Glock slide tightening.

[JAMES77257]

How is this done?

[Chris Keen]

Not sure why you would need to tighten the slide on a Glock.

Is there any specific reason ?

[open17]

How is this done?

With a hammer.

Mark the 4 places where the frame rails are at with the slide in battery. These are the only areas

you need to whack.

Take off the rear sight, lay the slide top-side-down on a good solid anvil. I usually pad it with

a folded paper towel so I don't mar the slide.

Strike straight down at the marked locations with a hammer. I'm not even going to try to describe

how hard--you will figure it out. Tap a little, check the fit. Repeat until you get it as tight as you want. Don't go too far!

All of this used to be on-line, or find an old Front Sight magazine with the article on dremeling a Glock

by Dale Rhea.

This is a process with a fairly steep learning curve, and a high disaster factor. Think about for

a LONG time before you pick up the hammer---The reward vs risk ratio sucks.

[Jman]

Not sure why you would need to tighten the slide on a Glock.

Is there any specific reason ?

It (of all things ) improves the trigger pull. That's according to Robin Taylors "The Glock in Competition".

I won't attempt to describe it here. Never the less it seems to be a "low yield" modification considering

the risk.

Jim

[SA Friday]

glockjocky.com

If I ever have this done, there is only one guy I would trust to do it, John Nagel (AKA Mad Scientist). I've seen his work and it's second to none. I sure's the hell wouldn't trust myself to do it

[Chris Keen]

+1 Scares me.

[styx]

If you're wanting to improve the trigger on your Glock, get with someone who's installed on of Charlie Vanek's kits and try it out. The Vanek trigger I put in my G24 really surprised me. It shortened pretravel, and greatly reduced the pull weight. The really good thing is that it's easy to install and poses no risk of damaging the gun. Sorry to drift the thread.

[JAMES77257]

Thanks for the replies.

I noticed a little play in my G35 slide-to-frame fit. I have seen it as an option on a few Glock tuning services. However, me with a hammer + gun, ain't gonna happen.

I have a triggerkit.com trigger. It seems good compared to the stock one. How much better of a trigger is available?

[maineshootah]

glockjocky.com

If I ever have this done, there is only one guy I would trust to do it, John Nagel (AKA Mad Scientist). I've seen his work and it's second to none. I sure's the hell wouldn't trust myself to do it

+1 love the work on mine so much, I will be sending in my limited blaster around the holidays to get it done as well.

[Joe D]

Tightening a Glock slide is a total waste of time. If you just have to do it, do it right. Measure the thickness of the frame rails. Then whip out your trusty surface grinder and grind some flat bars like you use on a 1911 frame. .002" should be about the right clearance. The bar will prevent you from over tightening the slide.

I did this once - complete waste of time and effort.

[jobob]

I've done it on 3 or 4 Glocks. Trial and error method. Beat on the rails a few strokes, then slip the slide on the frame. Stop when either you can feel no vertical movement in the fit when the slide is in battery position, or it becomes a little difficult to slip the slide onto the frame. You don't want to go too far! But, the effort is worth it. Really helps when doing work on the Glock trigger. I don't think you can get a really good match trigger without doing it. Some guns come with a tighter fit than others. That's just mass production tolerances. So, some guns need it more than others. It's particularly needed if you are putting together an open gun that will have a frame mounted red dot sight. Then, you'll need to do it for accuracey, since your sight is not on the slide.

The Glock slide is VERY hard. The rails don't bend easily. Go slow, but you need to whack the slide hard enough, too. Make sure the top side of the slide is on wood or something that won't mar the finish. And again - GO SLOW.

[Joe D]

How much lower than 16 oz. do I need to go to get a "really good match trigger"?

[Singlestack Wonder]

My Glock 35 has over 85,000 rounds thru it. It has a lot of vertical play. When the trigger is pulled, one can see the slide actually drop. The trigger has been tuned and breaks at ~2lbs. But, with the vertical slop, the trigger action is not 100% repeatable shot to shot.

My question is, where does the looseness come from, slide rail wear or frame rail wear?

[eric nielsen]

The play comes from the tolerances that Glock built into the gun. As others have said, trying to change the slide-to-frame fit is a high-risk, low-reward deal. I wouldn't try it, myself. Which part wears? Probably the frame rails.

I think you'll find that if you do one of the mods to the back of the trigger bar, like redrilling the return-spring hole, you'll find that the trigger bar is moving more straight back and not so much pulling down all the time & not pulling down on the slide as much. Combine that with some really good trigger lube and you'll find the striker is released, working against only the front/back inertia of the slide, not by yanking down on the slide.

Edited July 26, 2007 by eric nielsen

[jobob]

How much lower than 16 oz. do I need to go to get a "really good match trigger"?

See singlestack's answer. The measure of a good trigger is not entirely by weight. Smoothness, consistency, letoff, overtavel, all play a part in a good trigger. Tightening the slide also increases the engagement surface between the sear and firing pin, which may be good or bad, depending on if you need that engagement to retain safety in a light trigger setup or not.

How do you get a safe 1 lb. trigger in a Glock? I've heard of them, but have never tried one. It would seem to me that, since there is a considerable amount of spring tension pulling the trigger to the rear, and considering that your 1 lb. is just a measure of the difference between the forces pulling in both directions, if there were some change in any of those forces through wear, change in spring tension, etc., you could have a very unsafe situation on (or in) your hands!

[Joe D]

My old G35 had a 1 1/4 lb. pull. At the 100,000 round mark I decided to sell it. No good reason to, just wanted a new one. The pull was the same the whole time I owned it. I replaced one return spring at about the 60,000 round mark. Gun never doubled or gave me any trigger related problems. If you clean and lubricate these guns every once in a while they will last forever.

