Paul99354 Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 I've been lurking on this forum for about a year now and thought that it was time to contribute. This is about a recent positive experience I had with STI, both from a technical and customer service perspective. A few weeks ago, while cleaning my STI Trojan 5" Stainless Steel in 45ACP, I noticed a crack in the front of the slide (see the two attached pictures). The crack fully penetrates to the inside of the slide. The pistol is slightly over a year old and has had about 9,000 rounds fired through it, almost exclusively WWB 230gr hardball. I have been running a 16 lbf recoil spring, a DP tungsten guide rod, and an AFTEC extractor. After contacting STI, they rebuilt the pistol – only took 9 working days door to door! In addition to fitting a new slide to the frame, they did the following work at their expense: Barrel bushing fitted tightly to frame - need to use the bushing wrench – it used to be only finger tight. Polished existing barrel throat and ramp and polished frame in mating area. New slide stop, fitted and polished inside where it is activated by the magazine follower. New OEM front sight (I asked them to replace my old sight). Blended the rear of my AFTEC extractor to match the rear of the slide. Also bead blasted it so the finish matches too. Fitted firing pin stop. New 18 lbf recoil spring. I was using a 16 lbf spring per STI's FAQ. However, the gunsmith thought that the 16 lbf spring was too light and that 18 lbf felt better. In retrospect, the shell casings were getting thrown pretty far using the 16 lbf spring. I'll probably stick with the 18 lbf as long as I'm using factory loads. They also bead blasted the frame to remove a few scratches. I took the rebuilt pistol to the range and put about 300 rounds through it without a problem. I was quite pleased with the responsiveness, quality and timeliness of STI's customer service. Any speculation about why the slide would have cracked in that manner? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-ManBart Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 I'm not a gunsmith, but have seen a few cracked slides over the years....most of them that I've seen (one of them was mine) were somewhere around the ejection port. On yours the crack looks like it's pretty much where the load bears when the slide comes to a stop at the end of it's travel. If you had a guide rod/reverse plug in it, that would be where the reverse plug seats in the slide. It probably just had a flaw in it at that point (either in the metal or the machining) that went undetected during manufacture...stuff like that can happen, but at least they treated you right! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoshidaex Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 wow! thats an impressive crack. Totally agree with what G-ManBart said. I'm wondering if they forgot to put the proper radius in tha area..... I would have liked to see the area where the crack could have started from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandman_sy Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 How did you contact STI?? If possible, throught the internet. i'm having trouble with my Trojan .40 cal. will post pics if i get the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Thats great to hear STI is giving such wonderful customer service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 Not all slides are made the same. STI likely won't tell you how theirs are made but I know some are forgings, some are cast, and some are made from steel billets. I've cracked a Glock 31 (.357SIG) slide and a Caspian .40 slide. Sometimes it's metal fatigue and sometimes it's the cuts that are not radiused etc... Sometimes the manufacturing process isn't up to the use we put them through! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 This 1911 photo showed up on our website some time ago; I do not know the whole story, though it might be more common with cast slides over forged or billet: And apparently its not limited to 1911s: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoshidaex Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 ouch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irishlad Posted September 19, 2007 Share Posted September 19, 2007 This 1911 photo showed up on our website some time ago I remember reading about that slide. It's forged stainless and was "heated treated" twice by accident...too brittle. I believe that was the response by the manufacturer. Of course, "memory is the second thing to go". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul99354 Posted September 20, 2007 Author Share Posted September 20, 2007 How did you contact STI?? If possible, throught the internet. i'm having trouble with my Trojan .40 cal. will post pics if i get the time. I sent an email to Chris at STI's customer service. Full contact information including phone numbers are posted on STI's website at http://www.stiguns.com Chris's email address (slightly munged) is: chris at STIguns.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul99354 Posted September 20, 2007 Author Share Posted September 20, 2007 I'm wondering if they forgot to put the proper radius in tha area..... I would have liked to see the area where the crack could have started from. Here are a couple of more pictures that I took. I had trouble lighting the inside of the slide, so the crack isn't visable - but trust me, it fully penetrated the slide. So what do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoshidaex Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 sure looks like the radius is missing. which side did the crack start from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gator Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 How did you contact STI?? If possible, throught the internet. i'm having trouble with my Trojan .40 cal. will post pics if i get the time. I sent an email to Chris at STI's customer service. Full contact information including phone numbers are posted on STI's website at http://www.stiguns.com Chris's email address (slightly munged) is: chris at STIguns.com Were you charged at all for any of the work on the rebuild from STI? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentlemanJim Posted September 20, 2007 Share Posted September 20, 2007 Looks like it started in a SHARP corner. A radius in this very high stress area may have prevented the failure. Any sharp corner will create a stress riser combine that with any microscopic flaw ...and you get a crack. Just say NO to crack....sorry couldnt resist Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul99354 Posted September 22, 2007 Author Share Posted September 22, 2007 Were you charged at all for any of the work on the rebuild from STI? I paid for shipping to STI. STI did the rebuild and return shipping at their expense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scirocco38s Posted September 22, 2007 Share Posted September 22, 2007 I have found that for the most part STI stands behind their products, even when used in open guns. Every once in a while they will refuse to warrant the part but typically it is no a high cost item. They replace the recoil master on my open gun about twice a year. I had a set of safeties that just wouldnt fit without rubbing the frame and the shaft was slightly bent. They wouldnt fix the safeties becuase they said they were in spec, and sent them back. They broke on the same gun about 4 months later during a match, sent the gun back and they replaced the safeties. Overall though they have been more than reasonable about warranty issues. I am sure that they looked hard at why the slide broke there and change something in their prep and assembly to keep that from happening again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul99354 Posted September 22, 2007 Author Share Posted September 22, 2007 (edited) Looks like it started in a SHARP corner.A radius in this very high stress area may have prevented the failure. Any sharp corner will create a stress riser combine that with any microscopic flaw ...and you get a crack. Just say NO to crack....sorry couldnt resist Jim sure looks like the radius is missing. which side did the crack start from? The crack appears to have started from the left side of the slide (the right side of the pictures I posted on 9/19) and propagate towards the top of the slide. The corner appears to be pretty sharp in my pictures, but since I don't have the old slide anymore I can't inspect it more carefully. My new slide looks pretty much the same (at least to my untrained eye). Edited September 22, 2007 by Paul99354 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now