Order of Fit: slide, frame, barrel & bushing

[Shorts]

Don't judge, I doubt it was a fire.

I bought it new from Colt. This one slipped past QC.

Kidding, it's 20+ years old, so yeah, the blue is a little worn. I bought it from another forum member who was selling as it wasn't looking like he was getting to his project.

Let this be a lesson to you people who think cleaning and lubing your gun doesn't matter. It may not matter tomorrow, or next week, but years down the line, it does.

Anyhow, the gun isn't suppose to look pretty yet. I've worked in the garage enough to know that things take building, cutting, and scratching and then getting a good painting before they look good. I'm sure there are some that can keep a gun absolutely flawless while doing work. But this wasn't starting from pretty pieces. Function first, then looks.

[Dave Sample]

Here is what I am trying to say, Shorts. These are a 45 type ejecetor and a 38/9mm ejector. Look at the pictures and you will see how they do a 9mm ejector.





This is a 38/9mm ejector in a race gun. Look at how the firing pin stop is relieved for the hammer and the ejector.



This is a 45 ACP ejector in place.



The rear view of both guns.



Here they are again nose to nose. I think you have a 9mm slide with a 45 ejector cut. Typical of Essex arms. Maybe not. Who knows at this point.

[Shorts]

ok. But what can or should I do about it if the gun is functioning fine?

[Shorts]

Tonight I did a little work filing the rear of the slide. I'm tired of it sitting around unfinished. I had to do these areas:




So, I got my trusty file and went to work. Here's the results:




I also decided to do a little dehorning job (not pictured). I figured what the heck. I don't really like the "melted" look. I think it makes the pistol look sloppy, so I kept the filing pretty conservative. Just enough to take the sting out of the rear of the slide coming back and biting skin.

[N.M. Edmands]

Shorts, Please don't take offense, but you are becoming 1 damned fine "Pistol Wench"

[Shorts]

lol thanks No offense taken, I've been a grease monkey too

[Dave Sample]

I said from the start that the 45 ejector might work and that I hoped it would. You have done a great job, Shorts. Please try to understand that I am a nit picker and was where you are at a good many years ago. This has been a wonderful thread and contains many great posts.

I think you have made your dream come true.

[Eghad]

This thread is addictive like a soap opera but with pistols

[Dave Sample]

"Pistol Wench" What about that , Shorts? It has a real nice ring to it. I think I like it!

[AZta2guy]

Shorts, Think of this cco of yours as the ugly duck... soon it will grow into it's own and be the beautiful swan you had visioned.

Aim straight and have fun
Jon

[Shorts]

I hate to burst the good name bubble, and there have been some appropriate suggestions, but I have refinished the gun.

Post acid bath:



Bathed, prepped and ready to be hot water dipped:



Post park/WD40/reoil treatment:




Last night I mildly dehorned the slide and sanded it. Today I went ahead and dipped both the slide and frame in the 50/50 muriatic acid and water to clear the blue. I then sanded the frame and slide (again) with 100grit paper. As you can see, I didn't do a primo job sanding. I can live with that. If the finish craps out, I'll redo it. Anyhow, I used my home park method I've been tootling with. So, the gun is now nice and dark and doesn't look as if it's been in a fire anymore. Is that better???

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the controls and buttons. I thought about parking them with this batch, but I was more concerned about getting these two prepped and parked together for uniformity. I'm either going to reblue the controls, or I'm going to strip them and park them. I'm not concerned with the park coming out a different shade. Since they are all buttons, they'd be matching to each other and would end up being a subtle 'touch'.

[Shorts]

For comparison sake here's The Thing next to the GI. Sorry about the flash.




What do I need to do to install the Novak sights? The rear has the little set screw, so I think a little loctite on that once I get the gun sightd straight at the range. But first, how do I finish the front? The sight has a little hole and it came with a little crush sleeve. What do I need to do to set that?

[XavierBreath]

That's looking mighty fine Shorts! Note to self: I gotta learn to do parkerizing!

[Shorts]

Thanks. Parking has been fun (and frustrating) to figure out. But, like any recipe, once you get it down, it'll come out alright.

I reblued the pins and the barrel bushing last night, as well as the grip safety, MSH and thumb safety but theycame out looking ugly. So I'm going to strip and park them today. That outta ake care of them for a while.

[Dave Sample]

That front sight has a hole in it and you should center it and drill a 1/16th inch hole through the slide and then smack that roll pin in after you loc-tite the dovetail and get it centered. A small drill press should be a help in this task. After you have the pin in, you can blend in the underneath with a sanding drum where it sticks through the slide in the Bushing Area.On rear sight with set screws, I use to sight them in and then make a mark in the center of the set screw hole, knock the sight out, and drill a small hole in the dovetail with a center drill and then set the screw a little deeper when I put it in for the last time. We do not have to do that with the Online 1911'a because the sight cuts are not generic and each cut is perfect for that particular sight. They are very tight and we install the roll pin when they are cut They do not move after we get them done.

