1911 Build
 

I've been considering a 1911 build for a couple years now and the need for a new project finally made me go for it. Caspian Arms in VT was chosen for the slide and frame. They are the best in the business and only a couple of hours away from my parent's house in Rutland, VT.

I placed an order Nov 11 and was told to expect an 8-12 week wait. I gave them a call just after Christmas when I was in VT visiting my family and I was told they were ready. I would be leaving by the time they could be shipped and transfered to me so I drove up there to pick them up.

I was greeted by a very frendly crew at the Capsian shop and before I left, Gary, the general manager, was nice enough to offer a tour of the shop and walked me through the entire machining process.

I placed some large orders with both Brownell's and MidwayUSA to get everything I would need. This was going to be an expensive project already so I spared no expense and went with very high quality parts from EGW, Wilson, Ed brown, etc. EGW was chosen whenever an option. Their parts are machined from barstock, oversized in some cases, and absolutely top notch.

The first job was to fit the slide to the frame. Caspian offers to do this for you but I wanted to give it a shot. I wouldn't call this a mistake... but you will see this is where I first encountered issues.

The method to fitting a slide to the frame is to first measure all dimensions of the frame rails (which are oversized) and slide grooves, and file the rails to just barely fit. Once the slide can be started onto the frame most of the way, lap the slide to the frame with compound. Things were going great and the slide would go on smoothly until about 1 inch from the end. Well, one small push too hard and the slide hung up. It would not budge not matter what I tried. I spent the entire day trying to remove the slide, first by hand, then a soft mallet. This thing would not come off. Both the slide and frame are stianless steel and I had encountered the most dreaded issue with fitting stainless parts...galling. You can imagine my frustration. I felt like a hack because I had messed up royally on the first step. This is where I did something stupid. I needed the slide off the frame by any means and I gave it a few hard whacks with a hammer. This made things worst and the galling worsened. I also realized the slide was toast because the extractor hole and firing pin stop slot had peened and were mishapen.

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I set it aside for a day to think. I came to the conclusion that the slide needed to be removed in hopes of saving the frame (which has a custom serial number). I have no pictures of this because I did not want to remember it. I split the slide down the middle and removed it from the frame. The galling was pretty bad but I was advised by Gary at Caspian that all was not lost and that function would not be affected. That was comforting but I wanted it fixed.

As though it was meant to be, I found a company very near me that does micro arc and laser welding, mostly for mold repair. They are also a gun shop! They were very nice and said I could drive it up after work one day. For $50, they did this.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1327183833.jpg

After some file work, it did not look half bad.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1327185194.jpg

I spoke with Gary again at Caspian to order another slide, identical to the first. Gary offered me a 20% discount on the slide which was fantastic. I will be having Gary fit the slide when it is ready. Their method involves welding tungsten carbide to the rails to prevent wear and galling. After this experience, it seems well worth it.

ONWARD!

Next step was to fit the trigger. The tracks for the trigger bow in the frame needed to be polished. The stone for this was pretty fine so it took a fair amount of time to get it to the point I was happy with it. Everything will be given a final polish at a later date but it was smooth enough so that the trigger bow would glide smoothly and not get scratched.

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Then the height of the trigger needed to be reduced so that it fit through the trigger slot in the frame. I did this very carefully as I did not want any up and down play with the trigger. Using a black sharpy as a poor man's dykem was effective, showing where things were rubbing and where I was removing material while filing. The final fit is tight with zero play and smooth enough that the trigger falls under it own weight. Great.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1327186127.jpg

I wanted a flat trigger. It looks very purposeful and the idea is that the trigger pull is the same regardless of where your finger is on the pad. The Wilson Combat lightweight version has the tabs shown below that can be bent forwad to eliminate the fore and aft play in the trigger at its resting position. These tabs had to be filed down slightly to fit in the trigger track and move forward completely.

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The back of the trigger bow was polished where the disconector will ride. Not perfect here, but fine for the time being.

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Next step was to fit the slide stop. This is by EGW and I bought the over sized version which is .003 over sized. In hindsight, the .200 would have saved me some time because the frame was made to exacting tolerances. The stop had to be taken down to .200 to fit snugly.
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Here are the ultralight sear, disconnecter, and hammer from Cylinder and Slide. Very nice peices. The pins for each took minimal sanding to get to fit tightly.

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The hammer strut had to be installed by hammering in the pin.
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Here is the engagement at half and full cock positions. The sear face angles are spot on out of the box.

