Flyin40 Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 (edited) Heres the deal, I'm left handed and ambi safeties a pain in the rear. I fitted the last one and its great. No issues at all. So heres my question. During fitting I did alot of work with the the female and male ends that mate to keep the safety together. The fit is so tight its next to impossible to get it apart. You can't wiggle it apart like a normal safety. Usually it takes a screwdriver inserted underneath to get it loose. This can end up nicking the gun up and making the safety weaker because the the tabs bending. The safety has to be this tight to avoid constant breakage. If you place the gun in your left hand aiming at something then press on the outside of the safety at the very front, pressing it to the slide and work it up and down. If you notice the back of the safety working loose, this is what left handers have to watch out for. The safety "loosens" and wiggles apart alittle bit and basically it doesn't have full contact and will lead to the male tab breaking off. So now to the question. How can I clean the internals of the gun without taking it apart. How about the polymer safe stuff???? with the straw to shoot it down in there. Or should I just take it apart and clean it??? How often do you completely tear down the gun to clean it?? Flyin40 Edited April 4, 2006 by Flyin40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.40AET Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 If you're interested in trying another safety, SVI makes an Optifit 2 sided safety. It screws together so it can't come apart during a match. That said.....I couldn't deal with mine and swapped it out for an Ed Brown. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted April 4, 2006 Share Posted April 4, 2006 40, Working from the bottom up, I usually do a full clean at around 1000 rds or so. It is probably not necessary but I saw a guy have a disconnector hang up on the last stage of a sectional match and loose his class because of that malfuntion and decided a little more cleaning is not necessarily a bad thing. That being said, I have ambis in 2 single stacks and 2 fat guns (one is .40 open ) and have never had them tight as you describe. They just pull apart and have never broken. I think they are probably all but 1 Ed Brown. The odd one is stock Para limited. I am right handed if that makes a difference. You break those things? Later, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoshidaex Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 i don't see why the ambi has to be tight to stay together. installed, the limited range of motion of the left side safety should prevent the right side from falling out of the ambi safety grip groove. i've never had one fall out yet and the fit isn't super tight but there isn't a huge amount of play either. as for a kimber ambi thumb safety, i have no idea how that thing is held on. i'll have to get one and tinker with that one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted April 6, 2006 Share Posted April 6, 2006 Left-handed shooters face a different set of challenges with ambi-safeties. F40, next time your are around, my ambi has a slight notch filed in it to allow space for the "pry-bar". There are safer "pry bars" than the screw driver. Some are plastic and some are wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin40 Posted April 7, 2006 Author Share Posted April 7, 2006 Left-handed shooters face a different set of challenges with ambi-safeties.F40, next time your are around, my ambi has a slight notch filed in it to allow space for the "pry-bar". There are safer "pry bars" than the screw driver. Some are plastic and some are wood. Duh..............LOL. That would take care of it. I hadn't really thought about it until recently when I wanted to take it completely apart. I haven't bought a backup safety yet so I'll probably just get another SV safety(really like them and easy to fit) and put a small notch in it and use the one on the gun now as a backup. Its already chromed and not sure how hard it will be to add a notch. Flyin40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin40 Posted April 23, 2006 Author Share Posted April 23, 2006 Well my safety finally worked loose so I took the opportunity to go ahead and tear it all the way down the give it a good clean. The safety came apart easily. I noticed last match that it was starting to work loose. It wasn't even that dirty but I'm heading to Area 6 in a couple weeks so wanted it cleaned. Just squeezed the female end alittle before putting it back together and all is well. The safety is tight again. Flyin40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuz Posted April 23, 2006 Share Posted April 23, 2006 So now to the question. How can I clean the internals of the gun without taking it apart. How about the polymer safe stuff???? with the straw to shoot it down in there. Or should I just take it apart and clean it???How often do you completely tear down the gun to clean it?? Flyin40 I've never taken mine apart that