I also attended Larry's 1911 Pistolsmithing class last week and will attempt to add my impressions, hopefully without being too redundant regarding what has already been posted.
Day 1 was spent fitting the slide and frame. I chose a basic carbon steel Caspian frame and slide with vertical grip serrations and ball cuts. These were ordered with Caspian's "production fit" which eliminates the majority of metal removal while still providing a true custom fit. There was some filing of the frame rails and lapping with 600 grit lapping compound mixed with Breakfree lubricant initially and then going with 1200 grit lapping compound. I was not aware Caspian offered this option and in the past have used the standard oversize parts; in the future I will utilize the production fit parts as there is no discernible difference in the end result and it was a real time saver. On the first day we also fitted oversize Greider triggers; chamfering the rear of the trigger bow to clear the leaf spring thus preventing the hammer possibly stopping on half cock. The majority of metal removal was from the top of the trigger shoe with these parts and we were instructed to hit the trigger face serrations with emery to lessen trigger finger abrasion.
Day 2 consisted of fitting Kart NM barrels. We filed the sides of the hood to clear the slide first, which is not a critical dimension and then squarely trimmed the hood length for a tight finger pressure fit in the slide. We were told that the barrel should move in and out of the slide with a popping sound like breaking an egg. We reamed the chambers until the base of a cartridge was slightly below the hood and the round fell out easily, we also polished the upper inside of the chamber to facilitate feeding. We then fit the upper barrel lugs to the slide to achieve contact at two and ten o'clock and to obtain a slightly low primer strike. We were told that a center primer strike was okay but a slightly lower strike was desirable on a pistol shooting full power loads. Lastly we rough fit the bottom barrel lugs with Brownell's lug cutting tool with the .195 inch diameter cutter and finished up with a file, emery and lapping compound. Next the barrel link and pin were fit in a way to avoid the barrel riding the link, making contact only with the slide stop. The rest of day 2 was spent cutting the feed ramp to the proper depth and length and cutting the barrel back to provide the necessary 1/32 inch gap between the bottom of the barrel throat and the feed ramp. I was uneasy during this operation as I've been taught that to maintain a 31.5 degree angle and .400 inch length on the feed ramp really requires a milling machine; nevertheless with care I was able to maintain these dimensions closely if not precisely with a file. Throughout the week if I was performing an operation I was uncomfortable with I'd frequently check my work with Larry to get his blessing before proceeding to the next step. The day concluded polishing the feed ramp, slightly throating the barrel and polishing the barrel mouth after breaking the area between the barrel mouth and chamber.
On day 3 we fitted Wilson beavertail grip safeties which was fairly straightforward using the Wilson jig. We belt sanded the majority of material off and filed, used emery cloth and lapped the part to a finished fit. We adjusted the nose of the grip safety to clear the trigger bow after about 1/3 of grip safety travel. I used John Harrison's grip safety fitting tool to maintain the grip safety in the engaged position during blending of the top frame tangs as I prefer that aesthetically. The remainder of the day was spent fitting the mag catch and modifying it to prevent mag trapping and ease mag
insertion.
Day 4 was spent installing the plunger tube, ejector, sights and thumb safety; again fairly straightforward. Larry likes to loc tite the plunger tube and ejector after slightly heating the area to promote wicking of the loc tite between the parts. We cut the nose of the ejector back and to the right. Thumb safeties were modified to prevent accidental engagement during weak hand firing.
Day 5 morning we fitted hammer, sear, disconnector, firing pin stop, and extractors. We did not modify the sears or hammer hooks; these were Wilson parts and Larry feels they are pretty good to go as is. I'll cut my hammer hooks to .018 inches and hit the surfaces with a ruby stone during final tweaking. There was nothing extraordinary with the extractors, just the usual relief cuts and polishing, he recommended about 4lbs of pressure on the extractor tension. We then headed to the range and put the guns through a series of function testing and zeroed sights for elevation by shooting and then filing down the front sight accordingly.. I seem to remember some of the guys having maybe some minor ejection issues but mine functioned flawlessly. On day 6 we reviewed the week, took pictures, etc. It should be noted that not all of us worked at the same pace and a lot of cosmetic work like dehorning, polishing outside surfaces and bead blasting was done while people caught up.
My overall impression of the class was very good. I really liked Larry's relaxed teaching style and the class reinforced some concepts that I've been exposed to in the past. His knowledge of 1911 pistolsmithing and all of the little tricks and nuances he conveyed were very worthwhile for me. I took Cylinder and Slide's 1911 class years ago and the information from both presented different techniques that when combined will enhance my approach to building a top quality pistol. It was great for me on a personal level to make contacts with some of the other guys who are in the industry as it is my goal to launch my own custom 1911 shop in the near future. I can't thank Steve Bender enough who was a helpful and gracious host for the class. He is a top notch gunsmith and I was very impressed with his ammunition manufacturing operation. As a class we enjoyed evenings at dinner swapping experiences and insights regarding all manner of firearms related information. The fact that the class was documented for a future Tac Tv episode was just icing on the cake. It was a very satisfying week of instruction, stimulating conversation and Florida sun.
Regards,
Mark
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Originally Posted by averycustom
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