Nice work on the finish, Shorts. It is nice and black.

[Shorts]

K, I'll get things lined up for the sights. Thanks for the procedure.

Well, tonight I went ahead and parked the grip safety, thumb safety and MSH. Then I reassembled the gun and here it is. The sights are standing in for photo ops, but, this is it.






On a side note, I just got word yesterday that we did recieve verbals for the Japan orders we've been hoping for. I think our move will be slated for the Dec/Jan time frame. So, I'll just have the coming months to get all the shooting in that I can. Firearms are prohibited in Japan so ours will be sent to live with my folks. I've been wanting to get Dad a CZ75B, but in the meantime, he can make do with our stash.

[XavierBreath]

we did recieve verbals for the Japan orders we've been hoping for.

Saronara Shorts! Do keep in touch and tell us how much you are loving it!

I hate to be the one to mention this, but don't you think your pistol deserves a fitted grip safety? I certainly do! Other than that, it is really looking good! I'm glad you didn't go with the spotted look of stainless small parts.

[Shorts]

lol Thanks

Yeah, I left that grip safety there that came with the gun. I originally slated a BT, but when I got this, I decided it would do. Not the prettiest, but its alright. I'm not even using the new hammer and sear I ordered because I got the original set feeling pretty good. I might try those for a little kick in the pants 'new'.

I think later down the road I might end up redoing some things. For now though, this should be a decent shooter that won't rust away in the closet. This gun is staying with me, never to be traded or sold (as if anyone would wanna chance it)

[dale taylor]

It's picky, picky to critisize Shorts work. She did great. Photos were superb! I learned a lot from this thread. I hope she does another project with photography. [email protected]

[Shorts]

I guess it is done done. I installed the sights yesterday. It went pretty quick. I slid the sight in and marked the hole and pressed a little divot for the bit. I didn't want to drill through the sight and widen up the hole any, so I removed it. I don't have a drill press so just used the hand drill and some careful pointing A little oil dabbed on there too for good measure. Once it was done, I set the sight in with some Loctite, let it dry, then punched in the crush sleeve, a little Loctite too. The rear is just sitting in there with the set screw until I sight it in.

I'll see if I can get out to the range today or tomorrow. Time's getting tight as I leave for Japan on Tuesday, so I might not get out there until after the trip.

Again, thanks everybody for the help and patience

[Dave Sample]

I hate these kind of endings. Sayonora from No Habba Hair Boy San, Shorts. I was very big in the Land Of The Rising Suns 50 + years ago.

[Shorts]

Sweet

[Unclenick]

Shorts,

Sorry to miss out on most of the end of this. I’ve been working out of the country and had limited time for Internet access.

Several observations and questions:

The apparent double-strike on the case primer looks to me more like a ding caused by the spinning case hitting something on its way out. The photo appears to show cratering and coloring of the small dent not matched to the firing pin nose. This could just be angles and light fooling me, but I would look for a little brass coloring on the corner of the ejection port where the hood channel meets open air.

On the other hand, if it actually is a firing pin double-strike, then a new firing pin spring may be in order. I would try stretching the original a little until you see this behavior stop, but still don’t incur any misfires. If you have lightened the mainspring any, that also may put an end to it.

Since I haven’t ever played with an Essex 9mm slide, I am curious to learn how it fit originally? I know from the posts that you lapped it in place, but since your photos don’t show any sign of the rails being lowered, I wondered if it were possible that only the horizontal fit of the slide and frame had been achieved, but not the vertical? The way to tell is by having the slide and frame together alone (no barrel or links or springs to create tension) and slipping feeler gauges into the space between the slide and the frame along the bottom edge of the slide above the grips. You shouldn’t be able to slip anything bigger than two or three thousandths in there on a newly tightened gun. If you can, it partly explains why you need such a long link. Lowering the slide will shorten the link length requirement by an equal amount and give you slightly better consistency in lock-up.

