Titanium guide rods for 1911's?

[blkbrd]

I am starting to experiment with a lighter gun and am thinking a titanium guide rod would be a neat trick to save an ounce or 2.

Is the Cominolli light weight rod Ti.?

Halfman Custom has a standard steel head gunbarrel drilled Ti rod if not?

[BrianH]

I just made an interesting guide rod for a client....he asked for steel head, titanium in the front and tungsten in the back! I'm curious to hear what he thinks of it!

[DogmaDog]

Why not just go with the traditional 1911 half-length guide rod? It works.

DD

[Andrew B]

or a hollow steel flgr. Bob at Brazos made me one. Or a recoil master - they seem to be pretty light.

[Detlef]

the half-length traditional that I currently run in my 9 mm Para is Al. I should think Al is highly preferable to Ti because it has a lower specific weight and is less brittle. In fact, I am convinced that noone would be foolish enough to make or buy a Ti guide rod. For trigger parts you can't use Al because it is low strength/high abrasion, but no such limitation exists for guide rods.

[ErikW]

George Huening (defunct World Class Pistols Inc.) was foolish enough to make a titanium guide rod and I was foolish enough to buy it.

[Loves2Shoot]

Erik,

i'm glad ou proved Detlef wrong for once

Ive broken a few aluminium ones, I would dare even consider a TI once. The RM is pretty dang light and mine has worked great.

[blkbrd]

Metallurgy 101

Even 7075 aluminum is soft with little abrasion resistance, 6061 and 2024 even less so but they are less prone to work hardening and brittleness than 7075, that is why Cominolli hard anodizes theirs. Not that it should matter as the head is still steel, the attachment point between the two materials is about the only concern. And I am sure if Cominolli makes it it will hold up.

Steel is a great material, tough and ductile easy to work,just heavy even a thin wall drilled rod will be.

Tungsten is brittle in any form, thats why you here so much complaing about broken tungsten rods, However Cominolli and Wilson do seem to have figured out a good balance and rairly break anymore.

Titanium is just a cool all around material: Its light, right between steel and aluminum, almost as strong as a good steel alloy and has good wear resistance without being brittle.

Its biggest problem besides coming from Soviet states is it is a bitch to machine and cost.

As far as I can tell a hollow Ti. rod would be the perfect combination for light weight, and high strength.

I have ordered a gunbarrel drilled titanium rod from Halfman Custom, we will see how it works.

An old shorty rod won't work in a bull barrel reverse plug gun worth a darn. Cant stand the feel of Recoilmasters.

[MoNsTeR]

An old shorty rod won't work in a bull barrel reverse plug gun worth a darn.

Why not?

Don't tell me you haven't figured out how to disassemble such a setup

[blkbrd]

Because I like the feel of a smooth pistol, not how they feel with the unsuported rod.

[wadrew]

TI Rods:

My shooting buddy and I have had a bunch of rods and reverse plugs made. The rod is approx. 60% lighter than 416SS, and is 90% titanium, 6% Scandium, 4% Vanadium, or more commonly called, Beta-Grade Titanium.

The rod is all one-piece, CNC Lathed and Milled, and can be gun-drilled in the center or not.

We have a fellow shooter, and Master Programmer, who makes them for us.

The diameter is the same as a Caspian full-legnth rod, and has a 'horse shoe' button end similiar to the McCormic button, and the button end is the same Diameter as the Caspian rods, but Beveled at the top so that the link/barrel do not contact it.

The reverse plug is the same O.D. dimensions as an SV, but the front shoulder on the inside is flat instead of beveled, so that the recoil spring does not get pushed into the rod and cause as much spring drag as some of the other reverse plugs.

The total weight is going to be about 1/2 of 416ss.

My experience with this rod/plug is that at first it seems to make the recoil impulse feel snappier but faster. The plug takes off a little weight from the slide, and it seems to reciprocate faster. The rod seems to make the gun move off of the target easier, but it does not seem to 'jump' off the target like the shorty guns as much. The best thing is that the gun does not DIP as much as with the heavier parts. I actually chanced from 115gr bullets to 121's and 125's, as they feel softer/bouncier, but with the rod/plug, it feels more like the 115's but not as snappy/poppy.

I also ended up cutting off the last set of ports on my comp, as I felt I had to 'muscle' the gun from target or 'sweep' them almost to get the target transitions. The result was quite to my expectation and my liking.

With these two changes, my gun recoils faster, still settels cleanly, and the dot doesn't dip below where I break the shot, but returns very well to that same spot on its own without any additional grip.

The charge for the rods is time and materials, but is a good thing to check out before you spend the $$ on a whole new gun.

