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Hammer strut shaping


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I recently picked up one of the EGW Titanium extended hammer struts.  Most struts I've dealt with have a rounded end where the strut meets the mainspring cup.  The EGW has a U-shape, not really cylindrical.  Is this something I should dress down to cylindrical, or nothing to worry about?  I can seem to find anything on this.

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Titanium is a poor choice for a hammer strut.  They flex, which is undesirable.  And they break, which is also undesirable.  Best bet is genuine Colt steel struts which you can get through Brownells.  As for dressing the end, it's a good practice.

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48 minutes ago, ltdmstr said:

Titanium is a poor choice for a hammer strut.  They flex, which is undesirable.  And they break, which is also undesirable.  Best bet is genuine Colt steel struts which you can get through Brownells.  As for dressing the end, it's a good practice.

poor old Ti always getting picked on.

i'm sure you remember the 90's when everything GUN related was made out of it.

someone gave me a Ti hammer that i tried for a whole hour before it went in the trash.

 

just fun'n with you as i agree, but look at all the money folks would still have had it not been for Ti.

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Yeah, it's pretty much a marketing thing.  Exotic metal + higher price = must be better.  There are hundreds of different types of titanium, and most of what's used for gun parts is crap.  But the main point is, when it comes to the FCG, the last thing I want in there is a part the flexes.  Other than springs, I want everything to be solid so I have a crisp trigger, not a sponge.

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49 minutes ago, Glockster1 said:

Only rounding and polishing on the spring push end is necessary. 

Mine was too tight to fit in the hammer, had to polish it a bit. I'm going to shape and polish the tip as well. Once I get the hole big enough to fit the pin... 

 

Thanks for all the input. I'm going to run the EGW for now, but I'll get a spare in case.

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12 hours ago, ltdmstr said:

Yeah, it's pretty much a marketing thing.  Exotic metal + higher price = must be better.  There are hundreds of different types of titanium, and most of what's used for gun parts is crap.  But the main point is, when it comes to the FCG, the last thing I want in there is a part the flexes.  Other than springs, I want everything to be solid so I have a crisp trigger, not a sponge.

 

I definitely agree with you. As  one , who builds fishing rods, I work with accessories from titanium. Manufacturers claim that titanium parts do not rust in salt water, so their price is high. In reality, it holds no more than ordinary accessories and is rusting  and breaks.

but it holds longer and better in places without any stress.

for guns i use only good carbon or SS steel. and i shape all hammer struts for 1911 guns

Edited by yigal
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14 hours ago, OnVacation said:

Mine was too tight to fit in the hammer, had to polish it a bit. I'm going to shape and polish the tip as well. Once I get the hole big enough to fit the pin... 

 

Thanks for all the input. I'm going to run the EGW for now, but I'll get a spare in case.

 

I thought they were talking about already fitted factory parts. But I've also never seen one that needed anything more even as an aftermarket part replacement. What you may have bought is a gunsmith fit part. Those do ( rarely ) require fitting on the upper end.

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7 hours ago, Glockster1 said:

 

I thought they were talking about already fitted factory parts. But I've also never seen one that needed anything more even as an aftermarket part replacement. What you may have bought is a gunsmith fit part. Those do ( rarely ) require fitting on the upper end.

It was a gunsmith fit part. I polished the edges an got it into the trigger. Shaped the spring end, and will finish fitting once I get the MSH fit into the frame.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/7/2020 at 9:21 AM, ltdmstr said:

Yeah, it's pretty much a marketing thing.  Exotic metal + higher price = must be better.  There are hundreds of different types of titanium, and most of what's used for gun parts is crap.  But the main point is, when it comes to the FCG, the last thing I want in there is a part the flexes.  Other than springs, I want everything to be solid so I have a crisp trigger, not a sponge.

could you explain to me how the strut could make the trigger pull less crisp? 

Its only job is to connect the spring to the hammer,  about the only thing I can conceive flex in the strut doing during the firing cycle would be to possibly increase hammer speed if its flex relaxes at a higher speed than the main spring can keep up with, and this seems like a positive?

 

 

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3 minutes ago, MikeBurgess said:

could you explain to me how the strut could make the trigger pull less crisp? 

Its only job is to connect the spring to the hammer,  about the only thing I can conceive flex in the strut doing during the firing cycle would be to possibly increase hammer speed if its flex relaxes at a higher speed than the main spring can keep up with, and this seems like a positive?

 

 

 

It's all connected to the trigger.  Mainspring to strut, strut to hammer, hammer to sear, sear to trigger.  So when you pull the trigger, you really feel everything in that chain, down to the mainspring.  It's really no different than how a 15 or 17 lb mainspring gives you a soft, mushy trigger with weak reset.  How much you can actually feel from just the strut is debatable, and depends on a lot of factors.  But having a flexible part in the chain doesn't help in any way.

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1 hour ago, ltdmstr said:

 

It's all connected to the trigger.  Mainspring to strut, strut to hammer, hammer to sear, sear to trigger.  So when you pull the trigger, you really feel everything in that chain, down to the mainspring.  It's really no different than how a 15 or 17 lb mainspring gives you a soft, mushy trigger with weak reset.  How much you can actually feel from just the strut is debatable, and depends on a lot of factors.  But having a flexible part in the chain doesn't help in any way.

You are confusing the mainspring with the sear spring.  The mainspring has nothing to do with reset.

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19 minutes ago, Brazos Custom said:

You are confusing the mainspring with the sear spring.  The mainspring has nothing to do with reset.


You’re definitely correct on that.  The point I was trying to make is the light mainspring results in a mushy trigger pull. Spongy not crisp.  As for the reset, most  people who go with a light mainspring to get a sub-2 lb trigger also take most of the tension off the sear spring.  So in addition to the mushy pull, you get the soft reset.

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2 hours ago, ltdmstr said:

 

It's all connected to the trigger.  Mainspring to strut, strut to hammer, hammer to sear, sear to trigger.  So when you pull the trigger, you really feel everything in that chain, down to the mainspring.  It's really no different than how a 15 or 17 lb mainspring gives you a soft, mushy trigger with weak reset.  How much you can actually feel from just the strut is debatable, and depends on a lot of factors.  But having a flexible part in the chain doesn't help in any way.

none of that explains HOW, I get that all are components of the trigger system.

 

I just can not engineer a way where the trigger through the disconnector pressing on the bottom of the sear to slide the tip of the sear off the hammer hook can tell how the rotational force is applied to the hammer?  

 

I ask because this is not the first time I have seen this mentioned and because it doesn't make intuitive sense and I would like to understand it better.

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