ANeat

They are close to 2.25 inch compared to sub 2" for the standard handle

Hey guys; looking good and Im glad everyone likes the billiard balls.

Well I wanted one with a flat bottom, plus the aluminum I had was just scrap/free

I should add, dont let 3 phase scare you off. A small VFD (variable frequency drive) is very affordable and a very good way to generate 3 phase for smaller machines up to about 5hp. If you have 3 phase, thats great. If not, not a problem

Certainly get a floor model 9x40something if you can afford it. Ive seen and done good work with lesser machines but the aggravation isnt worth it. Dont overlook used, as more and more shops go for the smaller CNC machines standard knee mills are being sold off. I still see great deals popping up. Most of the bridgeport copies are very nice. I agree, get a DRO.

Kevin I have the table centered up in Y axis and the frame mounted on center (in Y axis) The radius of the front strap is at some odd position in the frame and depending on what you want, that is where the frame will need centered up, Or to put it another way, where the frame is mounted WILL be the centerline for the "new" radius you cut, so make sure its in the right spot..... Once I have that sorted I can move X left/right to remove whats needed to get the front strap to clean up. I think Ive done several guns and no 2 were the same. I really need to make a video of some of this, Ill have top start shopping for another 1911

You can buy a thread mill that will do that. Some have a replacable insert that cuts several rows of threads at a time. They are designed for machines that will do helical interopltion. Take say a 20tpi cutter and you can cut any size that the cutter will go into or also cut OD threads without purchasing a tap or die Something like this, that would work real well for all the horizontal cuts, the vertacals would need to be done one line at a time

First, sorry, I used to have an FFL 10 plus years ago and between my full time job and other "hobbies" the part time business never worked out. I eventually just never renewed the FFL when it expired. Honestly If I had the FFL I probably would not have show all the details of the process So no I cannot checker anyones frames, I do a few "slide" jobs from time to time. Installing sights or doing lightening cuts but no frames..... One thing I should add is by all means, before cutting on a frame get a piece of flat stock, something close to the frame thickness, I just used a scrap piece of aluminum... And practice doing some cuts... try different angles, try different style cutters, I did a lot of cool looking stuff with different ball nosed mills but when it came down to doing my guns I settled with good old fashioned checkering.

Thanks everyone, an1913t, a 60 degree cutter is the angle most use, I dont know if there is any one specific reason. If you have enough "thickness" in the front strap 60 degree is "sharper" although some feel it is too aggressive at 20 lpi. If youre doing finer spacing like 30 lpi or 40 lpi 60 degree would have more grip. I think at those fine spacings the 90 degree cutter would not have any advantage

I just count empty primer boxes and multiply by 100

I use a bigger ball/handle, strong mount Also milled out a bullet tray and junk tray/tool holder for the back Also have the bigger ball for the swager

Im a Bullseye shooter and have shot a few USPSA matches in the past. In the Dave Spaulding videos he mentions it, but each shooter need to figure out what works best for themselves. The worst thing would be to try and adopt someones technique when its not best for you. Figure out what works for you Shooting one handed in a USPSA match where you normally seem to transition from 2 handed to one handed, strong to weak hand or whatever.... never has been the same for me compared to shooting bullseye where you have the time to stand there and prepare yourself. Sometimes it feels better for me to have the gun vertical, at times I seem to get a bit of a cant. The main thing for me to be able to call the shot, breaking the trigger without disturbing the sights. Here is a good video of an Air Force shooter shooting Bullseye, Rapid fire, (Beretta 9mm) where you fire 5 shots in 10 seconds at 25 yards on a turning target. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=47202656964600610&pr=goog-sl#

Ive heard of folks using a sock as well. Personally I dont grip on the handle too much, I just push on it. Ive never had a problem with getting a blister. For me the extra diameter on the ball spreads out the load to a larger portion of the hand. Ive tried the roller handle and didnt really care for it (on a 550) but I understand everyone is different. When I tried the roller handle I found myself putting my hand on the bend and pushing down with my open hand (not gripping it) This is just another option

Sorry about the shoe thing, probably a lapse of concentration on my part. Here is an oldie but a goodie of said foot/shoe with a pile of future bullets