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Brian,
Great work, this is a fantastic project! Thanks for documenting the process with such nice, clear pictures! Someday, I'll build a 1911, for now, I have 2 WWII warhorses that I enjoy. Keep up the good work!

Thanks Brian. That is very interesting. LOL I'll know not to try it myself. Please keep us up to date with progress.

Make and model number for that AWESOME hammer, please?

I want to to this but with a 80% receiver aka "paperweight" I want a clean gun.

Here is the hammer, Rick. I bought the parts in a set.

http://www.cylinder-slide.com/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=CS0214

That one most likely, C&S good stuff.

Today I worked on the mainspring housing. Its by Smith and Alexander and incorporates the magwell. I will be doing the front strap checkering at 25 lpi and wanted to practice on the mainspring housing and the satisfaction of doing it by hand. Its nearly complete and I'll post finished pictures tomorrow.

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I will be removing the last bit of checkering and shape the butt of the magwell later.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1327200247.jpg

The link I posted didn't work but that is the C&S parts set.

By the way, I will be making my own grips and this will be here this week. :)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1327200813.jpg

That is a pretty piece of wood for sure, I'd even love some grips. :D

damn!, So how are you cutting the checkering? I really wish I had a machine shop!


are you going to do a carry melt on it?

the BEST colt .45 1911 animation collection ( with labeled parts ) - YouTube

This might help some people understand the basics

Checkering is done by hand with a 25lpi checkering file. Then they are pointed up with a 60* needle file. I'm calling this done for now. Pretty proud of this.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1327203443.jpg

Nice work!

Looks like you have a very steady hand. How hard was this to do? I couldn't imagine doing this right the first time!

Nice job......

Beautiful work, you're a craftsman!!

Thanks for the compliments. Here are a few pictures of my progress.

Front strap finally finished. This took a very long time. The vertical lines took the longest because so much of the metal is in contact with the file at a time and the trigger guard keeps you from following through. I also think the frame steel is harder than the mainspring housing i did previously. The file was getting dull to boot. The horizontal lines took much less time. Once done, I ended the checkering by filing down the un-checkered section so that the checkering stands proud.
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I then set to work on the grips. I took the amboyna burl block and sliced it into two thin panels. I first drilled pilot holes for the bushings and countersunk them on the back to fit over the bushings. I could then start filing and sanding the grips to follow the contours of the frame and magwell. I very gld I chose to make my own because having them fit perfectly to my frame will really be the type of details that make the gun. Keep in mind once varnished, the grain on this wood will really pop. These will take more time but starting to look like grips.

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That is going to be beautiful!!

Nice checkering work. Who's barrel are you using?
I've used Caspian slides on Glocks and 1911s. They do nice work.
I'm getting ready to start a 2011 build with a Clark barrel and EGW comp.

Barrel is a Kart. Heard very good things about them.

I'm really bad about updating these types of build logs but the gun is just about finished. I got the parts back from the bead blasters this morning. There are a few areas I might want to touch up though. I'm happy the way it came out.

I realized after the fact that these pictures are a little blury but they show some of the detail work.

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So NICE!

Incredible!!!

Good Lord that's nice!

sum of a beattch.................thats beautiful. nice work.


i think yer gonna enjoy that alot.

happy spooning.

Can I be rude and ask how much $$$ your into it and how many hours?

Excellent timing Sir. Please see http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/692378-great-pelicanparts-shootout.html

Well said... Extrodinary! Do you do paid work like this for other people?

You can read in the first few posts that I royally screwed up my first slide. That certainly added to the cost but ignoring that, I think the total is around $1300-$1400. I bought the best parts I could find so one could do it for a bit less.

I'd have a hard time guessing at how many hours I have into it. I picked up the frame and slide around Christmas of last year. A lot of the work is really slow going like the checkering and fitting the barrel and barrel bushing so I could not work n it for too long in one sitting. I also took some time off until I found some motivation to continue. If you are quick, it might take you a few weeks to a couple months.

I have never done anything like this before. Its my first 1911. I like to try my hand at everything. I love projects, especially challenging ones!

I like that bead blasted look Brian. It really evens up the lustre. Well done.

Thanks, Bill. I think it turned out really well. I told the guy I wanted it as fine as possible that would cover my sanding marks and I imagine this was about as fine as you can go. The glass bead media I found in some crevices was like powder. I went with stainless bead blasted finish because I wanted the option to change something or touch up the finish quickly and cheaply.

Very well executed - thanks for sharing!