Teaser Pics, Long, Wide Dustcover Project

[HSMITH]

Bob, it takes me 50 times longer to set the slide up in the mill than it does to cut it. Measuring the rails, mapping it out, setting it up where it will be straight and true after the cut without getting any part of it too small, etc. Most machine fit slides are set up with the rails level, take a cut, try the frame, if it won't go take another half thou to a thou, try the frame in the slide. When it feels like it will probably go most of the way pull the slide and start lapping. Done this way a slide can be fit in just 10 or 15 minutes. That is also why the fit the way they do......

Measure 3 times, indicate everything twice and cut once. Otherwise it gets expensive really quickly.

Mini mills will work as TMC has shown. Be careful though, some of them are not square or straight. The small parts we are talking about will minimize the effect but you need a quality made mini mill or the ability to get them straight and square. They also take a fine touch when cutting. They don't have a lot of power and aren't very rigid when compared to 'normal' mills. You will also want coated carbide tooling, not being able to take heavier passes will put more heat in the tool and not being able to get under the material and get a plastic flow off the cutter is REALLY hard on tooling. Good tools with a TiAlN will last several times longer than an uncoated tool for an example.

TMC has obviously made friends with his mill. That is a great looking gun!!

[Kingman]

thank you for the advice on the mills. TMC is sort of where I got the idea a small one would be ok to use if very careful, and taking small passes at a time.

Looking at doing a modified project it appears I am going to be doing that one myself. Not to many people want to take on that project without it hitting astronomic costs. So I am going to have to call someone to get an official IPSC box and test fit some things then do it myself. I don't think it will be too bad, but am curious as to if I can do a cmore or oko. I am going to try to figure out how to make it work with some sort of comp besides just the tribrid setup.

I agree with you a great deal about the 40 though. A lot of my holdbacks have come from nondescript jams as we have talked about. So my debate is either going back to super, or going to 40. 40 seems to be more cost efficient. The magazines also for 9 are a pita. it seems after practicing reloads I have to readjust the lips occasionally.

[vrmn1]

This is the kind of thing where it bothers me about my job.

I am a machinist at a large company I run CNC machines everyday but I can't do any work.

I can't think about taking guns or gun parts on the property. I have a small lathe at home but it is to small to do much. My home shop is small and is only wired for 110 so I have had to pass up many good deals on machines.

Maybe a good thing that I can't do stuff or I would go broke building guns.

[TMC]

Thread drift more here

HSMITH is right mini mills will need many small passes to remove material. Set up is critical and I would tram the thing multiple times with a dial indicator to make sure everything was straight.

So yeah a mini mill can work but if you shop around and have the space you can do better for not too much more money. When my mini mill broke down and I was shopping for a replacement and was looking at a slightly larger benchtop mill. After allot of looking and factoring in shipping for a new one I went looking on ebay. I found this 10 year old Sharp 25 miles from my home, its a 3hp 9" x 42" variable speed with power feed and DROS. I got it for $1,900. I have some learning to do but after seeing what these mill typically sell for and how long they last I figure if I get tired of using it I can probally sell it for what I paid or maybe more. Food for thought.

Edited September 4, 2007 by TMC

[HSMITH]

Todd, that is a NICE mill!!! I would REALLY like to have one for frame cuts, comp cuts, things like that. Doing them on the CNC takes a LOT longer than it would on a nice knee mill.

[newshooter]

Thread drift more here

HSMITH is right mini mills will need many small passes to remove material. Set up is critical and I would tram the thing multiple times with a dial indicator to make sure everything was straight.

So yeah a mini mill can work but if you shop around and have the space you can do better for not too much more money. When my mini mill broke down and I was shopping for a replacement and was looking at a slightly larger benchtop mill. After allot of looking and factoring in shipping for a new one I went looking on ebay. I found this 10 year old Sharp 25 miles from my home, its a 3hp 9" x 42" variable speed with power feed and DROS. I got it for $1,900. I have some learning to do but after seeing what these mill typically sell for and how long they last I figure if I get tired of using it I can probally sell it for what I paid or maybe more. Food for thought.

Lol that looks like a nice low pro jack behind the mill

[dirtypool40]

sorry for the late arrival, where'd you get that old timey SOCOM frame?

A buddy of mine has one and it's the only other one I've ever seen.

[Kingman]

Ok the mill is awesome. Read: I need one, or want one anyhow

DP, I got the frame about 2 years ago on the uspsa classifieds. I thought it was pretty cool as I had never seen one at the time, the price was right so I picked it up.

[boz1911]

I am thinking about buying one of those grizzly mills or something like that.

