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The DIY 1911 thread... I think I'll call her Becky

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    The DIY 1911 thread... I think I'll call her Becky

    Sup bros, thought I'd do a build thread for the DIY 1911 frame I got from Stealth Arms. I bought two, a full size government frame and a "compact" frame which ended up being a midsize commander frame instead of an actual compact officers' frame. Oh well... guess I'll make it work somehow. It's not like you can CC in MD easily anyway

    I digress. This time around I'll be putting Becky together, which'll be done on the full size frame. The goal is to make a pretty range piece that's fairly accurate and reliable. She'll also be kept at my desk, (one of the benefits of working from home) because why not? My Tavor won't be doing much good upstairs next to my bed if I ever needed it while working.

    Anyway, here's the view I got hit with when I opened the box :D



    Everything in there seems to be made quite well. I opted to have both frames bead blasted from the manufacturer, no idea how they'd look un-blasted. Here's a few shots of Becky:






    Here's a shot of Becky on a scale - she's only a scant 119 grams! A good girl always watches her weight :p



    Here's a few shots of Becky next to her shorter sister. Haven't thought of a name for her yet, maybe you guys can give some suggestions






    The sister's a total of 1/4" shorter than Becky and her "slide rails" (if you know what I mean ;D) are about 1/8" shorter as well.

    Here's what you get in the rest of the box: two scuff pads, an (anti-warping?) block, all three drills that you need, both pins, a bolt and two allen keys



    Now it's time to test fit this jig and see if it's everything they cracked it up to be.



    So far so good, though I wasn't impressed with their cuts on the locating pins/dowels. Kinda looks like they used a shear or something dull to cut em



    So far so good....



    Testing for fitment




    Now, I'm not sure if you guys could see that too well in the first fitment pic, but there is a gap between the jig and the frame. This might be a slightly better shot



    When the plates are squeezed together by hand near the end, the gap closes right up, bet it'll do just fine with a C clamp or something. Regardless, decided to measure the gap and see what I come up with




    I guess eight thousandths isn't horrible... but I'm definitely gonna clamp the plates when I go to cut the slide rails.

    That's it for now, more coming soon!

    #2
    I be watching!



    Originally posted by jalopi View Post
    She'll also be kept at my desk, (one of the benefits of working from home) because why not? My Tavor won't be doing much good upstairs next to my bed if I ever needed it while working.
    Bring Tavor down next to desk??? I do that with a 12 gauge, just because why .45 when you can 12 gauge?
    Last edited by DER E30; 03-24-2015, 05:33 PM.
    -Christian

    '02 ///M3 CarbonSchwartz 6MT daily beast
    08/91 Mtechnic II 325IC alpine/lotus
    318iS, slow build/garage queen...
    '37 Chevy pickup, the über project
    Originally posted by roguetoaster
    Be sure to remind them that the M42 is one of the best engines ever made, but be sure to not mention where it actually falls on that list.

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      #3
      andddddd I'm sub'd haha
      1990 325is
      m52b28
      3.73lsd
      g260 (1987 325is 5spd tranny)

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        #4
        Not going to lie, looking at this thread made me finally pull the trigger on a Grizzly G0704 small mill in a roundabout way. Thought this would be fun, researched a little and though killing one would be fun, so I ordered it lol. Sub'd

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          #5
          So the first thing I did yesterday was set up a "gunsmithing" table on an old desk in my storage area.



          Really it's just a vice right now, but eventually I plan on getting into reloading & casting bullets (though the casting will most likely be done in the garage with the door open, because word on the street is that breathing lead fumes is bad for you )

          Then I decided to try and close that .008" gap up with as little force as possible using a c-clamp



          Mission accomplished



          After that I took the clamp off and headed into the garage to drill the sear & hammer pin holes



          So I don't know if my press table/base is slightly off or something, because the holes I drilled are slightly off (I think). I followed the directions and made sure to only drill one side at a time, but this is as far as I can stick each drill through the frame



          The drills clearly go into the holes on the other side, but I guess they're not *perfectly* aligned enough for the drills to completely pass through. Guess I'll find out if I 'dun goofed' when I go to put the sear/hammer in.

          So, onto cutting the slide. The first impressions... not particularly great. neither of the videos I posted in the regular gun thread give an accurate representation of how this thing really works.

          Gave it a quick test run last night just for hahas and found out that you get ~ALOT~ of chatter with this thing. Going by the instructions in the pamphlet (or the instructions in that girls' video) takes off WAY too much material. I ended up dividing each of the notches into thirds/quarters instead of half, as taking each notch (or half notch) at a time is waaayyyy too much material. I'll take a (probably shitty) video tomorrow to show you guys what I'm working with.

