SS 1911 Custom Build

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Georgezilla
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Post by Georgezilla » Sat May 25, 2013 8:58 pm

Wow, that's impressive, David. I am a mechanical engineering student and I just finished a course where one of the major topics was using metallography to examine metals that have been subjected to heat treatment, cold work, diffusion, etc., so I can appreciate the work that went into that polishing.

Yeah, slide to frame fit is not as important as barrel lock-up by a long way. For BE I guess it's only really critical if you frame mount a red-dot -- which not a lot of people do. That's a good point that there must be a happy medium, gotta have somewhere for debris to go.

As far as I know, high level 1911 precision is only needed in BE/CMP, but it's pretty important there, especially in BE where matches can come down to X hits, so there is a big difference between a 1.5" gun and a 3" gun. The closest thing I have ever in action shooting where one might want a a tight 1911 style is the practical event at the Bianchi Cup.

I've thrown a lot of stock 1911s on my Ransom rest, Colt, Sig, Taurus, SA, S&W, and Kimber, for fun. What I've generally seen coming out of them on the rest at 50 yards is about 6" - 10". Best I ever saw from a stock gun was a SA Range Officer which actually came in a hair under 4". I was really impressed with that SA. I want to test another one and see if it was just a fluke.

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Sat May 25, 2013 10:28 pm

I'm going to test this gun in a Ransom rest. Hoping for 1.5 at 50yrds but will see how close I get. I'm doing all the tricks that I can do to make it as accurate as I can. 100% lockup, tight bushing/barrel/slide lockup, hood fitting tight, 11deg crown, Slide to frame fit 0.001"-0.002" max horizontal and vertical, the chamber was reamed like a BE gun too. I did do the disco cut but that more for a race gun to make them run smoother. I have 2 angle bore bushing sets. 1 for a FLGR and the outer is a monogram set. Both sets give me a tight lockup. I have been thinking about mounting a C-more but have not made my mind up on it yet. But it's the only sight that works well with my aging eyes.
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Fri May 31, 2013 4:52 pm

I got the slide flat topped. I cut a little shallow so I could hand finish to remove the milling machine marks. The final depth is 0.030" which is what I was looking for. This gives me ~0.337" across the flat. It give me enough room to do a nice 9 or 11 line serration. This slide was surprisingly straight on the top. It was perfect between the breach face forward and only had a 0.002" deviation going to the rear.

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I tested the engraving bits I got in for serrating the slide. My test piece is a old SS 1/2 bolt that seized up and I twisted off the threads. My center is off since I used a nominal 0.5" instead of actual 0.495", was zeroed on the vice jaw. The 0.0025" off shows when your close to the edge. This cut is 0.010" deep with a 0.036" spacing, 9 lines. Not knowing these had a flat at the time, I ended up cutting ~0.005" too deep to have equal spacing (line vs flat). I blackened this then hit it with my bead blaster. You can still see on the shaft where the blackening stopped. Bead blasting gave the SS a matte finish.

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I used these Melin solid carbide engraving bit.

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These bits have a small 0.005" flat tip 0.004 relief so they cut a the tip. I ran my end mill at max speed for these small cuts, still needed more speed to get a smoother cut on one pass. I did these serrations in 3 passes, not wanting to break/chip the tip off. I ordered a double angle 60 deg V carbide cutter, too. If I use it I can actually go a closer line spacing, 11 lines (0.030" spacing), 0.010" deep. I'm not sure I want a sharp corner, knowing it could have a high stress point. To use it I will have to change my setup, and have the slide on the side and re-zero it in. Which is major pain to do but would be easier this time since I have a flat now. I kind of like the rounded ends the engraving bits give. The double angle cutter would give a sharp point.

The serration slots will be darkened with the blackening solution I have. It really makes the 400 series SS almost black.

I also got a new thumb safety in. It a new design by Harrison & Design that just hit the market within the last few days for the SS ones. The Blue ones had been out for about 1 month now. The shape is such that if you ride the thumb like I do if keeps the web of your hand lower, away from the slide. I will probably add serrations to this at a later time. But for now I can start the polish work to match the rest of my controls.

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This is the most robust of any TS I have seen. The pin is 0.156" dia ( largest I have run into) which is perfect for a 0.158" hole. These are CNC machined leaving extra meat where you want it. It allow you to adj rotational angle, want cut into frame. They are thicker than I have seen too, including EGW's. So when your on safe your plunger is ridding on a flat not the edge like most.

