DIY drill white dot FS for fiber optic FS conversion

[obsessiveshooter]

I thought I'd share this morning's project with you all. I have a pt1911 that I bought for dabbling in SS. The sights are typical 3 dot, and only novak makes a FO front sight for this pistol with its proprietary dovetail cut. Problem is, 1. I'm super cheap and 2. I sent my taurus back because it was shooting really high and they quickly got it back to me with a custom height front sight. (The novak sight would have been too low, even with a fully adjusted rear sight.)

So I had to convert this factory sight into a fiber optic sight. Here's how I went about it:

1. Remove set screw and turn front sight around in dovetail. Clamp it to a bench.
2. Drill through white dot aiming very carefully through the center of sight.
3. Have drill bit break off in hole, get scared you won't be able to get it out.
4. Try drilling out drill bit to realize that ain't gonna happen.
5. Hey, you can skip drilling and jump ahead to cutting out center of site for lite pipe illumination. I used a Dremel cutting wheel, cutting to depth in several spots and then running it back and forth more like a fine grinder.
6. Tap out broken drill bit from the middle cut side of the hole. Finish drilling with another bit.
7. Clean up cuts with polishing wheel.

8. Pull out sight, thread in set screw from the bottom side and through the top to remove any burrs and to make it easy to properly thread it in from the top.

9. Install it in the dovetail. Fortunately, my set screw, once tightened, sat right below the surface.
10. Install pipe. I drilled a 1/16" hole and used a .06" pipe from dawson. I also learned you can bulb the pipe end flawlessly by pressing it up against the ceramic glass on a hot woodburning stove.

I'll need to put some cold-blue on it, but it is functionally perfect. I'm stoked!



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Edited November 28, 2015 by obsessiveshooter

[jchris4769]

Looks great! You are just like me. Even though you can buy it, you opt for the "hmmm, I think I can make that" method. Well done.

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[Gooldylocks]

So, just a thought, what would happen if you didn't reblue the sight? If you left it silver, would it reflect more light and give you a brighter dot?

Edited December 12, 2015 by Gooldylocks

[obsessiveshooter]

That's become my plan actually. If it gets rusty, I'll polish it and put a new f.o. rod in it. They're cheap.

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[v1911]

That looks really well done!