1911 Questions

[Donny]

Hello everyone trying to get a few ideas on the following questions...

Is there any Colt 1911 frame & slide holding fixtures that I can buy?

If not how do you hold your 1911 parts for engraving?

How bad are the Stainless Steel Colt 1911/1991s to cut?

Is 660grit a good final grit before cutting and then having blued? If not what grit do you use as final?

Any help would be great!

Donny

 

[Dave London]

Hi Don
I use lead jaw liners can hold both slide and the frame. 1/4 inch lead sheet on eBay 12 in square.
Never cut a stainless colt. I cut the lead to the width and height of the vise jaws. And just clamp the part no marring and a solid hold. YMMV

 

[Big-Un]

I use leather strips (square cut pieces) to hold flat and straight pieces, such as the slide, and make a fixture from ThermoLoc for everything else. The 1911 is pretty straightforward.

 

[Donny]

Thanks guys... I take it that 600 grit is the right grit level then.

Donny

 

[Big-Un]

That's the grit my gunsmith uses to finish in preparation for blueing.

 

[SamW]

Donny, I use 600 for a final polish and it works great. I use the hard leather pads on my vise jaws and 1911 parts are fairly easy to hold in the vise. I keep a large bin of scrap wood to use for jigging parts around and if that does not work I stick parts to wood blocks of the appropriate size and shape, using pitch. Some like Weldon and also Bob Evans use bondo for holding. This is mentioned in another recent thread. I tried hot glue years ago but it allowed too much movement/vibration of the parts which was hard on tool points and made setting gold more difficult.

 

[Eugene Carkoski]

You mentioned stainless steel and blueing in the same sentence, I don't believe the two are compatible. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Ed Westerly]

Donny,

I use Thermoloc to hold the parts in my vise, with pins in the pin holes to give more backup strength. Colt stainless slides are engravable, but just barely. They are hard to begin with, and they work harden quickly to an even harder level. I would not even concider inlaying one of them. ( I have only engraved two SS Colt slides so far, a Combat Commander and a Gold Cup.) Stainless frames cut beautifully.

 

[Donny]

Thanks again for all the help gentlemen! This info is just what I needed.

Eugene,
I was not trying to imply "blueing" in reference to SS.... It was just my public education rearing it's ugly head in regards to my inability to write well

Donny

 

[Donny]

Screwless Colt SAA?

Delete this post....starting a new thread.

Donny

 

[Tim Wells]

This is a simple "T" shaped bar I machined to fit the slide grooves and stick up proud of the bottom rails so I can clamp it in my engraving vise or bench vise for draw filing/sanding/polishing.

 

[Donny]

Tim,
Thats a pretty cool item...you should think about selling those. I don't have any machinist skills let alone the equipment.

Donny

 

[Dulltool]

I just finished engraving a Colt stainless Mustang auto (mini 1911). Both frame and slide where very easy.

 

[Donny]

Thanks Dennis! My wife likes the size of those!. Might have to get her one for Christmas. One of those her gettng a present is me getting a present items

Donny

 

[Sandy]

www.brownells.com sell a lot of holding fixtures for 1911's.

 

[Tim Wells]

Donny, I never thought of that. When I need something I just haul off and make it if I can't buy it readily. I'm going to post a photo of a SAA fixture I made somewhere that is working really well for me... soon as I can find a place or a relative thread to plug it in.

 

[SamW]

Tim's home made fixture brings up a point Donny...when clamping a slide in my vise to work on the top, I always fit a tight piece of hardwood into the slide so that the sides won't be pinched inwards and possibly making the slide a tighter fit or no fit at all with the frame. It has happened...fortunately not to me but to the engraver who gave me that advise many years ago.

 

[Donny]

Thanks for the warning Sam...thats good advice. I'm very careful with others firearms and all the parts. I started the thread to find ready made jigs/fixtures to get into a the habit of holding all the parts of 1911s the same way every time. I will probably mockup some hard wood jigs to make it easier on myself.

Donny

 

[Tim Wells]

That bar won't let the sides flex when you squeeze it which is one of the things I had in mind when I made it. All the pressure is on the slide grooves and with just enough clearance to slide it in and out of the frame.

Here's the SAA fixture I made and it is rock solid.

It is contoured at both ends for maximum graver/knuckle clearance and the plug screwed into the barrel hole takes up any slack. The frame in the pic is a first generation Colt smokeless powder frame. The barrel threads are different on later models so If I ever do one of those I'll have to make another plug.

 

[Tim Wells]

Feel free to put this in the tips archive or move it to some SAA thread or fixture thread if you see fit.