1911 Project

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GlennW
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by GlennW »

The grip screw escutcheons arrived this afternoon, so I installed the magazine catch, escutcheons, and grips. Then lubed up the rails and slid the Marvel .22 conversion on. The slide stop pin wouldn't fit in the frame, (.0005" too large) so I made one that did so I can get back to that later. I ran 25 rounds of CCI SV through it and all it did was poke holes and eject empty cases, so I guess it's off to the monthly Bullseye match in the morning.

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It doesn't need an ejector or any of the other little items to run the Marvel, so I'll get some trigger time with it this way and then move on to the .45 slide and final assembly.
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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warmstrong1955
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by warmstrong1955 »

Nice Glenn!

I've never shot bullseye with a dot. No doubt would take some practice for me to maintain the speed.
I have plenty of friends who do no. Bullseye, and other things.
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
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GlennW
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by GlennW »

Thanks, Bill!

I need to be outside in bright daylight in order to see iron sights clearly. Even just being in the shade under a covered shooting bench turns the sights into a fuzzy blob. Getting old...
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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warmstrong1955
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by warmstrong1955 »

I know what you mean Glenn.....

I have a friend that was a PPC national champion. In his 70's now, and still shoots some competition, but he uses a red-dot the last few years.

I have noticed, that it takes me longer to get my focus on the front sight too.
I had the same problem welding. Strike an arc, and it would take me a couple of seconds to focus on the bead. With a MIG, it was easy to have a bead heading to Oklahoma, before I had a view of where it was going. :( Fixed that with a auto-darkening hood!
I have one rifle with a red-dot. May be time for more.....

:) Bill
Today's solutions are tomorrow's problems.
spro
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by spro »

Since we are talking eyesight, it changes rapidly when approaching 70. I would prefer to talk about this project. Crazy stuff happens with our eyes. I was "near sighted" since my 'teens and could work delicate movements without eyeglasses. Things were fuzzy at distance and the lens' strengths increased over years. It came to where I couldn't see near as close but able to use eyeglasses from the 1970's for distance. Within a short time, those glasses were more blurry than no glasses at all. I have become "far sighted" to where I passed the vision test at the Motor Vehicles test with no glasses at all. I keep my next to last eyeglasses with me ( they are actually glass lenses) . It is rods and cones. When it is bright outside, I can see better than through glasses. When I get into low light, it gets fuzzy, so my old glasses are more crisp.
Either way, the oncoming vehicles with their hyper headlights, strike me blind for a second. Good for them but not for me.
spro
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by spro »

That's a really good build, Glenn. I will reread and learn from it.
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GlennW
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by GlennW »

I shot it Saturday morning in the monthly match and didn't really like the way the trigger felt. I could feel when the sear started to move, then a little creep, and then the shot broke. For that reason I found myself occasionally "staging" the trigger to get past the initial movement and anticipating when the shot broke which wasn't working out too well. My score was pretty much normal so it wasn't a disaster. I say "normal", but that was with adding on the ten point penalty for loosing an X when I had an early shot on a RF target due to trying to figure out the trigger.

I left the match and went and removed the hammer, sear, and disconnector and looked them over. Knowing that I wasn't really done with them previously,I went ahead and put the final polish on the sear resulting in a mirror finish and lubed and reassembled them. Once back together I had to make considerable adjustments to the sear spring to get the trigger weight back up to where I wanted it. I ended up at 3 lb 14 oz and it felt just perfect to me. I went back to the range this morning and shot it a bit and it's exactly what I was looking for. Just a very slight smooth steady movement of the trigger until the shot breaks. Hard to describe. Now I need to bring my RO trigger up to speed
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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GlennW
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by GlennW »

Back under way. (hopefuly) Too much real work and too little time lately to tinker with this...

Made a couple of tools this afternoon so I can get started fitting the barrel.

Barrel alignment tool and fitting bushing.

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Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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GlennW
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by GlennW »

Finally found time to map out the slide and barrel a bit and got some good dimensions to fit the barrel hood to the slide. I did it the other night, but did it again this afternoon just to be sure. Interesting how nothing is really square or parallel…

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Transferred the measurements to CAD and concluded how much needed to be removed from each side of the barrel hood to center the barrel in the slide and fit snugly.

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Back to the “Grind All” and got that set up so I could flip the barrel 180° and grind the barrel hood sides to size and keep them dead parallel using the surface grinder.

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The barrel slides in with a bit of thumb pressure and is light tight with absolutely no side movement. The barrel alignment fixture then still slides onto the barrel lower lugs and slide rails as it did before.

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This may seem like a time consuming process, but in reality, it was about an hour and a half.

Out of time again, but next I’ll trim the barrel hood to length.
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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GlennW
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by GlennW »

Did a bit more measuring I order to trim the barrel hood length.

Just used an adjustable parallel (and micrometer) to get the distance from the breech face to the slide locking lug.
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Then checked the distance from the rear of the barrel hood to the barrel locking groove, the breech face step, and the length of the barrel hood.
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Bottom line is that the hood needs to be trimmed back .0125” for zero clearance, which I will sneak up on when I start trimming. That leaves .0085 clearance between the barrel face and breech face step, so no interference there and it all works out OK.

Next I’ll set it up on the surface grinder and start the trimming/fitting process.
Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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GlennW
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by GlennW »

Made a quick set up and ground the barrel hood to length last night. Took it down .011” and tried it in the slide and no go. Then took it down another .001” and still no go. Took off another .0005” and could feel it just start to drop into locking grooves. Ended up taking .0133” total off of the hood and it will lock up with a light tap with a screwdriver handle. Put a little bearing blue on the breech face and locked and unlocked it a dozen times and the blue revealed a slight high spot on the breech face. I’ll stone the breech face flat and it should lock up fine.
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Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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GlennW
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Re: 1911 Project

Post by GlennW »

Now I have a "safe" file for the next step of barrel fitting.
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Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
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