The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - So my buddy is going to manufacture 1911's

buckhorn_cortez · January 10, 2013, 08:23 PM

Talk with him about buying a completely unfinished Caspian slide and frame. Get the slide in .45 and the frame as a .38., also buy a Kart match barrel.

Buy a grip safety from Brown, Wilson, etc. the new magwell / mainspring housing from Nighthawk, and extractor, thumb safety, slide release, barrel bushing, barrel link, trigger parts from Wilson, EGW, etc.

Then he can machine the rails on the frame and slide to fit, throat the .38 frame to .45, fit the barrel to the slide, fit all of the other parts and see how much work there is in manufacturing a 1911 without starting with billets and trying to machine everything to match prints.

It would certainly give him the opportunity to find out how much work is involved without starting totally from scratch. It will also help him develop the fixtures needed to hold the parts and he will also find out the tooling needed.

He may be grossly under estimating the amount of work, tooling, fixtures, etc. required. This approach would let him produce one with a moderate investement just to get a feel for what he would need for full production.

January 10, 2013, 08:23 PM	#11
buckhorn_cortez Senior Member Join Date: July 30, 2010 Posts: 857	Talk with him about buying a completely unfinished Caspian slide and frame. Get the slide in .45 and the frame as a .38., also buy a Kart match barrel. Buy a grip safety from Brown, Wilson, etc. the new magwell / mainspring housing from Nighthawk, and extractor, thumb safety, slide release, barrel bushing, barrel link, trigger parts from Wilson, EGW, etc. Then he can machine the rails on the frame and slide to fit, throat the .38 frame to .45, fit the barrel to the slide, fit all of the other parts and see how much work there is in manufacturing a 1911 without starting with billets and trying to machine everything to match prints. It would certainly give him the opportunity to find out how much work is involved without starting totally from scratch. It will also help him develop the fixtures needed to hold the parts and he will also find out the tooling needed. He may be grossly under estimating the amount of work, tooling, fixtures, etc. required. This approach would let him produce one with a moderate investement just to get a feel for what he would need for full production. Last edited by buckhorn_cortez; January 10, 2013 at 08:30 PM.