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And here is a photo of the frame where I bead blasted it at the same time I did the bolt. This was originally finished with 320 grit emery cloth. The flats on the frame are currently at 400 grit. I can mask areas that I want to blacken or blast to make easy work of the flats. I have not decided if I want matte sides on the frame, blackened or not. :? Too may options. From me handling the bolt the blackened SS did not scratch very easy. From this I may fully bead blast the frame and blacken it. Then the only polished sides will be on the slide which is a lot easier to maintain. Decisions, decisions

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This was done with 80 grit glass beads at 60 psi. I have read that most go up to 80 psi. The label on the media said not to go over 60 the reason I stopped.

edit to correct over size image....
Last edited by blue68f100 on Fri Jul 12, 2013 8:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

greener

Post by greener » Fri May 31, 2013 11:12 pm

Looks pretty good. Not sure you need to do much more.

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Mon Jun 03, 2013 4:05 pm

Finally got the slide serrations cut. This was a pretty time involved process using these small engraving bits. It took me close to 6 hr to do from start to finish. It was not uneventful though. I had a carbide bit chip on me on the last 1" of the 3rd serrations. When it chipped it made it very rough on the surface but did not damage the serrations. So I had to replace it and get the depth set correctly. Then this bit did not act like it was as sharp forcing me to go a little slower but it made it through the rest of the serrations. I then installed a new cuter and did just a skim cut to clean up the roughness from the last cutter. The double angle cutter would have been faster but I did not want to change my setup.

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This view shows the roughness in the slide curvature. I should have cleaned this up before I did the serrations.

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This is the best photo showing the detail.

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Now I need to get my sights in. Going to measure using the laser to figure out what front sight height I need. So far I have had no luck in getting hold of Precision Sales to get the LPA sight I want. Will try a couple for times then go with Novak if they don't respond.

I'm now down to doing the final prep so I can bead blast and blacken the parts. I did a test on the old TS and discovered that the blackening solution almost gave the polished surface a blue hue to it. I need to see if I can duplicate this. If so I will polish the sides to get the polish blue hue for something a little different.
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Sun Jun 09, 2013 3:08 pm

Heard back from PSI and the FO sights I need are out of stock till at least Aug-Sept. I then asked them if they had any FO sights at all and if they all use the LPA cut or mfg factory cuts. The lady said she would get back to me Monday. Apparently all she does is fill orders and send out emails.

I may go with plan B...... C-More and a EGW base for Novak Adj Lo-mount :D

I know I can see the dot on these with my aging eyes. :wink:

or just use the arrow on the top of the slide :P

Which will improve my point shooting skills more.....
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

greener

Post by greener » Mon Jun 10, 2013 10:55 pm

Take a look at Dawson Precision

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:10 pm

I've looked at Dawson and they don't list adj sights under the 1911 except under Kimber. Beside their FO is plastic where the PSI is True Glass, which will be sharper and brighter.
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:11 pm

With the exception of sights I'm almost done with this build, 96 hrs. I still have some polish work to do on the controls, and slide so I would say 90-95% compete. Then to fine tune the trigger to the feel I like. I still have too much sear engagement with this TR sear. I have slowly been reducing this just a few strokes on the stone at a time. But I was saving the fine tuning of the trigger for the last thing. It's currently set at 4 lbs 1 oz and I will probably reduce this down to the 3 lb range since I want this to be a BE gun. I have Monogram bushing set for this gun that has been fitted and ready to go. I need to get a photo of the gun with this on. It has been polished out too. I have a new set of screws somewhere and have not been able to find them. The ones on the gun are the ones I use for making grips and have been scuffed. So I guess I need to order a spare set, then I will find my other ones.

I'm very satisfied with this being my first build. :D Are there things I could do different, you bet. There is always room for improvement. I learned a ton on this build. All of the book learning and forum reading for the last year actually made this go pretty smooth. The hardest part of the build was the barrel fitting since I went with a gunsmith fit barrel. The most frustration part was finding parts that are actually sized like I wanted them. I don't know why most all of the mfg think the proper TS pin is size is 0.153" for a 0.158" hole. For a loose fit rattle GI this may work but it's not right. Luckily John Harrison of Harrison & Design is make a TS now that is proper size, 0.156". He also made it over size in all the right places so you can get that perfect fit. The next best was WC with a 0.155" but their paddle is smaller than I like. Everyone else falls in at 0.153" to 0.150" being the smallest.

The slide is at a 600+ grit finish right now. I have some engraving to be done besides the sight cuts, so I decided to hold off on the final finish for now. I'm going to play with the SS Blackening solution this summer once I'm satisfied I can mask the parts successfully I may blacken the curved areas. I will blacken the serrations slots on the slide. Since I only need to darken these I do not need to pretreat with muratic acid. I have located some blackout lacquer and some special tape for this. I just need to test and use it since the process requires you to pretreat the surfaces with a 50/50 solution of Muratic Acid and water for 3-5 min. I need to protect all of the critical areas before I dip the parts in acid.