far. Are you supposed to strip it down past the regular "field stripping"? -Cuz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEDELLCUSTOM Posted April 23, 2006 Share Posted April 23, 2006 don't use a screwdriver to pry up on your ambi's to get them apart, you'll just scratch and ding your frame. get a set of flat feeler gauges at your local auto parts store and select the one that best fits and slides in between the left side safety and frame, then you can bend up on it and wiggle the safety right out. if you take your time you won't scratch or ding your frame since the feeler gauge has some give to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2alpha Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 Ditch it and get a Kings, no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin40 Posted April 27, 2006 Author Share Posted April 27, 2006 If you're interested in trying another safety, SVI makes an Optifit 2 sided safety. It screws together so it can't come apart during a match. That said.....I couldn't deal with mine and swapped it out for an Ed Brown. Just a thought. What didn't you like about the Optifit ambi safety????? Did you locktite it in to make sure it didn't loosen??? I was just looking at one today on the web. Looks like this might be the one to try next. I tried an SV safety for the first time this yr and love it. The fit was so easy compared to anything else. Flyin40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike cyrwus Posted April 30, 2006 Share Posted April 30, 2006 Ditch it and get a Kings, no problems. +1; I have one I need to fit. You righties dont realize the wear and abuse a strong hand thumb can do to the rh side of an ambi. I actually prefer the cheaper mim ambis over the ed browns, the browns have too much give in the metal and eventually loosen, unlike the mccormick min safety where the joint is more rigid and less elastic. Of course the brawback to that is when it fails, itll snap in half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillL223 Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 Being left-handed, I have broken most conventional ambi safety designs using a high thumb hold. The best solution is to use a Kings ambi safety. My gunsmith, EGW, has enhanced this by drilling and tapping a hole for a stop screw to prevent me from over-stressing the part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike cyrwus Posted May 16, 2006 Share Posted May 16, 2006 Being left-handed, I have broken most conventional ambi safety designs using a high thumb hold. The best solution is to use a Kings ambi safety. My gunsmith, EGW, has enhanced this by drilling and tapping a hole for a stop screw to prevent me from over-stressing the part. Interesting; they tapped the frame on the right side an installed an external "stop"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flyin40 Posted May 16, 2006 Author Share Posted May 16, 2006 (edited) Being left-handed, I have broken most conventional ambi safety designs using a high thumb hold. The best solution is to use a Kings ambi safety. My gunsmith, EGW, has enhanced this by drilling and tapping a hole for a stop screw to prevent me from over-stressing the part. Interesting; they tapped the frame on the right side an installed an external "stop"? I thought that would work also but I found out the real reason I break safeties and I bet alot of left handers also. The right safety(gun facing away) where a left handers thumb lays works loose. This is caused by placing forward pressure at the front of the safety and pushing in toward the slide. Pushing in at the front of the thumb ledge causes the male and female parts to separate at the back. Once separated and the safety continues to be used will eventually weaken and break the male tab. I'm in the habit now of constantly making sure my ambi safety is tight and pressed all the way together. The remedy was to slighty put pressure on the female end and "squeeze" it together to make a better fit. I now have to place a towel over my safety and use pliers to get them together otherwise I will break safeties quickly if I leave them loose. Thats why it is so hard to get them apart. At first I thought it was caused by putting to much downward pressure on the safety. Gary at Gans welded a tab at the bottom of my safety to make it bottom out basically putting a stop tab for the gun. I was not able to place any extra stress by downward force so I started looking at other ways. I have tried about 10 guns from different people testing the safety. In 8 out 10 guns I could work the safety loose easily by placing the inward pressure on the safety. Most would seperate every so slighty but it would be enough. In one gun after I worked the safety about 5 times I could basically pull the safeties apart. 2 guns didn't budge. Possible fixes.............quit pushing my damn safety towards the slide . I have played with my grip some so we'll see. Flyin40 Edited May 16, 2006 by Flyin40 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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