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Works In Progress

Fri Dec 22, 2017 1:25 am

It’s been just over a month since MadPick and USrifle dropped off their pistols. MadPick won’t be getting his gun back but, that’s another thread for another time. USrifle will be getting his back very soon.

He brought a Ruger SR1911 Commander in anodized aluminum with a stainless steel slide and a Springfield Armory Range Officer government length. What started out as just supposed to be a trigger job on the Ruger, morphed a bit. I treat every gun the same, they all get an inspection and the owner will soon know all the good and bad of their 1911. John’s Ruger was in the mostly good side except for a couple things. He had less that 40% contact between his hammer and sear as seen here.

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Then there was the extractor tension...it didn’t exist. You can see a video of it here. https://instagram.com/p/BcEta9Pgjv0/

Did you know you need clearance between your slide and dust cover to prevent your frame cracking at the vertical impact surface? Obviously Ruger didn’t because there less then .003” between the two and you need closer to .010”. That was done with a draw file.

How about a nicely polished barrel throating with a hammer and sear to match? Before and after of the barrel, and just after of the hammer and sear.

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Next was the disconnector click? What is disconnector click? Pull back on your trigger slowly. Do feel and here a click before the trigger breaks and the hammer falls? That’s it. It is annoying to say the least, some people don’t care but, we do. In other cases where the frame is made of steel, the disconnector hole at the top of the frame would be staked to make it smaller and swaged until it was just wide enough for head, preventing it from moving too much and causing the annoyance. I was not going to test the aluminum frame to this remedy. I tested a cheap disco with a ball head that I keep around and the click was gone. I don’t permanently install cheap parts and a EGW part was ordered for a long term remedy. When it arrived, it didn’t fit, the head was too big and it had to be fitted to the frame. Measuring the hole and head you can see the differences.

Stock disco
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Disco hole
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New disco
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If the disco doesn’t fit, then you must po-lish it. A disco head is not perfectly round and you need to maintain the shape. Using a needle file and 320 oxide cloth, the head was fitted, installed, and no more disco click. The disco was removed and prepped for finishing the trigger job. During the prep, I realized it was dragging on the pin, which means relieving inside the disco. I beliefs part of the drag is due to the sear pin holes were not drilled correctly or the anodizing has caused a misalignment. To address this, one hole was very slightly relieved and the pin lightly polished. This way at least the pin doesn’t bind in the frame. You wouldn’t want to find out the hard way that one hole had to be made large enough that the pin is bouncing about inside.

FYI, if you’re at a gun show and there’s a guy offering 1911 trigger jobs while you shop, keep on walking by. There is no quick trigger job. There a multitude of surfaces to prepare with files, stones, Cratex bobs, sometimes machining, and I will finish off the polish with swabs, oil and JB bore cleaner. All this can take hours because no two jobs are the same. All that takes place before you go about measuring and bending about the disconnector and sear springs.

The trigger breaks at 4lbs now and the slide was blasted to smooth out the finish and make the Ruger etching more appeasing to the eye.

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These were just the highlights of working with the Ruger. More about the Springfield is coming soon.

In the mean time, I took periodic breaks from stoning the Ruger parts to work on lowering and flaring the ejection port on the slide that Steve had on apistol that lead a very rough life. The gun was deemed unsafe after I installed a plunger tube that was falling off when he brought it in. Someone’s 80% project was 0% safe. Steve acquired the gun prior to 594. I secretly think borrowed some cutting tools and had a Hay Day after gratuitous cake eating. The grip safety lug was cut too short and didn’t work at all. After the plunger tube install, the safety lever showed it’s true colors and turned out that it was never fitted. The sear looked like a bear had attacked it. Here it is under a 8x loupe.

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Among all the other things it needed, it wasn’t looking good for making a viable pistol without even further inspections into frame dimensions. It was decided to let it go to pasture. It would cost as much to build a new gun with all new parts. But, there was still the slide. I had experimented on a slide of my own and milled it to death, so thanks to Steve I got a new slide for testing things on. Here’s a before and after.

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I may advance the forward wall a bit more.
It also needed fitting to a frame I made my first 1911 on that was without a slide due to experiments. It’s in que for some aesthetic attention and will be shown later.

Re: Works In Progress

Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:05 am

I am impressed with you skill and attention to detail Dana!