If you take your time a mini mill can turn out nice stuff

Nice work, what type of mill do you have? What's the best source for a quality mill?

[jasmap]

sorry for the late arrival, where'd you get that old timey SOCOM frame?

A buddy of mine has one and it's the only other one I've ever seen.

It is an awesome frame. BE.com member Tokarev has a 5" .40 that Virgil Tripp built for him on the SOCOM frame. It is the softest / flattest shooting Limited gun I've ever felt.

[Intel6]

sorry for the late arrival, where'd you get that old timey SOCOM frame?

A buddy of mine has one and it's the only other one I've ever seen.

It is an awesome frame. BE.com member Tokarev has a 5" .40 that Virgil Tripp built for him on the SOCOM frame. It is the softest / flattest shooting Limited gun I've ever felt.

Funny, I thought the same thign when I saw it in this thread. He had it out this past Sunday and he seemed to be having better luck with it than he did the previous sunday's steel match with a different pistol.

When I first saw it I thought"what the heck is that" but went back in some old gun mags and found an STI ad with it pictured. Up until now, the only one I had ever seen was Tokarev's.

Neal in AZ

[jasmap]

sorry for the late arrival, where'd you get that old timey SOCOM frame?

A buddy of mine has one and it's the only other one I've ever seen.

It is an awesome frame. BE.com member Tokarev has a 5" .40 that Virgil Tripp built for him on the SOCOM frame. It is the softest / flattest shooting Limited gun I've ever felt.

Funny, I thought the same thign when I saw it in this thread. He had it out this past Sunday and he seemed to be having better luck with it than he did the previous sunday's steel match with a different pistol.

When I first saw it I thought"what the heck is that" but went back in some old gun mags and found an STI ad with it pictured. Up until now, the only one I had ever seen was Tokarev's.

Neal in AZ

Yeah, he's always trying a new gun. He was trying that one to possibly take as his backup gun for the Nationals next week. His SOCOM is sweeeet though. I'll tell him to let you try it Neal. You'll love it.

Kingman, if you ever decide to sell the gun and/or especially the frame please let me know. I'd be interested.

[Kingman]

I thought it was a pretty cool looking frame. I thought it sort of diserved something a little different so that is where I decided to go with it.

I have not seen the other one that you guys speak of.

[vrmn1]

OK buddy we need more! :-)

Have you shot it yet?

I gots ta know!

Seriously, I really wish you had not started this thread because I have been thinking even harder about doing one since you started this.

[Kingman]

I have mags, bomars, mag well on order.

Once I get it all I will be doing some shooting of it. So far it is still sitting unfired.

Sorry.

[ahtsay]

Hey Bob, its been more than 6 months.....any new pics? I'm contemplating on having a sight tracker built as well so I'm really curious as to how yours has worked out.

[Radical Precision Designs]

Yes, Bob. What's going on ????

I have been shopping around for one of those STI "stainless steel" frames. Harder to find than teeth on a hen. Sometime ago I found a few stainless single stack frames cut in commander length and bought them all. Can't seem to find any of those long wide dust cover, or the "Socom" variety.

I love to work with stainless steel ... so easy to refinish after any reworking.

[Kingman]

Honestly, it has 40 rounds of test firing through it. I only have one mag to boot. I gotta head off to work, but promise some new pics and range report during spring break.

I am working my tail off trying to make M in Open so am not even playing with it.

[Kingman]

Ok, so got it back in my hands this weekend. Monday I spent about 4 hours at the range playing with this, my open gun and the AR. So had time to do some impression shooting of it and comparison runs. Now mind you I have not really spent any time shooting an iron sighted gun for about 14 years or so.

Started with the old practice draws. After about 10 was down 1.02 seconds pretty reliably.

Bill Drill

With my open gun I shot a 1.44 on saturday with all A's so that is my baseline. After the draws I did a bill drill with this in 1.64 seconds. Now mind you most people would be happy with that but I was able to learn some things here. With my open gun I can shoot relaxed and don't have to push it a tremendous amount. With this my splits were slowing down to around .13-.14. Versus .10-.11 for the open gun. Now I did realize that the gun is definitely moving a lot more up and down. I did not notice any sideways motion out of the gun.

Steel Runs

Shooting the steel plates for the masters, open gun run around 2.5 or so clean. With this limited gun I was running right around 3.0 clean. Now this is a big difference in speed. Only thing I can give it to is the fact that the gun is jumping more, and without the iron experience I am really taking my time to line up the sights the way they are supposed to be.

Overall

On paper within about 15 yards or so, I am not seeing much of a difference. On steel I am seeing a huge difference. When sighting in this thing printed about 2" at 25 yards with white box ammo. All shooting was done with white box.