40% frame (no holes but the slide stop,and that was undersize), raw casting. In addition, there was a (appx. 50%) slide, (as cast) firing pin stop, thumb safety, slide stop, & disconnector, (undrilled) sear, (as-cast and un-notched) hammer, a raw aluminum casting of the shoe part of a trigger, and a solid hunk of stainless vaguely shaped like a mainspring housing.
Unfortunately, I lost access to the mill I was using halfway through the machining process... and yet, here it is so far:
and now, for the punchline... Here's what I've done with all those almost- parts and some steel...oh, and, this morning, a piece of brass. The only tools I have are a drill press, files, a diamond hone, a cheap 4" bench vise, two C- clamps, two carbide lathe bits, a HSS bit blank ground into a turning bit, and drills, endmills, and a carbide fake Dremel mill. I made every single pin, including the mainspring pins, made the .050" keyway cutter to cut the mag catch lock slot (was once part of an old Mauser cleaning rod, annealed and heat-treated by torch), et cetera, etc... Oh, and, yes, the thumb safety is engraved. The friend who taught me was that same shady character on the brontosaurus who sold me the kit. Whoops, almost forgot, that isn't the original slide stop... It, and the thumb safety, were my very first engraving projects, and since I got the extended slide stop for Father's Day this year, I gave the old engraved one to my own dad for his Lightweight Commander.
Boy, there's so much more to the story, but not enough time or room for it all. Anyone wishes to hear about something specific ( like the temporary sear spring from a hacksaw blade), just ask. I'd be glad to elaborate (read "brag") on the subject! LOL
Looks like the hardest part is done. All you need to do is scribe a high and low line for your rails and start cutting with a dremel. Of course cutting the rails with a mill is preferred but many have done it with a dremel. Dont let not having access to a mill stop you. You're almost there.
Good luck
PS I love your sear spring and your barrel bushing wrench
Yeah, the frame's near done... Still have to take off another .010-.015 off the deck, open the lower lug slot to spec, and cut the rails. I did the saddle yesterday morning with my fake Dremel flexishaft, (used a drill bit to check depth), and did the feedramp this morning with the drill press and a carbide rotary rasp. I figure, once I've got a crossfeed vise or a cross-slide table for it, I can finish the deck with an endmill, and do the lug slot with the smallest diameter carbide mill I can find. 'Course, I still need to go get a couple of keyway cutters to do the rails, but after that, it's off to Brownell's for a bushing tap, and to Sarco for the rest of the frame parts and a "slide kit". With the rest of the parts I need for the slide casting I have, it'd only be about $35 more to have a finished slide (as well as some spare parts) ready to rock.
Oh yeah, that was the one tool I forgot... It's so universal, I forgot about the Dremel. I've got a real one, and one of the Nikota copies (which died a sudden and unexpected death this morning... Just plain stopped with no warning.)
You know, making the tools I've made for this project has been almost as fun as the project itself!
Ugh... Latest sub-project just reared its ugly head... In order to cut the firing pin stop slot in my "40%" (more like 20%!;) slide, looks like I'm gonna have to fab up another cutter... The stop is .464 x .100, but there's a .180" radius at the top, which means a .360" keyway cutter... Ain't no such animal out there in commercial-land. Hopefully, I can track down a piece of tool steel the right size, though I'm betting I'm gonna have to sacrifice another piece from my old (read "antique") drill bit collection. What I wouldn't give for a lathe!!! Wish me luck. The micro-cutter I made for the mag catch lock slot in the frame worked out well enough... Oh well, commence crossing fingers!
Word of advice to those of us using crossfeed vises on drill presses... When you reach behind to rotate the handle to close the vise, watch it... The hinge point can bite... The Scratch-Built Gun Gods got a blood sacrifice this morning! :)
Anyway, except for a consistent failure to find a .100" or 3/32" keyway cutter here in town to cut the rails, I can now announce that my frame is complete. Over the last two nights, I shaved the top deck down to where I wanted it, (.005 off the back, .015 from the front), and, after cranking the 'press all the way up, and using a .095 carbide mill/burr, opened up the barrel lug slot to spec. (Well, okay, I do need to take a square needle file and de-radius the corners of the slot). Now that the sacrifice has been made, maybe, just maybe, I can finally track down a keyway cutter and cut my rails.
The slide is a wee bit more disappointing. I don't have enough travel on my vise to slab the sides or true the rail bottoms and top rib, and having seven or eight inches of slide sticking straight up from the vise to drill the extractor hole or cut the firing pin stop slot is kinda' scary... I have a feeling I'm gonna be very glad I'm getting a Sarco slide kit.
I think it's about time I took the digital camera to work with me so I can shoot my "mobile machine shop" setup.
