Aluminum Glock frames?

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JeffG said:
If you don't like Glocks, buy something else.
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Already bought everything else. Certainly everything that has interested me. Ive had hundreds of handguns come and go over the years, and have now settled on 30 or so of my favorites. And while Ive shot the Glock, and shot them well, Ive never owned one.

Also, I like nearly everything about the Glock- except the frame material. But thanks for the advice.

Well, I think the short answer is nobody on THR has tried this yet, so I guess I will be the first. Ill let ya know how it goes.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
Well, I think the short answer is nobody on THR has tried this yet,
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Not possible. I don't buy it at all. Lol I'm guessing someone on here will stumble on to this thread that has one.
If its been on the market for a week there is at least one on thr in my experience.

But my prediction is it will be a nice feeling easily controllable gun but if you really use it a ton it will break. I'm guessing around the locking block. We will of course want to see it. What caliber/ size slide and recoil setup (single stock, over spring, dual spring? ) are you thinking about?
 
crestoncowboy said:
Not possible. I don't buy it at all. Lol I'm guessing someone on here will stumble on to this thread that has one.
If its been on the market for a week there is at least one on thr in my experience.

But my prediction is it will be a nice feeling easily controllable gun but if you really use it a ton it will break. I'm guessing around the locking block. We will of course want to see it. What caliber/ size slide and recoil setup (single stock, over spring, dual spring? ) are you thinking about?
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Plain Jane Gen 3 M17, 9mm. Dunno about the recoil spring- whatever comes with the donor gun to start with then upgrade later perhaps.

So, fun fact, its alot harder to actually get your hands on one of these frames than you would think. AF doesnt sell direct and their handful of distributers are either out of stock or their websites dont work. Ill try calling in the morning.

I also stumbled across CCF stainless steel frames, which got me all excited for a second, but they are apparently out of business.

Not a promising start.
 
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crestoncowboy said:
But you likely won't heat and cool your gun frame in thousands of cycles either. From freezing to hot to freezing. Day in day out...Nor run glycol or ethanol or..... lol
And that polymer is far harder and more brittle (and far more heat resistant) than any glock frame. Try to stipple a tunnel ram intake or thermostat housing with a soldering iron. Exponentially more steel car parts have failed than every other material known to man. Doesn't mean we can't trust a steel handgun frame. Has nothing to do with one another actually.

The rails on a glock are steel because they need to be. Mine are .060 inches (g22) and show no wear after many tens of thousands of rounds. My beretta 96 has aluminum rails .180 inches and have little wear after a few thousand. My 226 has aluminum rails that measure .115 and are known to be a main point of failure. Ive seen glocks fail, but other than kabooms it was never the polymer.

I like a stainless steel frame personally. No question. But with gen 1 glocks having hundreds of thousands of rounds and when they fail it's generally the slide, I can't see going and getting an unproven aluminum frame and calling it an upgrade. (even on a gun forum where guys have 10 korths and 7 pythons and 5 p7s. And an ac cobra trunk full of p210s.....there still isn't a line of people saying "I have one")



I'd at least want steel rails if I got one. Surely no one uses aluminum rails do they?The inner channel of a glock slide is .065 or so. so the rails are going to be very small. Half of what the Sig 226 has and even it has well documented weakness. And 249 bucks for a frame....my last 3 glocks were only 299 each.


Dolling up a Glock is the equivalent of putting a v8 in a pinto when buying a mustang or Camaro with a v8 in it would be cheaper and better, but that's just my opinion though.......and that 351 in that pinto didn't handle for crap and vibrated a bit but it sure was fun. Lol
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You have to think of it a little different. The guys that are building Polymer 80's and these aluminum frame guns are not out looking to save money. They want something different.
I could have bought a new Glock with the money I spent to build my Polymer 80, but it wouldn't have been as much fun. But then I went and bought the Glock 19X and the G45. Why? Because I wanted them.
If I decide to build one with an Alpha Foxtrot frame, the finished gun might end up costing me twice as much as a new Glock because, I might just go crazy. :D
This would be the barrel I would go with. It's only $180.
g17_v2_1.jpg
 
IMG_20190515_124616.jpg
crestoncowboy said:
Recoil gunworks, kings, and smokey mountain, have gen 3 glock 22 for 299 with night sights. Add a 9mm barrel might still be cheaper.
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Yeah, I got a like new Gen4 G22 with Glock night sights from Recoilgunworks for $319. May pick up a 357sig barrel for it, but right now, I’m enjoying shooting 40s&w. I have had a Gen3 G17 for a long time, and I am really liking the Gen4 grip texture and size (no backstrap).
If you want an aluminum frame Glock, go for it. As a person who has carried plenty of metal frames pistols like Hipower, 1911, Sig, and Beretta, I'm liking polymer just fine.
 
