alberic6

HI Scott. Never bet against the house. I haven't been on because I bought a business. Now I own the machine shop. Been a tad busy. So where it is right now, is as a working longslide, with a totally flat blank slide, a bomar rear sight, and a grooved flattop. It's been sitting like that since ?Christmas? '16 or so. (I also bought a friend's race gun, so it's not like I don't have 1911's to play with...) I've got a couple of different versions CAD'ded out, but I didn't really like any of them. I kept doing funny squiggly cutouts that moved in all three axes, just because I could, and none of them looked very good in simulation. Sometimes, just because you can, it doesn't mean you *should*. So I've been contemplating stress risers and workholding in my spare moments. I'm planning on getting back into it sometime soon. And I definitely appreciate the helpful comments from the first time around, they did (and do) influence my thinking. It's definitely going to have a butler cut front end, and some work done that transitions between slide and dustcover, but I had to get it shooting before I knew what the alignment was for that. Regards, Brian

Thanks guys, that's what I needed to know. We can officially call it a feature, not a glitch. I've got another STI slide that *doesn't* have that gap, but it's a 5" .40 classic. So I wasn't sure what the deal was. Thanks for helping me double check. -Brian

The barrel's in spec. I checked it against a couple of my other 1911 (45) barrels, and double checked it with Fred when we were on the phone. Also double-checked the ejector port dimensions on my other 1911's. It's the slide. Regards, Brian

Hi guys, I'm asking this here because I figure you're the ones most likely to have seen this, if it's a problem. I've got an STI frame that I'm (slowly) fitting with an STI Unique slide. 6", .45 ACP. (This is one of their 'blank' slides. No machining other than basic production.) Got around to fitting the barrel last weekend, and discovered that the ejection port is...weird. With the barrel hood cut back to fit up against the breech face, and the recoil lugs just dropping into the grooves, there's a .050" gap between the rear starboard face of the barrel and the forward (stb'd) face of the cheek of the ejection port. (the wall that's just outboard of the extractor.) The spec. for the forward extension of that wall from the breech face is .159" (-.003). This one measures out at .110". So it's about .050" too short, at least by the gov't blueprints. If you put a round in the barrel, and fake it all into battery, you're looking through the ejection port at the extractor groove of the round. A bit worrysome. I talked to Fred Kart last week. He said (and I agree) that it isn't a safety issue, the chamber is flared away that deep in that area anyway, so no risk of blowout. But it does concern me somewhat, both from a ?wtf? standpoint, as well as a 'keep crap out of action' standpoint. I've called STI several times, but haven't gotten through to anybody who knew anything about those slides. (half the tech team were away at a match last week, apparently. Tried again this afternoon. No luck.) I mentioned it to my range buddy (who shoots Bianchi) and he reminded me that the 6" blank slides are pretty much intended to be for competition guns. His take was that it was probably deliberate, to give more rear clearance to allow for shock-buffs or other similar things that eat up recoil stroke. I've seen people oversize the *front* wall of the ejection port, to make it easier to clear loaded rounds, but I've never seen anybody knock off the *back* wall before. I don't really want to just return the thing for another if I can help it. I've already got a fair number of machine hours in it, and I'd hate to do it all again. (Nevermind the parts that have been machined to match it now.) is this a known thing with STI 6" slides? Anybody seen this before? Thanks for any enlightenment you can share. Regards, Brian PS-->Image attached, so you can see what I'm talking about.

Hi Guys, Whatever I do, the grooves will be curved, and there will be a depth sweep. Because I can. I'm toying with the idea of doing the grooves as "S" shapes, just 'cause. Things a CNC can do that a Bridgeport can't. (easily) On the other hand, I'm going to have the thing ion bonded when I'm done, so I'd just as soon it not self destruct after I paid for *that*. (Yeah, it's turning into that kind of a project.) Wish me luck. I'll post pictures when (if) I ever get it done. Figure 6(ish) months. I'm going to get it shooting as a flattop with no major cuts, and see how I like it, and then decide how serious to get about lightening cuts from there. Many thanks. Brian.

Hi guys, Thanks for the replies. In looking at the thing, with the *loooooooong* dustcover, and the 6" slide, it looks like a brick. So what I'm leaning towards is to cut the dust cover back a bit, (but not as far as a stock 5") then do a 'hi-power' cut on the nose. Flat top it, and serrate the flat top, then ball mill the upper shoulders, like a tri-top, but as concave grooves. (Skipping the ejection port area.) It's already destined for a Bo-Mar rear. Given where the STI rails are, there's a fair space in the front of the slide that never sees contact. I was thinking of doing some angled louver cuts thru the slide that punch thru up high, but then come out to about .020" deep grooves as they cross over the rail, and mate up with matching grooves on the dustcover. If I leave the long (hidden) plunger tunnel more-or-less intact, I figure that'll give me enough support to offset whatever grooves I put thru the slide above that area. They'd all have radiused ends. Sound like a plan? Thanks, Brian PS--> After I wrote my first question, I found a reference to a big long discussion that happened here about cracked slides, about 2010 or so. But I can't find it by searching the forum. Anybody remember it, and have any idea what keywords to look for? I've tried all the obvious ones.

Hi guys, I'm a machinist, working on building myself a 2011 longslide. Frame is a 2011 with the long dust cover, and the slide is an STI Unique 6". Since I've already read War & Peace, I want to do some lightening cuts on the slide to get the cycle time up. I've got a full CNC machine shop to back me up, so I can do anything I want. The question is: what do I want? In reading various forums, I've seen references to slide lightening cuts causing stress cracks. But very few of them have any references to which *types* of cuts, where, causing what sorts of cracks in what areas. So I'm asking here, as I figure you guys put enough cycles on your weapons that if anybody'd seen cracked slides, it'd be here. The only specific reference I've seen was to the Brazos 'angled holes' cuts "always cracking". (Thread on 1911.com) That one really puzzles me, since they're *round*. If there was one cut I'd expect to be least likely to cause a stress riser, that'd be it. Anybody seen that failure? Has anybody seen any *other* failures from slide lightening? Care to share? Many thanks, Brian