Current parts cost less sights is ~$1700. This includes the cost of the frame and slide and shipping on all the parts. My gunsmith bill for work done was $400. The sights will be another $300 once the sight cuts are done. Now for tooling cost, near $800. I knew this was going to be high since I ordered a lot of specialty tools and some good Swiss files. These files have been a big time saver. They have pretty much eliminated me doing the rough sanding. With the #4's I'm at 600+ grit finish which eliminates all except polish work. But the tools will be used again so I can not really add the cost to the build. When I do the next one I will order the end mills for the sights if I do not order the slide pre-cut. I may even get the tool to cut the crown, and finish chamber reamer. Then I should be able to do it all in house.

I did not put the Rosewood Micarta grips back on for this photo session, shown with the Hogue set.

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The spot in the center of the slide is a reflection of something did not see till I downloaded the photos.
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Currently been working on getting a holster together so I can carry this around the farm this summer. So I have not done any work on it except the bead blasting and light polish of the slide.
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:49 pm

Have done some more work. I serrated the TS at 50 lpi. This is not a hard process but it sure is tedious and time consuming to do.

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The bottom and rest is being polished.
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I still have some work to do at the back where the shelf meats the back edge. I had to bring the back edge back to follow the contour of the gun. This required me to move the back of the shelf forward.

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I have also done some more polish work on the slide.

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And the Monogram Bushing set. This is polished but the reflection show up as a satin.

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110 hrs and counting

I have tuned the ejector so it's throwing the brass in a nice little pile. I have worked the trigger down to 3lb 9oz now. Getter closer to where I like them.

Sights are still MIA.

edit: corrected duplicate photo.
Last edited by blue68f100 on Fri Jul 12, 2013 8:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

greener

Post by greener » Fri Jul 12, 2013 5:50 pm

Very nice, David

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bgreenea3
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Post by bgreenea3 » Fri Jul 12, 2013 6:11 pm

looking good david!
"Courage is being scared to death... and saddling up anyway."

-John Wayne

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Fri Jul 12, 2013 9:08 pm

Thanks for the kind words.

I've been doing my annual house sitting choirs for the summer. So after loading up ~6k rounds of ammo I had some free time. I'm not sure how long the polish will stay on it. Where I'm out there it seam to get scratched just looking at it. So I have resorted to covering the slide with tape holding off the scratches so I can finish it and get final pictures, which is pretty close right now. Photos show fine stuff since they are blow up and some lighting shows them. There seams to always being something I can tweak.

PSI has not got back with me on sights so I'm going to option 2 or 3. FO adj sights are not very common or available right now. With my aging eyes I may just go with the c-more STS sight. The question is do I want to do a direct mount and make this only a range gun, which is what it is any way. But again I like the options of having regular sights too.

The more I shoot this gun the more I like shooting it. :D :D :D
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

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Post by Bullseye » Sat Jul 13, 2013 12:45 pm

Good deal. When you make a pretty gun you spend a lot of time keeping it pretty. Sooner or later you have to make a decision on what sighting system to use on this firearm. Go out and shoot it!

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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Sun Aug 04, 2013 3:30 pm

I've been shooting this gun on a regular basis and ran into a problem. :cry: :cry:

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Yes, I had primers pierce and cut the breach face. :( I have contacted the mfg of the primer and they are going to cover the damage. parts, labor and several cases of primers. I have been shooting this load for several years now with the same primers and brass. These were not hot loads by any means. These were my reduced 230gr RN, 4.2gr WST. I found 9 primers out of 50 that pierced. My first though was leakage around primers but was not the case. The same brass with 185gr has not showed any problem and is a hotter load. Most all were RP brass that had the problem, but not all. I ended up pulling all of my RP brass which is loaded up. The mfg have all of my unused primes and will be replacing them with now stock, 10k for 1400 returned. The bad news is that I have to do all of the barrel fitting and custom work again. At least this time I know it will go faster. My only concern is my slide to frame fit. Not knowing how well Caspian holds their spec on the slide. I have the dimensions of the slide before I started the work. I will supply them with the original specs hoping they will match it. Then there is the 8-10wk wait once I place the order. At least when I get the parts it will no longer be 100+°F outside and I will be able to work in my shop.

Kind of glad I did not send out the slide to have the sight cut done now.

I'm shooting 100/week though it. I have the extractor tuned now so all my brass goes in to a nice little pile. 3' back and 5-6' to the side.
David

SS MKIII 6 7/8" Fluted Hunter. Mueller Quick Shot, Bushnell 2x Scope, Hogue Rubber Grips
Custom Built 1911

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