, and it is DEFINATELY QUIETER.  Double action still stacks (nothing you can do about it), but it pulls much smoother the whole way.  I'll be doing it to the rest of my DW's for sure.  Read the posts below for questions and answers.

SHOOT

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