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GunnyUSMC said:
You have to think of it a little different
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Yeah, I know. That's why I referenced the v8 pinto. Lol. I've spent stupid amounts of money "because it's mine". I'm restoring two different classic trucks that will have as much money in them as buying a new one, and be far less useful. I get all that.

I was just saying that I bet the more rigid frame causes issues if used a lot, and that with the small rails, I would want steel rails for sure. It is an interesting project though.
 
@NIGHTLORD40K I say go for it, from a performance standpoint I made my initial comment of "I don't see the point" but I do think it would be cool to see where it leads. The aluminum frame that @GunnyUSMC posted on seems like a pretty good design. If the thumb cutouts work for the person buying it, meaning they are in the right placement for hand size it seems like it would be a comfortable grip to shoot.
 
Check out the Zev OZ9. It's basically a Glock with a metal receiver... the only polymer to my understanding is the grip... If you are that worried about polymer you could buy another relatively inexpensive grip as a back up and wait to see when and if that polymer grip cracks. I think you'd find the extra would go unused.

Though I tell myself I prefer metal framed pistols to polymer, the selection, utility and price of quality polymer options has led me to confidently carry and use them.
 
SCMikeyP said:
Check out the Zev OZ9. It's basically a Glock with a metal receiver... the only polymer to my understanding is the grip... If you are that worried about polymer you could buy another relatively inexpensive grip as a back up and wait to see when and if that polymer grip cracks. I think you'd find the extra would go unused.

Though I tell myself I prefer metal framed pistols to polymer, the selection, utility and price of quality polymer options has led me to confidently carry and use them.
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Thats interesting, more of a hybrid design.

I think if Im going in, Im goin all the way! Im goin to try the frame first, then replace all the small poly bits with billet, ya!:D
 
ATLDave said:
FWIW, I don’t particularly like Glocks and don’t own one. Would sell one if given to me.
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Mizar, my post was prompted by the above comment. I probably should have worded it better but still, here and on other forums some people just can't miss telling everyone how much they hate even the idea of a Glock. It gets tiresome.

And for the record I have a couple Glocks in 45 ACP, but only because my arthritic hands can't shoot my beloved 1911s anymore and the wide, plastic Glock frame is easier on my swollen knuckles and stiff fingers.

Dave
 
Dave T said:
Mizar, my post was prompted by the above comment. I probably should have worded it better but still, here and on other forums some people just can't miss telling everyone how much they hate even the idea of a Glock. It gets tiresome.
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And, as I explained above, the point of that line wasn't to express hate or disdain for Glocks, merely to dispel any notion that my don't-mess-with-the-fundamental-design reaction wasn't because I think Glocks are perfect.

Glocks are highly functional, and I have absolutely no illusion that my personal tastes for or against them have any great significance.
 
Dave T said:
Mizar, my post was prompted by the above comment. I probably should have worded it better but still, here and on other forums some people just can't miss telling everyone how much they hate even the idea of a Glock. It gets tiresome.
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ATLDave is a fine gentleman with plenty of knowledge and experience - even if we don't agree with what he is saying, we should at least respect his opinion. Actually, this thread is going smoothly and well mannered - I say that this fact alone deserves a toast! Cheers, my fine fellows!
 
Mizar said:
say that this fact alone deserves a toast! Cheers, my fine fellows!
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Agreed. I'm looking forward to a build. Still curious about spring rate too. I'd bet that with the lack of frame flex, one will need to overspring a gen 3.