I have TI rods in my 40 and 45 singlestack, and find that the gun pushed less in my hand. The Tungsten rods and plugs made the recoil impulse and slide movement seem slower, the gun pushed more, and the muzzle climbed higher and stayed higher longer than with the stainless or Titanium. I think, that, for my guns and with the attributes I was looking for, they were the awnser.

I tried the recoil master products and liked them, but I had too many of them break. The button is punched to keep it from rotating, but in this process, they are stripping the threads, misaligning the button to the rod, and I had one of them shoot apart and fly out of the front of my gun. SO, I went back to what worked the best previous to them.

I am running a SV w/Caspian slide, Cone-Comp EGW 5-port (was a 7-port). I've shot the brazos and SV IMM (ti barrel) gun and could not stand them for anything. They took too much weight from the wrong places.

OK but if you're interested I could hook you up with my machinist friend and he could get you some pricing. I'm sure he'd like the business, but he is really busy and the materiall availability comes and goes.

-Drew

TY43772

[wadrew]

TI RODS part 2:

I have put about 50,000 rounds (2 years or less) on my rod and it shows less wear than the stainless McCormic one that I only had for a year.

Maybe you guys who've had them break got ones built out of the wrong materail. You might ask them what they were REALLY made of.

Beta-Grade is Aerospace grade, the same as what they use in Titanium connecting rods in pro-stock drag racing and top fuel/funny cars.

Mine have never broken or cracked. 10 rods in 10 guns and not a single problem. If I have any question in the reliability of a part in my gun, I will not use it, and I use these rods in mine.

-Drew

[blkbrd]

Wadrew;

Thank you, this is the sort of reply I was looking for and also the kind that will help others on the board.

[LongSlideMike]

On 4/14/2004 at 10:33 PM, wadrew said:

I am interested in two similar guide rods for My 1911's

Drew can you post contact info?

Thanks

Mike

 

TI Rods:

My shooting buddy and I have had a bunch of rods and reverse plugs made. The rod is approx. 60% lighter than 416SS, and is 90% titanium, 6% Scandium, 4% Vanadium, or more commonly called, Beta-Grade Titanium.

The rod is all one-piece, CNC Lathed and Milled, and can be gun-drilled in the center or not.

We have a fellow shooter, and Master Programmer, who makes them for us.

The diameter is the same as a Caspian full-legnth rod, and has a 'horse shoe' button end similiar to the McCormic button, and the button end is the same Diameter as the Caspian rods, but Beveled at the top so that the link/barrel do not contact it.

The reverse plug is the same O.D. dimensions as an SV, but the front shoulder on the inside is flat instead of beveled, so that the recoil spring does not get pushed into the rod and cause as much spring drag as some of the other reverse plugs.

The total weight is going to be about 1/2 of 416ss.

My experience with this rod/plug is that at first it seems to make the recoil impulse feel snappier but faster. The plug takes off a little weight from the slide, and it seems to reciprocate faster. The rod seems to make the gun move off of the target easier, but it does not seem to 'jump' off the target like the shorty guns as much. The best thing is that the gun does not DIP as much as with the heavier parts. I actually chanced from 115gr bullets to 121's and 125's, as they feel softer/bouncier, but with the rod/plug, it feels more like the 115's but not as snappy/poppy.

I also ended up cutting off the last set of ports on my comp, as I felt I had to 'muscle' the gun from target or 'sweep' them almost to get the target transitions. The result was quite to my expectation and my liking.

With these two changes, my gun recoils faster, still settels cleanly, and the dot doesn't dip below where I break the shot, but returns very well to that same spot on its own without any additional grip.

The charge for the rods is time and materials, but is a good thing to check out before you spend the $$ on a whole new gun.

I have TI rods in my 40 and 45 singlestack, and find that the gun pushed less in my hand. The Tungsten rods and plugs made the recoil impulse and slide movement seem slower, the gun pushed more, and the muzzle climbed higher and stayed higher longer than with the stainless or Titanium. I think, that, for my guns and with the attributes I was looking for, they were the awnser.

I tried the recoil master products and liked them, but I had too many of them break. The button is punched to keep it from rotating, but in this process, they are stripping the threads, misaligning the button to the rod, and I had one of them shoot apart and fly out of the front of my gun. SO, I went back to what worked the best previous to them.

I am running a SV w/Caspian slide, Cone-Comp EGW 5-port (was a 7-port). I've shot the brazos and SV IMM (ti barrel) gun and could not stand them for anything. They took too much weight from the wrong places.

OK but if you're interested I could hook you up with my machinist friend and he could get you some pricing. I'm sure he'd like the business, but he is really busy and the materiall availability comes and goes.

-Drew