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  • texas_teacher

    Well-Known
    Feb 14, 2009
    2,114
    21
    South Korea
    I've read lots of threads about people giving hints and tips on AK or AR builds but haven't seen any on a 1911 build... Anyone ever tackled the task of completely customizing and building a 1911?

    What kind of little things did you add to it?

    Why did you choose to build it from the ground up?

    How much did it cost ya?
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    kerryp

    Active Member
    Apr 12, 2009
    361
    1
    Bastrop
    I love 1911's and looked into building me one from the ground up, but it wass too intensive and skill oriented. I think I saw someone on here post a thread about one he built, he'll prolly chime in. I just don't have the tools and knowledge to properly fit the slide to frames, etc. and would likely just booger up a perfectly good frame or slide.....thats why the custom 1911 builders make some good change for what they do, it is a real skill...
     

    texas_teacher

    Well-Known
    Feb 14, 2009
    2,114
    21
    South Korea
    I love 1911's and looked into building me one from the ground up, but it wass too intensive and skill oriented. I think I saw someone on here post a thread about one he built, he'll prolly chime in. I just don't have the tools and knowledge to properly fit the slide to frames, etc. and would likely just booger up a perfectly good frame or slide.....thats why the custom 1911 builders make some good change for what they do, it is a real skill...

    Ahhh gotcha... thanks... I was wondering... I was on Gunbroker and saw a nice forged frame and was just thinking how nice it'd be...
     

    Charley

    Active Member
    Aug 7, 2008
    744
    76
    San Antonio
    1911 style pistols are not difficult to build up...it CAN be a bit more difficult to build to the tolerances required for acurcay and function, though. Slide/frame fitting isn't that tough. If the slide will start on the frame, lapping compound and a mallet will allow you to fit with very little play. If the sldie/frame fit is too loose, a peening hammer and large bench vise can tighten things up. Best to do some research on a good guide...Kuhnhausen's The Colt .45 Automatic a shop Manual would be a good place to start. I built my first 1911 a ways back, using George Nonte's classic Pistolsmithing as a guide. Most of the techniques shown there are outdated/uneeded now, with all the parts and information available, but it even it can still be useful. Below is the .38 Super I built years back, replaced the barrel and sights since then, but it is still a good shooter, accurate and 100% reliable. My youngest son shot his CHL qualification with it just last year.
    DSCF0010.jpg
     

    MR Redneck

    TGT Addict
    BANNED!!!
    Aug 20, 2010
    4,354
    21
    The great country of West Texas
    The most expensive part of building a 1911 is the tooling. Special tooling to hand fit the slide, jigs to hold the barrel for machining the hood fit, special mics. to measure the rails and hood fit. You also need staking tools.
    Building a new custom 1911 isnt possible without a good mill either. I have most everything so far, except for the barrel jigs. Two different jigs for milling the barrel, and one for the lock up.
     

    Charley

    Active Member
    Aug 7, 2008
    744
    76
    San Antonio
    I respectably disagree. Granted, tooling IS needed, if you are going to produce guns as a business, and to cut production time when working for money. If you work on your own, with no time limit (time IS money, of course) many of the items considered as a necessity in a professional shop can be substituted or worked around for home use. The example above isn't a match gun, never was meant to be, but it will give nothing away to my Kimber in .45 ACP. Both shoot what I would call "production grade gun" groups.
    I recall reading a quote from the late Bob Day, telling how he started working on 1911s with a small vise clamped to his wife's sewing table!
     

    dickttx

    New Member
    Oct 30, 2010
    42
    1
    Fort Worth
    In the late 60's after Colt's patents ran out other companies started making frames. Colt would not sell you one unless you sent the old one back. I ordered an anodized aluminum frame (with initials and DOB as the serial #) from AR Sales in California. I found a Grammercy Machine Works slide and barrel in a pawn shop in Lawton, OK. A friend went to summer camp at Fort Polk and brought me a coffee can full of military parts. As Charlie said above, the hard part was fitting the slide to the frame. I spent hours pounding the slide on and off the frame, using lapping compound and a mallet. It probably took me a couple of hours to get it on the first time. After the slide would work nice and smooth, I started assembling the parts from the coffee can. As I remember most of them went in pretty easily. The last thing I got to work was a trigger. The one out of my Mark IV, Series 70, would work in the frame, but the military ones wouldn't. Finally found one that would work. Everything worked at last. I have probably taken it apart and put it back together 1000 times. Only have $50 in it (40 for the frame and 10 for the slide and barrel.)
     

    cseale86

    Active Member
    Jul 13, 2010
    307
    1
    East Houston
    You can buy a kit from Brownells with the frame and slide already fitted but then you would pretty much be putting it together not building it.
     

    texas_teacher

    Well-Known
    Feb 14, 2009
    2,114
    21
    South Korea
    You can buy a kit from Brownells with the frame and slide already fitted but then you would pretty much be putting it together not building it.

