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greener

Post by greener » Tue Jan 04, 2011 7:36 am

New grip safety is on the way. My searless test on the grip safety had the inside bottom edge of the grip safety outside the frame and probably, by eyeball, outside of the mainspring housing. The tab wouldn't have been locked by the housing. I believe it was working before I started the "fix" but I cannot positively recall that I checked it.

I plan to do a bit more fiddling with the grip safety. I've bent the right leg of the leaf spring out some, and will bend it out some more.

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bearandoldman
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Post by bearandoldman » Tue Jan 04, 2011 9:13 am

greener wrote:New grip safety is on the way. My searless test on the grip safety had the inside bottom edge of the grip safety outside the frame and probably, by eyeball, outside of the mainspring housing. The tab wouldn't have been locked by the housing. I believe it was working before I started the "fix" but I cannot positively recall that I checked it.

I plan to do a bit more fiddling with the grip safety. I've bent the right leg of the leaf spring out some, and will bend it out some more.
Greener, just keep on fixing it until it either works or it is scrapped.
You have great day and shoot straight and may the Good Lord smile on you.
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greener

Post by greener » Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:16 pm

bearandoldman wrote:Greener, just keep on fixing it until it either works or it is scrapped.
Not much faith in my gunsmithing expertise? :lol:

Everything works except for the grip safety. Don't know if it shoots any better and won't until the weekend.

I really don't need a functioning grip safety because I'm not going to carry this pistol and do not typically rely on safeties. However, since it looks like it has a grip safety on it, the thing should function lest something think it has one that works and make a serious mistake.

I'm having a ball messing around with this thing. What I can mess up can be fixed by a competent gunsmith and some green rectangular paper.

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bearandoldman
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Post by bearandoldman » Tue Jan 04, 2011 11:25 pm

greener wrote:
bearandoldman wrote:Greener, just keep on fixing it until it either works or it is scrapped.
Not much faith in my gunsmithing expertise? :lol:

Everything works except for the grip safety. Don't know if it shoots any better and won't until the weekend.

I really don't need a functioning grip safety because I'm not going to carry this pistol and do not typically rely on safeties. However, since it looks like it has a grip safety on it, the thing should function lest something think it has one that works and make a serious mistake.

I'm having a ball messing around with this thing. What I can mess up can be fixed by a competent gunsmith and some green rectangular paper.
Them green rectangular papers work well, especially the ones with the bigger numbers on them.
You have great day and shoot straight and may the Good Lord smile on you.
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greener

Post by greener » Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:02 pm

New grip safety arrived in the mail. Dropped it into the pistol and the grip safety works like a safety. Still needs some fitting. The base protrudes a bit more than it should and it is a bit stiff.

I believe the tang in the other one was shortened, disabling it.

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Post by Georgezilla » Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:04 pm

Greener, I am glad you got the issue with your 1911 resolved. Unfortunately, I didn't have the knowledge necessary to contribute to this thread, but I really enjoyed reading it. I learned a lot about how 1911's internal parts function; there was a lot of great information being thrown around in this thread.

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Post by Bullseye » Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:22 pm

That's the thing about buying something used, you don't know exactly what the previous owner did to customize it. The good news is you troubleshot the problem pretty well and you learned some new things in the process. How does the new one feel when the hammer falls? Is the hammer strut still hitting?

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greener

Post by greener » Tue Jan 11, 2011 12:25 am

I put in a Wilson beaver tail grip safety. Works well and the strut fits. Took a couple of bends on the leaf spring to get the right tension so the hammer didn't follow the slide. ~4 lb trigger without any stoning. Everything seems to work.

As part of the shipping stuff, Midway sent a second kit, which I decided to keep. Put that one in the second pistol. Had to deburr the holes in the sear to get the pin to fit and do some filing on the thumb safety. The grip safety on this one wouldn't take the skeleton hammer. I put the old grip safety from the first pistol on pistol two. It worked as a safety.

Loads of fun messing around with this and actually learning a bit more about the 1911. If the weather isn't bad, I'll see how they shoot this weekend.

Now on to fixing the sights on pistol two and a bit of finishing.

Both bgreene and I were doing some respectable groups with pistol one a couple weeks ago. So I may end up with fairly inexpensive, good shooting couple of 1911's. If not, I'm having fun.

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Post by bearandoldman » Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:17 am

When are you going to put the "Gunsmith by appointment" sign out in the front yard? Sounds like you are really enjoying fixing things? Worked as a service tech for many years and it was always satisfying when that real PROBLEM unit was operating as designed. :lol:
You have great day and shoot straight and may the Good Lord smile on you.
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greener

Post by greener » Tue Jan 11, 2011 7:16 pm

bearandoldman wrote:When are you going to put the "Gunsmith by appointment" sign out in the front yard? Sounds like you are really enjoying fixing things? Worked as a service tech for many years and it was always satisfying when that real PROBLEM unit was operating as designed. :lol:
Enjoy fiddling with my stuff. Not sure I'd like to have someone wait on it or believe I could actually do the work.

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Post by bearandoldman » Tue Jan 11, 2011 8:11 pm

greener wrote:
bearandoldman wrote:When are you going to put the "Gunsmith by appointment" sign out in the front yard? Sounds like you are really enjoying fixing things? Worked as a service tech for many years and it was always satisfying when that real PROBLEM unit was operating as designed. :lol:
Enjoy fiddling with my stuff. Not sure I'd like to have someone wait on it or believe I could actually do the work.
As long as your primary customer is satisfied that is all that counts and it seems he is easily pleased, plus you work cheap :o
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Post by Medicine Hat » Tue Jan 11, 2011 9:42 pm

Good on you Greener.
Very, Very little pleases me as much as fixing up an old gun. For some reason, I'm always willing to sit at the bench and solve problems. That is mostly why I bought a small lathe about a year ago (besides I wanted one for a long time). I like new guns too, but really enjoy fixing up an older one.

greener

Post by greener » Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:50 pm

Took them out this weekend. Gun 1 worked very well except for holding open on the last round. The hammer followed the slide to half cock after about 5 rounds on Gun 2. Triggers on both were very nice. Gun 1 did very nicely at 25 yards. It needed little sight adjustment but fired very well. Gun 2 needs some work on the front sight, it shoots high because the sight that is in it is too short for the rear sight.

Loads of fun messing with these things.

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Post by bgreenea3 » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:08 pm

Good to hear they are working well....for the most part. are you happy with the sear and hammer sets you bought? You got the Cylinder and Slide one, right?

greener

Post by greener » Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:24 pm

bgreenea3 wrote:goodto hear they are working well....for the most part. are you happy wit the sear and hammer sets you bought? you got the Cylendar and Sllide one, right?
The kits do very well. I like the "trigger" I ended up with better than the ones that were in the pistols.

I've got some fiddling with slide function. It seems to be holding open before empty and not wanting to close with the release at times. I was paying more attention to the trigger function. Next time I'll pay attention to the slide movement.

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