Single Stack Division/cdp 1911 Build

[Carlos]

Correct dimension Briley bushing is on order from Brownells. Should arrive by the time I get back from Sin City.

[third_of_five]

Wow Doug, awsome job! Is it going to be two toned or are you going to blue/parkerize the lower? Johnson Engineering strikes again

~ Jimmy

[Harmon]

any updates on the blaster?

[Carlos]

I missed the deadline & had to shoot my 1st SS division match with a 1911 out of the rental gun bin w/ borrowed mags & holders thanks to Alan Meek. I like the new division a whole lot & enjoyed shooting with Alan & Cliffy.

I also made some progress.

To cut the front sight dovetail, I looked at the cutters on hand & available sights. Since the rear sight is so tall, I opted to go with a cutter for a sight that I will have to order from Brownells. The cutter I selected was .330x60 deg. and made the depth of the cut .075" deep. To achieve this cut, I leveled the slide in the mill vice, touched off the top plane, and then lowered .075 & locked the head. A more time consuming way to do this is to hog out the middle with an ordinary mill and then make a pass with the dovetail cutter to save wear on the tool. I simply made one very slow pass with the cutter. Here is an out-of focus shot w/ a friend's display of quirky humor prior to the cut:

ANd here is the cut complete on the slide:

Obviously, from the photo above, you can see I have also fit the barrel & bushing as well and regrettably I did not take photographs of the fitting in progress but perhaps I can go back & fill in those photographs later.

In fitting the barrel to the frame, I ran into a slight quirk (one of many with this psrticular build, actually): the barrel feet hit the frame w. the link and slide stop installed, thus stopping the barrel from fully dropping out of battery. Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I located a web article over on www.1911forum.com that details the issue I am having and how to fix it (illustrated). Here is the link: http://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=120227

Part of this has to do with the long link that this gun needed. It is true that I could simply relieve the back of the barrel lug. However, I would have to do the same work on the next barrel in this frame, so why not fix the frame? Besides, this fix is easy & just involves a relief cut (and a non-precision one at that) with a Nowlin piloted cutter for making the Nowlin/Wilson ramped barrel cut (result show in link above).

Getting closer now and I also have an incentive since SS division is up & running; at our Mar. indoor club match we had 52 entries and 10 were in Single Stack (www.shootersparadise.com under Forum). Hopefully I won't have to resort to shooting the old rental gun & scrounging gear again next time.

More to come.

D.C. Johnson

Edited March 18, 2006 by Carlos

[Tokarev]

Any updates?

[Flexmoney]

Carlos, nice link to the 1911 thread. I went to gunsmithing class with Bob Rogers at C&S. He went on to take some more learnin' and it looks like he has jumped into 1911 plumbing with both feet.

[Carlos]

Thanks Flex!

Tokarev: her you are:

Latest work involves a brand new checkering file from Brownells (had to pay full retail, but its a nice tool).

Its 20 LPI. Why so coarse? Earlier in this post I showed the process of "pointing up" the cheap machine-molded checkering that was on a mainspring housing. It is close to 20 LPI. Now the frontstrap will match. Here it is about 1/3 done.

No formal jig was used for any of the checkering on this gun. Rather, I layed out the initial lateral lines using the same process as used for those running length-wise; I let the front strap protrude from the vice about 2" and used the end of the jaws as a guide. I selected a random starting point as I know I'll have to clean up the edges later anyway.

I also attempted to take some barrel fitting photos but none showed the caliper readings I wanted to show (anyone care to PM some tips on getting a Sony DSC-P92 to take macros?).

Also did the front sight - photos to follow.

Getting close.

Regards,

D.C. Johnson

[CAPT_MAGTF]

Fascinating thread. Any updates?

[Carlos]

Hit a rough patch at work & have been too busy to shoot, let alone get any further on this project or post pics. Hope to change that over the holidays. However, quick update:

In the spirit of keeping this project low-cost and showing that some low-grade parts can be re-worked at home, I planned to use a gun-show hammer that looks a lot like a Commander hammer. I planned to copy the Koenig lightweight speed hammer w/ some mill work. At the last minute, a friend offered what I think is a used Wilson combat skeletonized hammer that someone had damaged by trying to cut the hooks too shallow. Gunsmiths will disagree, but I have learned from others and have seen that if you cut the hooks below 16 to 18 thou, the gun will follow. This hammer was cut to about 10 thou and had to be replaced. Otherwise, it was fine. Simple fix?: re-cut it back to 20 thou on the mill. Its a simple 90 degree cut and it should have worked (emphasis added).

However, once installed in the gun, the hammer would not catch half the time and it followed the other half. - and this was during hand-cycling. Needless to say, it was NOT time for test-firing.

At the start of this thread, Chuck D. posted the following caution about Safari Arms/Olympic 1911 single stack castings - which this casting appears to be:

" Way back when (mid '80's) I purchased 3 Safari Arms frames for various projects. When the first one was being worked on...the 'smith discovered the slide stop pin hole to be machined in the wrong spot. Ditto with the hammer pin hole. After MUCH arguing with the factory. They were all returned for a refund. I would suggest that you check the pin locations especially with the "D" stamping on the frame...it may stand for a bit more than defects in the finish. Your frame may be o.k. but I would check it before you start." ChuckD.

Wise suggestion. To check, I borrowed a hammer/sear fitting jig made by Wilson Combat. This jig is simply a small steel plate w/ 2 pins that mimic the position of the hammer and sear pins when they are installed though a 1911 frame. Its purpose is to allow a gunsmith to visually inspect how the hammer and sear will contact each other inside of the gun. But -in my case it served another purpose - it verified that the holes in my frame were machined out of spec! Good grief. The "following" problem I was having with this frame was likely due to the holes being in the wrong spot and was probably compounded by using a re-cycled/re-cut hammer.

So, in an effort to salvage the project, it was back to the gun-show special hammer that cost me all of $14. Viola! No more following (at least during hand-cycling). The hammer caught every time! Disconnector worked too. The project lives on after all.

Now, about those lightening cuts I have planned: hammer steel tends to be very very hard and I expect to eat up some of my spendy carbide end mills re-working it into the Koenig hammer. Nonetheless, that task is next on the list. After that, I just need to finish up the checkering, make some grips, black-parkerize the carbon-steel parts and its off to the range to see what sort of monster I have created.

Until then,

D.C. Johnson

Edited November 30, 2006 by Carlos

[Harmon]

cool

i cant wait to see the finished product

Very neat taking a pile of almost "reject" parts and make them into a shootable pistol

Harmon