    True and then how different would that be from taking my completely down (which I do a lot just for shits and grins) and then putting it back together...

    I've given some thought to a Fusion frame/slide/barrel matched set where I then can mix and match the little parts and intricacies that make it my own personal beast... I also like the idea of a slide that isn't constantly blazing some company's branding when I did most of the work to assemble it...
     

    dobarker

    Active Member
    Mar 26, 2010
    946
    31
    Sonora
    I built my 1911 before I built my AR, and i'd say the 1911 was more fun, if not more interesting.
    If you don't want to go broke on the frame, get one from foster industries when they get back in stock. They are the same company that builds Caspian frames. It's just the ones they sell are very well priced because they are "factory seconds" basically, they are machined the exact same way and in final process are found to have maybe a pinhole under the trigger guard, by the time that I parkerized and gunkoted my frame, you couldn't tell it was there.
    You can go with a parts kit from Sarco, but you take your chances when ordering through them, they have a really odd system of running things, though a lot of the parts that you get in their kit are ex-auto ordinance.
    All the tools needed to get mine fitted to GI accuracy were a flat medium grit bastard file, a medium grit round file and a triangular jewlers file (fine), as well as a wheeler engineering lapping compound kit (from brownells for $33 or so), a rubber mallet, staking tool (if you don't go with an integral plunger tube), assorted screwdrivers and punches, a caliper, some elbow grease and time.

    I plan on making another one and actually taking the extra time and money to get a kart fit in barrel so I can get better than 5" accuracy at 25 yards. But I will still go with a Foster frame.
    As far as cost for just the parts (not tools) I always tell interested persons to set aside at least $450-500 for a good pistol that would cost you around $750 new from the store. If you want something to duel a gold cup, then you're going to have to have a lot of patience, steady hands and some extra money.
    If you do get rolling on the project, let us know, there's a few of us here that have build them and can help get you going in the right direction.
    Here's the one I built. (sights have since been blacked out as per M.Sage's suggestion)
    View attachment 6754
    I decided for the first build I would go with the low cost military grade parts kit from Sarco.
    Some of the parts that came in the kit were junk, like the hammer, ejector, barrel and springs(sear,mainspring and recoil spring). I added an old colt paddle hammer as I call them, matched it to the sear just right with the jewlers file, trigger pull is clean at about 4 pounds, the barrel is an old springfield armory GI replacement barrel that I had laying around and was better quality and immediate match for lockup (well, close enough). The springs are all wolff replacements, you can tinker with them till you get your function with the weight of bullet your going to use set right. And the ejector is a Springfield Armory extended tuned to throw out the cases in a nice pile. The extractor is an old WWII N.O.S. part that I had laying around, and the barrel bushing is a Fusion match grade bushing fit to the barrel and slide so they glide and don't grind.
    I know that's a novel, but there you go.
     

    texas_teacher

    Well-Known
    Feb 14, 2009
    2,114
    21
    South Korea
    Hmmm choices choices choices... Looking at Fusion parts but also Caspian parts... Loved the process of customizing my RIA (pics in the other forum soon) but going to probably go with a Caspian slide (unique custom look) and still can't decide between a Caspian frame or a Fusion Alloy Frame.
     

    fnmedallion

    Active Member
    Lifetime Member
    Mar 29, 2009
    368
    1
    haslet texas
    *** High cap speaking***

    i am in the process of building fnmedallions, 6'' damascus steel longslide, titanium recon framed 1911. lots of work and detail into fitting the parts, and the correct tolerances. only tools i have are hand, some stones, files, and drums with a drill. let me re-phrase the only tools i am using for the build are the ones mentioned, we have about 11 toolboxes in the garage. everything on this is hand fit...

    dad had them lap and fit the slide to the frame, because the frame is titanium and well, i don't have the time to jackoff a slide to make it smooth as glass on the frame....
     

    texas_teacher

    Well-Known
    Feb 14, 2009
    2,114
    21
    South Korea
    Anyone else ever install a full length (2-piece) guide rod on a 1911?

    It cycles fine without it, but insert that thing in there and it fouls it up worse than can be imagined...

    Any thoughts?
     
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