          Regardless.... it does seem to work. There's a few things I'm gonna do to tweak it (teflon tape on the turn knob thread and on the cutter hold down screws) as I had issues with the cutter hold down screw backing off enough to let the bit turn sideways and cause a little bit of carnage on the frame rail (though it's not too bad, appears to be cosmetic)



          I'm not gonna finish the rails up until I get my dial caliper in (just ordered a Fowler standard/metric caliper as the shitty plastic Harbor Freight vernier caliper I currently have isn't gonna give me that tight, silky smooth fit that I demand from my ladies. According to the one I have my current rail depth is around .04"... only .02" more to go! (until I can use the barrel cutter on the frame, not gonna go any further than that until I get the slide in)

          Still up in the air on what parts I want to buy, but I think I'm gonna go with a 5" Kart "EZ fit" barrel (for some reason the steel they use takes well to DIY unjacketed ammo, or at least that's what people on the 1911 forums seem to say) as the full match fit barrels seem like a shitshow to fit from what I've seen. The slide'll be a Caspian SS with Novak cutouts, serrations only at the rear.

          I think everything else is gonna come direct off of Wilson Combats' website, as theirs seems to be one of the few coherently organized websites out there (Brownells is nice, but only if you know exactly what you're looking for, which I kind of don't)

          Gonna order as much as I can in stainless as I'm not sure what my approach to finishing is gonna be. Becky's a real attention whore, so it'll probably be something along the lines of polished nickel or titanium nitride :D

          Updates as they come!

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            #6
            1911 build thread! Subbed!

            SB100 hopes to change MD ccw. Maybe not this year, but it's progress.

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              #7


              Don't tease yourself bro, we both know that's never happening in this state... at least not for a while anyway. The state police have made it very clear that they don't want anyone here getting CC permits and we don't have enough rich people in this state that care about firearms to balance the scales and push back against the political agenda... that's really all it boils down to.

              Besides, if the CC permit system gets overhauled in this state I'll have to start ordering parts for Aimee (I think that's what I'm gonna call her. Can't decide if I wanna do a 3.5" or 4.25" barrel for her) and I can't afford that many ladies right now.

              Anywho, on a lighter note, my caliper should be arriving today :D

              Just gotta finalize my barrel/slide decision on brownells and put the order through

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                #8
                This is awesome. Subbed for inspiration!
                -Alex

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                  #9
                  In.
                  Si vis pacem, para bellum.

                  New Hawtness: 1995 540i/6 Claptrap
                  Defunct too: Cirrusblau m30 Project
                  Defunct (sold): Alta Vista

                  79 Bronco SHTF Build

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                    #10
                    sub'd This gonna be sick

                    Turbo M42 Build Thread :Here
                    Ig:ryno_pzk
                    I like the tuna here.
                    Originally posted by lambo
                    Buttchug. The official poster child of r3v.

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                      #11
                      Sub'd - I'm very close to picking one of these up. In for results.
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                      Rebellion Forge Custom Fabrication

                      1988 325is - TrackRat in progress

                      Instagram @rebellionforge

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                        #12
                        So... TIL this:



                        is almost as accurate as this:



                        Which is nothing short of amazing considering the Fowler caliper cost nearly 5,000% more than the Harbor Freight caliper. The dial caliper is infinitely easier to read though, so it's worth the cost IMO.

                        Found that out when I got the package in the mail - couldn't resist taking the new caliper out for a spin. Went to measure the rail depth that I'd currently cut - the Fowler read at .042". Just for hahas I pulled out the HF caliper, counted the notches, did the math and came up with .046" O_O

                        Yeah, it's off by .004 and by machining standards that's not good, but damn if it's not impressive for a $1 plastic caliper made by a 12 year old (probably).

                        Anyway, once I'm done with work for the day I'll get to working on that demonstration video

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                          #13
                          Keep it up, I'll let you work out the bugs then jump in haha! I want to get into a lot of this stuff more, I have been following Jesse James, goes by the Popeofwelding in IG. that Dude makes some INSANE pieces. Love the detail that's involved. If I'm going to spend $600-800 on a gun, Id rather do this and make it truly my own weapon.
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                          Rebellion Forge Custom Fabrication

                          1988 325is - TrackRat in progress

                          Instagram @rebellionforge

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                            #14
                            So what exactly is going on here with the big plates? Do you have to make the slide and barrel yourself or something? I haven't been around guns much since I was a kid and I am having trouble wrapping my head around what I am looking at here.
                            sigpic
                            1991 325i Sport - Calypsorot Metallic - DAILY DRIVEN

                            WTB in SoCal: 8"/10" Lukebox, leather Sport steering wheel, 60L MotoMeter fuel gauge, Thule/Yakima roof rack

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Vincent Brick View Post
                              So what exactly is going on here with the big plates? Do you have to make the slide and barrel yourself or something? I haven't been around guns much since I was a kid and I am having trouble wrapping my head around what I am looking at here.
                              Its an 80% lower. Meaning its only 80% finished. can be sold without serial number. The purchaser has to finish the lower themselves. Stealtharms just provides the means of doing so without expensive milling equipment.
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                              Rebellion Forge Custom Fabrication

                              1988 325is - TrackRat in progress

                              Instagram @rebellionforge

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