Twins for Bowling Pins
It was a long and tedious build. I hate to admit it but I’ve never fitted a compensator on a 1911 before. So while there wasn’t anything special about it, it still took a bit of time for preparations and studies. Other than that, these are, well, just a pair of 1911s that a friend […]
It’s Like Nelson, But For Adults
I like listening to opera music while working on my guns. My favorite opera composer is Giacomo Puccini, but today I chose a German opera Der Freischutz by Carl Maria von Weber. This opera has everything we love – guns, shooting, hunting, marksmanship competitions and even bullet casting! My choice of the music was based […]
Marvel Cut
A fellow club member asked me to tune up his gun. It was not cycling properly and hanging up on disconnector every now and then, and after a brief inspection we decided that a Marvel disconnector cut will help. For those of you who have never heard this term before, it’s the angle cut on […]
Rhapsody in Stainless Steel
This build was a mix of carbon steel frame and stainless steel slide. We discussed some finish options, including IonBond, cold blue, etc. and finally chose to do Cerakote, not because it’s easy…oh wait, actually because it’s easy…well, sort of. I had to do a lot of preparations. Aside from the Cerakote starter kit, I […]
Stone Soup – Part 2
While waiting for the rest of the parts to arrive, I stippled the front strap and cut the grip safety tangs to .250 radius using my rotary table. I then hand fitted the grip safety using gauge pins and sharpie to mark and file down the high spots. I blasted the frame and the slide […]
Stone Soup – Part 1
A club member brought me a no-name GI-style 1911 made in Philippines and asked to rebuild it as a ball gun suitable for the CMP service pistol EIC matches. This project reminded me of the old European folk tale Stone Soup. Pretty much every single part of the gun needs to be replaced. Even the […]
Here We Go Round the Barrel Bushing
A new bushing came this morning from EGW. It fits like a glove, very tight and very well made. In fact, it was just a hair too tight on the barrel, so I put a dab of very fine grit lapping compound on the tip of the barrel, assembled the slide with the barrel and […]
A Little Help For My Friend
Rebuilding a Springfield RO Elite Target for my friend. As usual, the bushing is loose, there’s a bit of a play when I wiggle the barrel between the breach face and the top lugs, and the trigger group is nothing to write home about (unless, of course, you want to whine about how gritty and […]
Raw Deal Project, Part III
As promised, here’s part III. I blasted all parts with 120 grit AlOx media and blued them using the Brownells’ Belgian Blue process, which resulted in really nice deep matte black finish. Again, she’s not a beauty queen and never meant to be, but she’s beautiful to me. My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the […]
Raw Deal Project, Part II
I started cleaning up the slide with face mill and noticed that it leaves very deep tool marks. Obviously, either I was doing something wrong or the tool was not the right one of the job. Most likely, all of the above. So I used various grits of sandpaper and a lot of elbow grease […]