Re: Works In Progress

Fri Dec 22, 2017 11:08 am

So much to learn! I just ordered my first Jerry Kuhnhausen book from Midway so I can start climbing the learning curve.

At least I know my new 1911 has proper extractor tension, we did that exact test after putting some bend into it, plus a bit of radius on the bottom corner to ease the case into it when stripped off the magazine.

Re: Works In Progress

Fri Dec 22, 2017 12:13 pm

Beautiful work dana, i look forward to picking them up when they are ready. :thumbsup2: Those of you that appreciate 1911's are encouraged to Visit the Blackhammer for an inspection and some work.
It's surprising what a Pistol may need out of the box to take it from "good" to "Excellent". The dust cover work was a must, as well as the Disco replacement and Sear engagement.
When those two are done i will be bringing him an older Stainless SGW Matchmaster for some work. Bead blasting and whatever else it may need, it's had some rounds through it and may need some attention i am not aware of.
Very impressed with the quality of work, looking forward to a Range session with them....Maybe i will shoot a pistol better now. :bigsmile:

Re: Works In Progress

Fri Dec 22, 2017 1:39 pm

usrifle wrote:Maybe i will shoot a pistol better now. :bigsmile:


:ROFLMAO:

It's not the gun, my friend . . . .

Dana, it's very interesting to read and see the steps that you're going through with these guns. Keep 'em coming!

Re: Works In Progress

Fri Dec 22, 2017 2:50 pm

MadPick wrote:
usrifle wrote:Maybe i will shoot a pistol better now. :bigsmile:


:ROFLMAO:

It's not the gun, my friend . . . .


:cussing: Yeah, i know. Maybe if i actually Trained/practiced with a Pistol, that would help.

I wouldn't stand in front of me at 25 feet and dare me to hit you with a pistol though. I have a knack for hitting what i want when it counts.

:045:

Dreadi, do keep the pics and writeups coming, anxious to see what you need to do with the RO.

Re: Works In Progress

Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:04 pm

:ROFLMAO: You guys need a variety show.

Thanks everyone. I'm very excited to be open and at your service. As someone you know, I've been on this path for a couple of years to get learned up and open for business.

Re: Works In Progress

Sat Dec 23, 2017 12:13 am

usrifle wrote:
MadPick wrote:
usrifle wrote:Maybe i will shoot a pistol better now. :bigsmile:


:ROFLMAO:

It's not the gun, my friend . . . .


I wouldn't stand in front of me at 25 feet and dare me to hit you with a pistol though. I have a knack for hitting what i want when it counts.
:045:


No one doubts that, but could you strike them with a bullet ? :bigsmile:

Re: Works In Progress

Sun Jan 21, 2018 9:07 pm

The YL and I got some range time in together today. The RSO on duty and I were catching up and he asked if I do custom work. Well of course. Just about everything on a 1911 is custom when it comes to fitting and tuning. Replacing one part can lead to another part needing to be fit again. For example, recently a pistol was brought in for a trigger job. This job required replacing the sear and disconnector. After prepping and installing the new parts, the thumb safety did not fit or operate well. The reason being that the safety needed to be fit to the new sear. Do I charge extra for that? No. It’s part of the job.


Another custom job I can perform is front sight serrations as seen here.


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Re: Works In Progress

Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:42 pm

You cut those serrations by hand? Nicely done, that's a very small surface. :bow:

Re: Works In Progress

Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:44 pm

usrifle wrote:You cut those serrations by hand? Nicely done, that's a very small surface. [emoji144]
This^^^.

Seriously professionally looking work!

Re: Works In Progress

Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:47 pm

Wow! Very impressed indeed :bow:

Re: Works In Progress

Mon Jan 22, 2018 10:28 pm

Thanks, guys. Yes, it's a definitely one of those "Do it right the first time" type of jobs.

Re: Works In Progress

Thu Feb 01, 2018 6:50 pm

It’s about time those serrations got cleaned up and looking nice. A little Cerakote Elite Midnight tie it all together.

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This slide started out life as a standard GI type slide as seen here.

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I put the moves on her, lowering and flaring, chamfering, softening the edges.

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I’ll move on to the frame in a couple weeks. In the meantime:

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Re: Works In Progress

Thu Feb 08, 2018 3:11 pm

Maybe you noticed that your magazine catch feels like sand being pushed through a garden hose with your thumb. Maybe you didn't. God is in the detail.

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