You commented about having some cases climb your arm on ejection. This is generally because the case is struck by the recoiling slide on its way out the chute, imparting rearward momentum to it. This can happen for a couple of reasons I’m familiar with: the ejector is too long or the recoil spring is too light. The long ejector causes the case to start out of the extractor while the slide is still moving very quickly to the rear. This, in turn, causes the case to tend to spin rapidly. As it leaves the extractor hook, the rotational axis shifts location from a line perpendicular to one between the hook and the ejector impact point to the center of mass of the case on a parallel axis. This speeds the spin up like a skater pulling her arms in on a spin. If the rotational velocity is great enough, this can cause the case mouth to whip around and smack up against the slide port before it clears the gun. You can tell if this is happening both by brass marks on the slide at the front edge of the ejection port, by marks on the cases that jump back at you, and by having a friend watch cases come out and tell you whether they are spinning lazily or whizzing rapidly? The later is a sign of this issue. Setting the ejector nose back a little causes ejection to commence when the slide’s rearward motion has been a little further retarded by the recoil spring, thus slowing the whole event down, and allowing less rearward momentum to be imparted to a struck case. A stiffer recoil spring will also slow things down at the point of ejection.

A third method of mitigating this problem is to reshape the ejector nose, causing it to contact the case low and outside (see right-hand ejector in the illustration). This imparts spin a little further from the pivot at the extractor hook. The result is a lower spin rate and also causes the case to head out at a slightly higher angle off the horizontal. The only concern I have with doing this in your project is that your .45 ejector may already be hitting the smaller case radius on its inner upper corner alone. You could tell by applying some magic marker to the ejector nose before firing, and see where it cleans off? Anything you reshape outside that area won’t count. This situation would already be giving a minimum spin rate for the slide’s rearward velocity, but hitting too high for best ejection trajectory. If so, getting someone with a milling machine to open the ejector tunnel up for the type of .38 / 9 mm ejector Dave showed in earlier pictures may be the best cure. More work, though.

A last question: Whose parkerizing chemistry are you using? Is it the Shooter’s Solutions manganese base chemistry? I have purchased a sample, but have yet to try that product. I noticed in the pictures that your result had a lot of sheen, but that can be fresh oil. If, on the other hand, the solution has not etched as much of a matte finish as you expected (even without blasting), try using it up near the peak of its recommended temperature range. This causes conventional parkerizing solutions to etch more aggressively and leave a rougher matte surface finish. I assume this would be true with other variants as well, but you would have to try it on a test piece.

After illustrating the bushing lug scraping, I started to create a complete virtual 1911. I’ll post the results if you aren’t in Japan by then. If you are, then, jōdeki, to sayonara!

Nick

[Unclenick]

Shorts,

P.S.

How about calling your beast the .38 Super Short(s)?

Nick

[Shorts]

Hey Unclenick, good to hear from you. I'm fixing to head out for Japan early Tuesday morning, so I'm taking a look at this now, in lew of packing I hate packing.

Super Shorts, reminds me of the nickname the guys on the offroad forum gave me/my truck. That was S.S Shorts (S.S. = Super Squirrel, don't ask me where that came from).

The way to tell is by having the slide and frame together alone (no barrel or links or springs to create tension) and slipping feeler gauges into the space between the slide and the frame along the bottom edge of the slide above the grips. You shouldn’t be able to slip anything bigger than two or three thousandths in there on a newly tightened gun. If you can, it partly explains why you need such a long link. Lowering the slide will shorten the link length requirement by an equal amount and give you slightly better consistency in lock-up.

I just checked this with feeler guages, slide and frame only. The .003" fits, .004" is tight and .005" doesn't fit (geez, "you could drive a truck through that hole", in the words of my old marching band instructor). Before the "nerd!" comments begin, I wasn't in band, I was a drummer

There is no vertical movement between the slide and frame if I grab the two and try to giggle them. I was looking through pics to see where the slide and frame were lapped to each other, but no luck. I reparked the gun so it's harder to tell.

As for the brass on the edge of the slide, I'll have to check at next range session. I cleaned the gun from Friday's outting. I didn't notice any brass dust arond the ejection port, but I wasn't looking too close for it either. Looking at the location of the ding compared to the extractor mark, the dings are centered above the FP strike, although not all cases have them. And the oneshat do, some are more prominent than others.

The cases up my arms, I'll watch that next time out as well. All the spent cases were landing pretty consistent to my 5oclock about 6' away. I noticed picking up brass that they weren't scattered around.

Ok, I have completely lost my train of focus between that last paragraph and this, my husband just called. Anyhow, Unclenick, thanks for the input. Please keep it coming.

Edit: Parkerizing. I actually used a homebrew I had been messing with (H2O, Phosphoric acid, manganese dioxide and steel wool). The pics look pretty shiny. After removed from the solution and a hot water rinse, they were doused in WD40, then toweled off and slathered in gun oil to sit overnight. The frame came out great, better than the slide. I used 100grit paper. The 120 was a little too smooth. Anything more course than 100 would be scratching A few areas came out smooth park, and I actually like that finish. Parts that weren't touched with any paper, like the rails and inside the mags well.