I always think it's funny how some people think of polymer as cheap when some guns (five-seven, HK USP etc) are not exactly budget guns. Glock isn't my favorite gun. But the simple design, reliability that rivals anything made, and low price.....make it a pretty solid option IMO. everyone says "Glock wasnt the first". And it's true HK came before and even the Russians experimented before that. But with HK pricing polymer wouldn't be the mainstay today. Glock, Like Henry Ford, made the best choices in manufacturing and simple design, and that's where the success stemmed from. IMO
 
ATLDave said:
It wouldn’t surprise me if Glock internals may need the bit of slop/flex that polymer provides to work correctly. The point of a frame is to hold other parts in the correct relation to one another and guide their relative motion. If you change from a rather flexible hold to a rigid one, you might have problems. Or maybe not.
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It is true that all guns flex. Many shooters have no idea just how much, the high-speed videos often come as a surprise.

I think that in this regard the difference between the plastic frame and metal frame Kahr pistols are rather instructive, although it should be noted that steel-frame Kahrs predate their plastic versions. The metal frame Kahrs have rather standard rails, same you find on a 1911. The plastic frame Kahrs have front rails all the way in front, in the dust cover. The shapes around the cross-pins differ too.

One other instructive example is the plastic AR-15. Every time someone tries to make plastic lower for AR-15 by copying the original in plastic, it cracks, and always in the same place. But GWACS lowers are very durable (at the cost of disposing of the collapsible stock). This is an example of a necessary change in the design, when switching to plastic.

In pistols, Browning replaced the aluminum frame with a plastic frame in their 1911-22. But that is a low impact application. Their product didn't have to deal with as much stress as a 9mm pistol would.

The Walther Q5 SF is the only gun that I know that was converted from plastic to steel, and not vice versa.
 
GunnyUSMC said:
I understand that some don’t care for polymer frame guns. Most that don’t care for then are older guys.
What I have never understood are the haters. For some reason they feel compelled to let everyone know that they hate this or that, like it’s going to change how people feel.
I’m not talking just about Glock haters. There are haters for just about every gun on the market.
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Very true, can't understand the Glock hate. I'm older and was thrilled to replace a 5 shot Chief with a Glock 26 when we transitioned over.

What really got me was the absolute hate we discovered here when talking about the new Ruger Wrangler vs. the Heritage Rough Rider. Thankfully, that's died down.
 
NIGHTLORD40K said:
I was kinda hoping Gunny had already built one, lol.:D

This one looks the best to me too. Im going to visit my LGS tomorrow and see if he has a cheap "cosmetically challenged" G17 donor gun to base my build on. Ill keep y'all posted.
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Aren't they all "cosmetically challenged"? I thought that was the source of their appeal.
 
Glocks are good guns. It's also true that many enjoy playing with them as much as folks play with 1911s and CZs, etc. By playing I mean colored slides, new finishes, skeletonized and ported slides, custom frames, etc.

Folks do the same with vehicles, skateboards, their collection of Barbies and more.

Nothing wrong with that.
 
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To the point of what people like and don’t like... I’m open minded but have yet to find a polymer gun I like. I understand why though and I haven’t yet found a company making a gun that I like that avoids the issue. I dislike the aesthetics of a plain gun, and one big molded hunk of plastic with a few metal bits in it and a metal slide painted the same color is very plain. I also dislike the feel of most factory guns because I have oddly built hands. Big bones and fat palms. If somebody would make a decent gun with a polymer frame that had somewhat traditional replaceable grip panels then i would try it. What I have seen that I would consider are overpriced 1911s (I prefer the traditional build) and Ruger LCR which is a different grip. An aluminum framed Glock is actually appealing to me, but it is cost prohibitive... the only Glock I would consider is a 40. I can get essentially what I want in a Witness for 1/3 that price (and I should go ahead and do it but I have other stuff to spend money on)
 
So I found a G19 donor gun today, which will work out nicely since the only FA frames anyone has jn stock are the new G19-compatible compact ones.

Paid $350 as its an old Austrian-made Gen 2 with some damage to the bottom of the magwell- perfect for my purposes since Im chucking the frame anyway and I like avoiding the MIM guts of the newish Glocks.:D

Now the FA frame comes with the locking block, but not the trigger group. Anybody know if the Gen 2 TG will fit a Gen 3 frame? If not, I dont think this is insurmountable, since I planned on getting a billet trigger anyway......
 
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