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

[DER E30]

This is soo cool! I really want to do it but I'll get carried away and spend monies on it I shouldn't :( That's what happened when I built my AR... And my truck, and e30, and, and...

[jalopi]

So.... updates! Decided I'd try fitting the slide & barrel this weekend and boy was I pleased with the results of the slide. The barrel... well, that's not done yet, but I'm not so sure how well that's gonna turn out.

Anyway, the Kart EZ fit kit conveniently comes with a small vial of Dykem paste - apparently the liquid stuff just isn't very good for this application



For those of you who haven't used this stuff before, it's MESSY and goes everywhere. I think, without exaggeration, I could build a few guns with the amount of coverage you get with this vial.

Anyway, the first thing I did was slather the frame rails up with the stuff (only had to take one dab with the cotton swab)



Aaaannnnnddd this is as far as the slide wanted to go on



Took it off and noticed I was hitting the top of the frame. It's kinda tough to see in the picture, but you can see the "shiny mark" on the left side of the frame, just above the barrel seat



Anyway... after what seemed like an hour or so of carefully filing (the phantom jig makes it VERY convenient to hold the frame in place while you're doing all this), re-dyking and re-trying-to-put-the-slide-on I finally reached this point!



Finally starting to look like a gun!



And better yet... dat slide fitment



Like, if I told you guys that this shit was butthole tight, it'd be an understatement. As of now, it takes a fair amount of effort to move the slide, but I think with a little bit of work with some lapping compound it will be PERFECT.

On a side note, does anyone have some good video sources on fitting 1911 barrels? Because the ones I've found on youtube are pretty much garbage and don't help me with my specific issues. I'll go over it later / take more pics to show you what I'm dealing with.

Also, I may have ruined a $200 barrel

[jalopi]

God I'm a slob, that was lunch from Monday

[IronFreak]

Chicken fries!

[DER E30]

yay

[jalopi]

Brownells can eat a dick. Midway seems to get shipments to me faster and with less bullshit.

TIL. Thanks for the info, that'll be handy to know when I order the rest of my parts up.

On the bright side... UPS came a day early

[myinfernalbmw]

Brownells can eat a dick. Midway seems to get shipments to me faster and with less bullshit. Their prices generally seem better on most items too.

Keep up the good work duder.

[jalopi]

Hey bros, just an update - didn't want you to think I abandoned this build thread or something. Still waiting on the barrel & slide to come in, according to UPS they should be here tomorrow.

Apparently Brownells vets its first time customers... they called me on Tuesday to verify that I was actually the one putting the order through. Didn't ship my parts out until Wednesday... can't say I'm very pleased with the laxidasical way they process orders over there.

So, over the weekend I decided to cut the barrel seat... I made something of a boo boo :( Accidentally cut a bit too much material off and now the seat is about .01" over spec (.087 deep instead of .077 deep)

I think I can fix this by doing a bit of filing on the lower lugs of the barrel though - I'll take some pics of the process once I FINALLY get the barrel in tomorrow

[jalopi]

Whelp, pulled the trigger on a Caspian slide and Kart "EZ fit" barrel. Hopefully I'll be good to start fitting the barrel sometime next week!

[jalopi]

[jalopi]

so take that $1300, are we in the Kimber quality range etc?

Apparently, if done right, the gun will be capable of 2" groups @ 25 yards

How can you use that tool as a substitute for the real slide that will belong to it? I thought really tightly fitted 1911s couldn't really swap parts...

You can't, but at least if you get a tight fit with the tool you know it'll be a good baseline for fitting the slide (tool gets run on the slide rails to cut the barrel seat)

[DER E30]

How can you use that tool as a substitute for the real slide that will belong to it? I thought really tightly fitted 1911s couldn't really swap parts...

[jalopi]

So I did a video, but goddamn it's taking youtube forever to upload it. Finished cutting the slides tonight, too late/tired to do a written review yet. I'll get to that sometime tomorrow. Anyway, here's some pics of the finished product:






mmmm, dat fit

[Gregs///M]

Sub'd, I look forward to reviewing your process. I'm currently working on a 80% AR, thinking 1911 next.

[TeXJ]

haha