The G34 I have been playing with has a 1 lb pull. It has about 6,000 rounds through it.

Let off, overtravel and pre-travel are easily controlled. You don't have to tighten a slide to increase engagement. I use a stock trigger spring along with a 4 lb striker spring.

How do I get a 1 lb. trigger? The answers are spread over several forums. Look and you shall find.

Edited July 26, 2007 by Joe D

[the duck of death]

.

Edited September 2, 2007 by the duck of death

[wcmesa]

I tightened (beat the hell out of ) the slide on my limited 35. It did improve the trigger feel a little but not enough to warrent the A$$ pucker it gives you. The gun still functions 100% with the lone wolf barrel.The tolerances on the glock just are not there to make it worth while. Next time the gun will go to sjc .

[Mad Scientist]

why tighten slides????

good question. I feel that overall acuracy is improved when all lock up points are controled to match tolerences.that includes slide to frame fit.up and down and now side to side. when we are talking about stock barrels frame fitting can also tightwen the locking surfaces of the lock to block increasing accuracy .when fitting a match barrel controling all surfaces tipicaly yields a dramatic improvment . I know Joe has some stock set ups that are cherry . but he has stated on this forum that he hand picks his guns from as many as he can check . we get to the same place via diferent roads.Joe is very knowledgable and is completely

correct in His aproach. I have seen his groups and I donot dispute them. I also have seen guns that just would not shoot have a total reversal after the tolerances where corrected.so here lies the problem do we search the shops for a tight gun or do we make them tight thru force.I guess we deal with what we are delt. glock could make super tack drivers but that is not their mission.they provide reasonable acurate guns that just flat out work every time.i find it far less time consuming to make them tight as my time is worth more than any amount of money.

the nice thing about the processes that I use is the benifit in the trigger. I find that a tightened gun is more consistent and crisper. I like the break and the control over engagement I can achieve. 1 pound triger nice Joe . not for every one my own personal trigger breaks at 20 oz and that is as light as I ever would go. I have a very heavy finger dont know if I could control such a thing.I look at a lot of things in a trigger. take up , smoothness, break,stacking, overtravel, all these things should be considered.

Side note if you are going to attempt this use a smooth drift on the rails and go very slow. I use fitting bars to avoid over tightening. once you go to far it is very dificult to reverse the movement.

as far as side to side movment especialy in an optic gun plastic moves and can be trained to go where you want it.Bob from Brazos sumed it up that for every .010" movement in the slide or sight alignment the bullet moves 1" AT 25 YARDS.I have seen some glocks with .015 to .030" movement side to side this could exsplain the 4to 5 inch stringing on some guns. this is a new area in slide to frame fit in Glocks But people are demanding better things from their glocks.what are we to do but deliever. drift on Joe love to hear from you love to see you come out and shoot with us!!!!!

John Nagel

3 time world champion gun builder.

[wcmesa]

and that is why i recomend sending it to this man

[JThompson]

How is this done?

"Easy Bake Oven?"

[Mad Scientist]

How is this done?

"Easy Bake Oven?"

well with out giving away the farm a little heat never hurts but remember that the plastic lowers melt at relatively low temps. Find the balance between movement and melting. when you get the heat aplied use force and hold to get the desired effect.the technology is new to glocks but comes from the old days of bullseye before the aftermarket frames.do some research into anchient technology go back to the pyramids . those guys where realy smart moving 100tons with sticks and levers. the purpose of forums is to share info but more importantly to stimulate ideas.

Johnnie

[spankymac]

why tighten slides????

good question. I feel that overall acuracy is improved when all lock up points are controled to match tolerences.that includes slide to frame fit.up and down and now side to side. when we are talking about stock barrels frame fitting can also tightwen the locking surfaces of the lock to block increasing accuracy .when fitting a match barrel controling all surfaces tipicaly yields a dramatic improvment . I know Joe has some stock set ups that are cherry . but he has stated on this forum that he hand picks his guns from as many as he can check . we get to the same place via diferent roads.Joe is very knowledgable and is completely

correct in His aproach. I have seen his groups and I donot dispute them. I also have seen guns that just would not shoot have a total reversal after the tolerances where corrected.so here lies the problem do we search the shops for a tight gun or do we make them tight thru force.I guess we deal with what we are delt. glock could make super tack drivers but that is not their mission.they provide reasonable acurate guns that just flat out work every time.i find it far less time consuming to make them tight as my time is worth more than any amount of money.

the nice thing about the processes that I use is the benifit in the trigger. I find that a tightened gun is more consistent and crisper. I like the break and the control over engagement I can achieve. 1 pound triger nice Joe . not for every one my own personal trigger breaks at 20 oz and that is as light as I ever would go. I have a very heavy finger dont know if I could control such a thing.I look at a lot of things in a trigger. take up , smoothness, break,stacking, overtravel, all these things should be considered.

Side note if you are going to attempt this use a smooth drift on the rails and go very slow. I use fitting bars to avoid over tightening. once you go to far it is very dificult to reverse the movement.

as far as side to side movment especialy in an optic gun plastic moves and can be trained to go where you want it.Bob from Brazos sumed it up that for every .010" movement in the slide or sight alignment the bullet moves 1" AT 25 YARDS.I have seen some glocks with .015 to .030" movement side to side this could exsplain the 4to 5 inch stringing on some guns. this is a new area in slide to frame fit in Glocks But people are demanding better things from their glocks.what are we to do but deliever. drift on Joe love to hear from you love to see you come out and shoot with us!!!!!

John Nagel

3 time world champion gun builder.

+1

2 pistols done by John, it is the difference between night and day