swattdoc Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 How do you alter the feed lips on a magazine? Is the measurement taken from the inside or outside the lips? trying to decide if this is something I should attempt myself or pay someone to do. Thanks, Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grandbagger Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 save yourself the trouble, contact and send you mag tubes to HSMITH and he will tkae care of you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 it can be done yourself, but easier to send to Hsmith. It can be complicated, especially with 9mm mags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sudden Death Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 1 up on HSMITH he's the real stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ipscbob Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 I disagree. It is not rocket science to tune your own mags and learning to do it beats being dependant on someone else to keep your setup running. I use a vise, leather pads, a jewelers hammer, and a dremel tool with flitz polish to tune mine up. I generally set the front to back taper of the feed lips measured inside to +- .001" and as close as possible to the spread listed on the STI website. I then polish the inside of the lips and as much of the inside of the tube as possible with Flitz metal polish. I use SV tubes only and gramms springs/followers. This is a proven recipe and all you should ever need to do. Jump in with both feet and learn to do it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
10ring Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 ipscbob - how do you deal with the back of the feed lips being 10 thou over the recommended spec? It seems like the back of the mag will prevent you from moving the feed lips inward Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cave_canem Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 What is magazine tuning? I am guessing that it provides better/quicker feeding...??? Thanks for the info and help on this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMITH Posted November 7, 2007 Share Posted November 7, 2007 Thanks for the confidence votes guys, I appreciate it. Cave, magazine tuning is the setting of all critical dimensions of the magazine to the proper dimension. It provides the best chance a shooter will get at having the magazines present the top round to the slide at the right time and in the right place at the right angle. When the slide strips that top round it needs to be released from the magazine in a narrow window of travel and it needs to be pointed in the right direction before it is released. It isn't just setting feed lips to a certain size as most believe. It is setting the feed lips to the right size at the right angle at the right height, feed lips need to be the right length in addition to the previous and all of this in conjunction with setting the magazine tube body dimensions to the right size at the right places and sometimes even involves setting the rate and location of taper from double stack to single round. It isn't necessarily hard, but it does need to understood and be right for best performance. Can it be done at home? Absolutely. How many shooters actually understand what it entails? VERY few. The information is out there if you want to do your own, and it is great way to learn about how and why your gun works the way it does if you have the time and patience to get there. After getting the magazine to work right you get to the fluff, like witness holes for round count, polishing, numbering, personalizing, etc. Nice to have and offered by all tuners I know of but not necessary. Icing on a good cake sort of treatments, final polish if you will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swattdoc Posted November 7, 2007 Author Share Posted November 7, 2007 Do you have to tune the magazine for a specific gun or will a tuned 38 supercomp mag function well in all 38 supercomps? Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMITH Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 Tom, provided the gun is right a quality tuned mag is a quality tuned mag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HI5-O Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 save yourself the trouble, contact and send you mag tubes to HSMITH and he will tkae care of you Yes, HSMITH tuned my mags and I am very happy with his work. Untuned mags can drive you crazy with malfs, send them all to HSMITH. Glad I did Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ipscbob Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 ipscbob - how do you deal with the back of the feed lips being 10 thou over the recommended spec? It seems like the back of the mag will prevent you from moving the feed lips inward I use a jewelers hammer, vise, leather pads, and small blocks of wood to form the lips to approximately the dimensions listed by STI. It isnt hard to reform the lips to whatever dimension is desired. I have found that the taper front to back is much more critical than the absolute spread . I have also found that the dimensions of SV tubes are much more consistant than STIs and the overall quality is better. All it takes is a bit of experimentation. This is NOT rocket science Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merlin Orr Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 I guess I agree with Bob... to a point. Benny Hill taught me to tune mags and I can successfully do nearly anything i have yet to run across. I do think that if you have a little aptitude for things mechanical and a fair amount of patience you Can tune you own to good working order. With that being said I also feel strongly that there is a place for professionally tuned mags. To get to the point of Bevan or Howard you have to sacrifice a number of mags to experimentation. When it gets to the finer details and the "glitter" things...witness holes, high interior and exterior polish, exact full length tube dimensions (front to back and side to side) and the little tiny details it takes working on a shit load of them with a very purposeful mindset. I have a couple that Howard did for me and they are exemplary in function and appearance. I have had mags done by Bevin and they ran flawlessly too. Some of us have the time and inclination and do it ourselves. Some us are better served by skipping the hassle and getting a pro to take care of it for us. My opinion only. Your mileage may vary..blah blah blah... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CenTX Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 ipscbob - how do you deal with the back of the feed lips being 10 thou over the recommended spec? It seems like the back of the mag will prevent you from moving the feed lips inward I use a jewelers hammer, vise, leather pads, and small blocks of wood to form the lips to approximately the dimensions listed by STI. It isnt hard to reform the lips to whatever dimension is desired. I have found that the taper front to back is much more critical than the absolute spread . I have also found that the dimensions of SV tubes are much more consistant than STIs and the overall quality is better. All it takes is a bit of experimentation. This is NOT rocket science It's not rocket science, true, but depending on an idividuals mechanical apptitude it can be a very time consuming learning curve. Some people enjoy doing that kind of stuff and like the feeling of accomplishment. If you have the desire, the tools and time, go for it. However, if you have to buy the tools and spend the time teaching yourself to do it, it probably much cheaper to have HSMITH or someone who already has the skill to tune your mags. Having the mags tuned is pretty cheap, things like round count holes and etching run the price up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ogiebb Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 i tried clamping and polishing lips and everything else... in the end i just gave up and bought some Mags from Chuck....Howards tuned mags are the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s1nn3d Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 How i wish that those tuned mags are available here in the PI so we don't have to worry about malf caused by factory mag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyinBlue Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 save yourself the trouble, contact and send you mag tubes to HSMITH and he will tkae care of you Yes, HSMITH tuned my mags and I am very happy with his work. Untuned mags can drive you crazy with malfs, send them all to HSMITH. Glad I did Barry I am in agreement with both of these shooters. I shoot 9mm major and I have found that the magazine tuning is critical to successful functioning of the gun. HSMITH is knowledgeable and dependable and stands behind his work. It doesn't get any better than this. You da man Howard! 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