Grip safety fitting and blending

[t1nm4n]

This is a parts gun that I have been working of for awhile now, I had done some work to the feed ramps to make it fed better, worked well. I didn't care for the old style narrow grip safety and decided to get a beavertail grip, I did the fitting myself and found that I may have order the wrong grip safety. There is a noticeable gap in the frame and the safety, is this typical on GI Framed 1911s? It doesn't seem to bother my hand any when holding it, but it sure does look like ... you get the idea.

The gap in the frame was there before started this project, is that normal? this is a cheap Interarms frame, there are so many machine marks through out, a lot of time was spent smoothing internal burs that seemed to catch on every moving part.

I just want to know if this looks like a decent job, I got to get it refinished and that was all part of the project from the beginning, but I'd like to get some other 1911 owners input on how it looks so far, this is my first time doing anything gun-smithing, other than a trigger job, which is a lot easier than fitting the either safety and then blending any of it in.

[Vincent C]

This doesn't look uncommon to me but could be matched up better. I would do heavier material removal focused on the grip safety right below the piviot point of the thumb safety with out removing any material on the frame to get the lines to match up. You will get a little of a flat spot below the beaver tail that you can then round out when you blend it all to the frame. Careful to keep the grip safety symmetric when removing the material. The part of the grip safety that is blended to the back of the grip looks good.

Most of your material removal should come from the grip safety, and depending on the safety and the frame there can be quite a bit more in some cases than others.

[t1nm4n]

I keep looking at the grip and it doesn't look like it will be structurally affected if I take some more material out of there, but it seems (lets see if I can describe this right) that there would be a noticeable recess in the grip safety if I were to remove enough material to make it flush, I'm just worried about how it will feel. The markings on the frame are mainly from the plastic paddle wheel for my dremel that I used to smooth the grind marks on the safety, very little material was taken from the frame, I tried really hard to keep from digging into the frame while grinding.

I was really surprised how much material I had to remove from the thumb safety hole to get it to sit flush with the grip safety, don't think it will affect reliability or safe operation of the gun, but as this is my first, not really sure how bad the deviances are between frames. Say I get a better quality frame and want to build my gun, which just seems more fun to me than buying a ready to run out of the box to. Will I run into the same gaps in the well area of the safety, or is this cause it's a GI spec government model, or so I was told that is what it is called. Appreciate the feedback, I'll have to work on it some more, I think I got well over 18 hours in so far, slow is safe.

[StraightUp_OG]

So a few things.

Yes you can take more material off of the underside of the grip safety and no not all frames are made to an exact standard. The 1911 has had many revisions and changes throughout the century + of its existence. The frame you have may not be the same spec as the grip safety but that is OK for a parts gun.

More importantly you do not want to remove material from the thumb safety hole. You need to remove material from the frame where it meets the grip safety. This is also one reason that it appears that there is a big gap on the underside. You need to remove more from the back of the frame to get the correct fit.

I do this with punches to act as the thumb safety pivot pin, sharpie and a file. Mark up the back of the frame with the sharpie put the GS on and shove a punch in. Then move the GS back and forth, pull the punch and see where the sharpie rubbed off. Remove material, LIGHTLY, where those marks are. Rinse and repeat until you can get the thumb safety in like it is as stock.

You are right that it won't affect function but it is not correct. I am not sure how the altering of the safety hole will mess with the fit.

Edited May 4, 2013 by StraightUp_OG

[t1nm4n]

In the pictures it is fitted just right, pin goes in without too much resistance, and the GS moves the way I've seen every other GS move (with slightly less wiggle than most). I was primarily concerned with if it was alright to remover more material from the GS to blend it to the gap on the frame, just in the area the web of your hand would be. after looking and looking at it some more I have determined it won't hurt the integrity of the GS, but it will end narrowing the area where one's webbing meets the GS, I am not sure I want this right now, so for the time being I will take it and put a few rounds through her to see how she feels.

As for the GS hole, I haven't take material away from it, but on the actual TS, you have to see the pic.

I am really close to the pin hole here.

This might give a better shot of the pin hole.

on the TS there is no material left to remove for blending it to the frame without taking from the pin.

[StraightUp_OG]

OH! I see what you mean and I am glad you did not elongate the TS hole.

When I fit GS I do quite a but of blending and shaping of the underside of the GS. I use a dremel and 3 grits of sanding drum. coarse, medium and fine. Then use a cratex polishing bullet (looks like a .30 cal bullet). You can remove a little and time and going slow will tell you how far you can go.

Watch this vid that Nil's took of Matt building a limited gun and at about the 2:40 mark is where he fits the GS. I know that it is on a 2011 frame but the idea is the same. Note the KILLER idea of using a recoil spring to compress the GS for fitting.

Edited May 4, 2013 by StraightUp_OG

[t1nm4n]

Wow, I will have to watch that several more times, but that was awesome. Of all the videos I watched I never saw that one, thanks for the link.

[StraightUp_OG]

Sure thing!

[jid2]

This one too....

[StraightUp_OG]

Ah yes the other Matt. :-P

I so want a surface grinder.

[t1nm4n]

That's some awesome work there. Talk about the blending of the comp.