These are just drilled/tapped, the phenolic material or whatever it is they make them out of machines just fine and the threads hold up real well

No Grief, I dont make a big deal out of providing them, If a guy wants one I usually have a few on hand. Actually I just drill, cosink, and tap 5/8-18 37/64 drill bit is required and a 5/8-18 tap of course. If you have a Lee press its just a matter of drilling a hole and gluing it in place. You could actually do that on any of them (just drill and glue) if you didnt mind a permanant instalation. When I first did it it was more because I thought it looked cool but the improved comfort is definitly worth it It helps to have a good way to hold it in place, and drill/tap without damaging the finish

No problem Flex, I dont make a killing on them, the guys that want one can usually figure out how to get a hold of me usually Kind of a grey area, I never felt comfortable placing a "classified" and I really dont make enough/sell enough to become a vendor. I always wondered if someone like Brian would be interested in selling them in their store

After the checkering you have a much nicer transition from the frame to the grips And here you can see the difference in the radius before and after

Thanks again guys. Glad to share the info. Ive had a couple of PMs with some questions and hopefully a few more pics will help. When you indicate the frame you soon realize that there arent too many straight/square surfaces on a 1911. The front strap is usually as forged so you just have to get a good average reading. You can get the frame centered up left/right but you will have a little leeway on the vertical. Another example is one of the blocky Springfield frames they were putting out a few years back. It would have a large flat in front of the grip and the front strap was quite "square" This is where you have to play around with the positioning of the frame on the fixture and try to determine how round you want the front strap. Obviously you have a lot of potential for a major screw up here so procede with caution. You want to leave a bit of a line in front of the grips, there is probably no "set" ammount. If you look at a blueprint of a 1911 frame you can see the centerline of the magwell radius and the fronstrap radius are different. I generally try to shift the frame around to get it so the front will just clean up and get a more natural raduis. Ive done several and I dont thing any 2 were the same. You can see here its just clipping off the corners Keep going till the front just cleans up

Thanks guys, yea I tried the checkering file and it was Ok but way too much work in my opinion for the results I achieved. I had several guns I wanted to do. A few Bullseye guns and a couple other 1911's plus I just wanted to see if I could sort it out with what I had. I was really happy with the texture and the undercut was an extra bonus. I always liked the agressive grip

Now the angle plate, why take a 6 inch angle plate from this To this For the setup in my previous post it dosent matter much but when you turn the table vertical and start rotating it to cut the vertical lines things get tight. I couldnt run it on the bottom half of the table because I was hitting my clamps when rotating so I went off in this direction . Doing the first line on center is good enough, And swinging away from the angle plate is fine But swinging towards it things get close, luckily everything cleared before I ran out of metal Adam

Now when cutting the "vertical" lines the rotary table gets turned vertical without removing the frame from the fixture and indicated in. Here you can also see I have the fixture mounted on a sub plate so I can remove it without loosing too much of the setup, not required but pretty handy. Tough to get better pics but hopefully these will help

Thought I would show everyone my checkering setup. For you guys with milling machines and a rotary table its a pretty good solution. Probably not as nice as the dedicated fixtures but it does work. Ill put up the pics I have and if anyone needs more details just ask. I think most guys with the equipment can probably sort out most of it. Many times just seeing someones solution can help even if you dont make an exact duplicate. Im not a profesional gunsmith, I shoot 1911's a lot (bullseye) and just happen to work on machine tools and play with them at home. I was wanting to checker my guns and it seemed like a challenge to figure out how to do it on the Bridgeport. Might as well start with a couple of the "finished" pics to show the results. And another gun So first the front strap must be trued up. Here is some stippling being removed And the horizontal lines being cut, Yes a 90 degree cutter was used. No one reason, it points up at less depth, still feels great, and I had the cutter already

I dont think you can do away with the backup rod required on the swager. Seems like running the swager and a size die (trimmer) at the same station would cause a lot of problems. The swager applies a lot of upward pressure to the brass and needs the backup rod to support it. Without it I believe you would get very inconsitent swages and sizing.

There is a spacer that is supposed to go under the shellplate (spacer #13703) It is for loading longer cases, 30 carbine, 45 colt, magnum cases. I would check and see if you might have that spacer installed. For your 9mm you would need to remove it if its there. Adam