I'd like to finish off my new hammer/sear installation with a secondary/breakaway angle on the sear. I'm wondering what people have had success with in the past?
I've noticed Midwayusa has many different jigs all over the range in price and features. For me, less inexpensive and simpler is better, provided it will do a proper job.
Ed Brown's jig is the simplest looking and cheapest, and I do have EB components. Any recommendations for or against? What about spending a little more to get a little more? I really don't want to drop $100 on a jig.
There's this Marvell jig (not the $120 one) that I'm considering as well.
Set up a persistent search for "1911 jig" on eBay. It took me a little while, but I got a sear jig AND hammer jig for $50 total, both in excellent shape and easy to use. They are the simple ones pictured in Kuhnhausen, about pages 81-82, I think, but worked just fine for me.
Well, I went with the Ed Brown jig and am pleased. It's simple and effective. I think I'll try the super duper Marvel jig later on.
There is a little problem with jigs and fixtures.
Both the hammer and sear rotate in an arc. The degree that the hammer rotates before the sear engages the hammer hooks depends on the distance between the center of the pin the sear is rotating on to the end of the sear nose, and the respective location of the hammer and sear pin holes in the frame to each other.
Now there was a time when 1911 pistols were all made to a common set of blueprints, and frames and component parts were inspected to insure compliance with those drawings.
But that time isn't now.
So to have any value, a sear jig or fixture must be able to accommodate the fact that there are no standards when it comes to today’s 1911 platform pistols. Each gun or parts manufacturer is doing they’re own thing.
So unless you plan to restrict your work to USGI 1911A1 pistols or commercial Colt’s made during the middle 1960’s going backwards, you’d better take this fact of life into consideration.