No doubt about it being a cool gun, like I said, I have nothing against them, just always looked a little funny in my big old paws.
Good shooters though!
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Sunday, I was able to lap my slide and frame. Pretty cool how fast it worked! I also was able to stake the plunger tube. Got it all back together and I am ready to test fire it. Got a couple better magazines too. My grip safety is sticking a little bit and I need to address that but nothing that won't allow me to test fire it.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...dc504fdb38.jpg
Nice to see it coming along. I thought I knew more about lapping until you mentioned above that it was messy. I could see it being more of an issue on a production gun but with this picture I know what you mean.
I spent some time behind a high end Wilson Combat this weekend and was impressed. Not so much that I needed to run out and get that one, money aside, but it rekindled the 1911 in me.
I read the build parties are not allowed anymore? I'd like a ares radius, but not bad enough to do all the milling yet
Yeah, it's not super messy, just that you need to clean it super good between steps (especially when switching grits). I went through 1 1/2 cans of brakeclean on my frame. I just held it down in a 5 gallon bucket when I sprayed so it didn't get everywhere. April wasn't too keen on the house smelling like brakekleen but.... I am glad that I waited to install the plunger tube until after. The slide was the pain to clean between steps, so many nooks and crannys
No more build parties. They are even trying to go so far as saying you have to actually own the tools and only do it at your residence. ... I think that is bs though and would only come into play if you were doing something stupid. I think people have lots of problems with those ares frames. One guy loved his until it fell off the bed and broke....
Got the sticking grip safety issue fixed, ended up that the grip safety was binding with the hammer strut if the hammer was back and you pushed on the grip safety just right. The safety would bind and stay pushed in. Found this out after messing with the sear spring making sure it was good, installing April's sear spring etc.... Ended up just needing to run a file down the groove in the grip safety a few times and no more binding.
Function and safety check was good to go. Snap caps worked good. Probably test fire it tomorrow or Thursday. Plan to go with 1 round first magazine then 2 round on the second magazine to make sure that my disconnector is working. After that, if all is good, shoot the piss out of it. http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...9438dd0119.jpg
If I can ask, how much do you have roughly in the gun itself at this point (not counting tooling, etc.) and then also including tooling?
The gun itself with the magpul grips, I am at about $420 (that doesn't include the extra McCormick magazines, a cleaning kit, snap caps, and a simple case that I bought, that's another $70).
I have about $360 in the jig, bits, files, staking tool, dykem, lapping compound, and brakekleen. A friend and I are splitting the costs on all of that, so I will just call it $200 after the split since I may get the trigger and sear jig to do a trigger job. I am doing 2 pistols, so roughly $100 per pistol.
There are definitely ways to do it cheaper as well, for example I could get one specific bit for the barrel seat for $25 if I had time to wait a month for shipping from china, instead I paid $85 for one from the US (probably still came from china). I also sprung for using reamers to get to the correct size holes for the hammer and sear pins, most are just using the correct size bit, which would work just fine with the jig (especially since you are not drilling through just from one side). I bought dykem when a sharpie will also work, etc...
I really want to build one of these, but dont have the access to machines, and not sure I trust myself to try the drill press method.