Ah yes, the sear spring slot. That one was a royal pain simply due to the fact that I could find absolutely no commerical cutters that would make the cut, as it were. I too tried the reduced dremel cutoff wheel approach; this didn't work due to the fact that they don't last long at the reduced diameter needed for this operation. In the end, I ended up modifying a standard 1/16" x 1/2" keyseat cutter in the lathe with a toolpost grinder. I ground down the shaft behind the cutter head so that I could clear the bottom of the receiver, and to allow the cutter to cut to the required depth. I also reduced the width of the cutter face down to .040. You can try to do the first with a carbide lathe bit, but the latter is almost impossible due to the interrupted cut (the teeth on the cutter break off.)
If your keyseat cutters are wearing out before you have finished the frame rails, you are most likely spinning them too quickly. You should easily get one set of rails out of a cutter. What are RPM are you using?
Tnx for the reply, Ed, even if it is bad news... :) The setup I use is a crossfeed on a Harbor Fright bench drill press on it's lowest speed, which I don't recall the exact RPM... I believe it's in the area of 700-750. The problem could have been that I was taking too small of a cut while doing the right side rail, and using too slow a feed. My hand just ain't calibrated all that well! LOL
On the other hand, it might've been a rigidity issue, seeing as how I've had to use a bunch of randomly-gathered hardware to make several expandable "spanners" between table and base before it'd cut reliably.
As for the sear spring slot... Ugh. Not gonna be fun. About the only thing I can think of is maybe use some of my miniature carbide drills to take out as much material as possible before the cut-down cutoff wheel operation. I don't have access to a lathe or a mill, so sacrificing a keyway cutter won't...excuse the pun...cut it. Only other option left is perhaps use one of my diamond cutoff wheels rather than an abrasive one, and maybe file teeth on it.
Oh yeah, almost forgot... Drilled the firing pin hole from both ends, and managed to do it well enough that it works with the firing pin I made from drill rod. Tell ya' what, though... The whole concept of drilling the extractor hole scares the crap outta me! Someone wish me luck when I try that one!
...'Course I was a Space Kadet when I made up the order form, so I STILL don't have a hammer strut...
Anyway, the big project today was lapping the slide/frame rails. Suprisingly enough, the Brazilian slide I got looks to be new, or at least cleaned up and re-parked. Roughly handled, though... There are a couple of dings and some burrs.
Anyway, here's my poor, dumb SOB's lapping setup. Crossfeed, just because the jaws are nice and parallel, halfway comfy chair on the porch, and a tube of rouge and some WD-40 to mix up some thin lapping compound. Not in the picture are the piece of wood and the Special Gunsmithing Boot I used to "persuade" the slide back and forth. She's pretty well lapped-in now. Still need to fit the saddle, widen the inside of the dust cover to fit the guide rod, and, unfortunately, looks like I drilled the ejector holes too far apart, so I'm gonna have to fight with that tomorrow at work. Also need to find a hammer strut somewhere around here for fairly cheap. Oh, and there's an OOPS somewhere with the mating of mags and mag catch. Looks like I'm gonna have to lower the "shelf" on the catch a few thou to engage the slots on the mags. I'm so close now I can taste it! Now where the heck did I put that box of hardball?!?!?!?!
Well, anyway, for those who caught the Help Me in 1911 'Smithing, I had a rather frustrating link-down problem that probably few here have dealt with, since my casting was basically raw out-of-the-mould when I started. I've also noticed that my dustcover drops from back to front, leaving a wedge-shaped gap. Waah.
Next on the list of fun stuff...The dustcover ID wasn't wide enough, which wedged the spring plug tunnel tightly and locked the slide back at full travel. Dremelled that sucker open!
Also, the same problem, along with the undersized hole through where the bottom lug operates, made the spring guide jump up and down and side to side, since it didn't seat all the way. Spring Bind! Dremel and Kratex bullet time!
Had to open up the rear leg hole for the ejector, because I somehow drilled 'em a few thou too close together. Fits nice and tight now, and doesn't even touch the slide!
Firing pin that Sarco sent me was warped, and I snapped that sucker in a heartbeat trying to straighten it. Back to the FP I made originally! Unfortunately, it tapers a wee bit too fast and jams on dryfiring. Have to taper it down some more tonight.
Mag catch was a raw casting, too, and apparently the catch shelf is too high to drop into the cut on the mags. Have to lower that tonight.
Too much distance between the sear and the thumb safety. Have to drill and install a pin in the sear so that the safety functions. That one's gonna be fun!
And last, but not least... When I made the mainspring cap, I center-drilled it too deep, so the travel stops right as the hammer reaches the safety notch. Now, I've got a hammer stroke that's too short and too light. Have to cobble up a filler plug to go between the cap and the end of the strut, or else make another cap. Good thing I've still got a few inches of W1! Especially since now I HAVE to make a housing retaining pin. There's enough spring pressure to force the housing out of the grip frame when the hammer is cocked and dropped.
Should be ready to testfire by the time I get home after eight tomorrow morning... Now if I can just figure out what the #### I did with that box of 230gr Hardball!