1911 Front Sight Problems

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GaryK

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You guys have been a lot of help in getting my 1911 sorted out. I am the guy that had the Norinco with the long barrel link. I replaced it with the Wilson #3 link and oversized pin, per your suggestions. and it works fine now. I have another problem. This gun has MMC sights installed. The rear sight was installed correctly but the front one is screwed up. What they did was cut a flat on top of the slide before cutting the dovetail. This caused the front sight to be too low. I thought about buying a higher sight but the existing sight is a night site and the workmanship on the dovetail is poor. What can be done to correct this? Can the slide be welded and a new dovetail be cut? If so then who would you recommend to do this? Does anyone have any other ideas on how to fix this? Thanks.
 
Front Sight

Hey Gary,

Is the gun shooting high since the sight installation? If it is, a taller front sight or a shorter rear sight is the solution. On pistols with standard-type rear sights, I file the top of the sight blade and deepen the notch a little with a square Swiss pattern file. The best way to file the top of the sight is to lay a file on a table and draw the sight on it lengthwise, being careful to keep the slide squared with the table.
 
I fourth, or fifth, or sixth, hell, I lost count, Give Chuck a call, he's great to work with and is bailing me out on some custom sight work for a customer, this would be a piece of cake for him.
 
I thought you guys might enjoy some pictures.

laz1.JPG


laz2.JPG


laz4.JPG


Yep. That is JB weld epoxy at the front of the dovetail.
laz5.JPG


I don't think the smith quite understood how to install an MMC adjustable rear sight.
laz6.JPG
 
This is the original cut. It was done on a milling machine! :confused:
laz7.JPG


The original cut was not too deep or large to prevent a proper install.
laz8.JPG


Not very pretty under that front sight.
laz9.JPG


Welding up that entire front mess would have warped the slide bore and maybe have ruined the slide. So I milled a pocket removing all the previous work. Then I made up the 'dutchman', a close fitting piece to fill the pocket.
laz11.JPG
 
Just after brazing the dutchman in place using hi-temp silver-solder. Now it REALLY looks like a train wreck! :barf:
laz12.JPG


After bead-blasting it looks a bit better.
laz13.JPG


Rough milled.
laz14.JPG


After some file and sandpaper work! A clean canvas! :D
laz15.JPG
 
I was not able to mill the pocket as deep as I would have liked. Because of this faint lines of silver-solder can be seen thru the cold-blue.
laz16.JPG


Based on these pics he will make a decision on refinishing.
laz17.JPG
 
People who do not understand guns and cannot follow instructions really should not work on guns. That was a fantastic save on that slide and all that work was totally unnecessary had the gunsmith understood how to properly install the sights.
 
Train Wreck

Great save, Chuck!

A good toolmaker is worth his weight in 24K gold...yessir.

Dovetails are among the easiest cuts to screw up if one isn't
really focused on the task at hand. Repairing a bad dovetail
takes patience, skill, and patience.

Outstanding!

Tuner
 
Chuck's work is outstanding. He greatly exceeded my expectations. I am looking forward to getting the slide back and shooting the gun. You guys are a great help in my quest to become well versed on the operation of 1911's.
 
Chuck:

I thought the first pics were of YOUR work, and was wondering why you would want to show shoddy work like that. The next group showed the cure, which, by the way is superb.

Looking good, really nice work, great save.

870
 
I honestly believe that people who charge money for the type of work in the original pics need to be removed from the gene pool. I'm a software engineer and know how to properly cut a dovetail for Pete's sake! Heck, I've even done it!

Chuck,
That was a great save on something I would have though was fishing weight material.
 
Great Pictures of crap work from the first guy and another great SAVE from the Master's Hands. How anyone could have accepted this job from the first person is what is wrong with America. My Compliments on a great job of work, Chuck. That Norinco slide was worth saving, in my opinion.
 
:mad: :mad: :mad:
A rather sad update......
FedEx delivered the slide to the wrong address.
I had adequately insured the package, but foolishly signed the 'no signature required' box. According to the fine print, which I could not read at the FedEx office without my glasses, I gave up all rights to compensation.
The box was double labeled and contained a cover letter with contact info for both of us. The recipient has all info needed to return the package to its rightful owner. Hopefully Monday will bring glag tidings of recovery.
If not, I'm out the cost of slide, sights, fitting and shipping.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.:(
 
:mad: :mad: :mad:
A rather sad update......
FedEx delivered the slide to the wrong address.
I had adequately insured the package, but foolishly signed the 'no signature required' box. According to the fine print, which I could not read at the FedEx office without my glasses, I gave up all rights to compensation.
The box was double labeled and contained a cover letter with contact info for both of us. The recipient has all info needed to return the package to its rightful owner. Hopefully Monday will bring glag tidings of recovery.
If not, I'm out the cost of slide, sights, fitting and shipping.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.:(
 
The USPS lost a parts kit for the last Online Class and it showed up at the Air Force Acadamy 2 1/2 months later after being mailed to Nebraska.. I found out their insurance was no good and some other things I really did not want to know. Let's hope it went to an honest person and that they will do the right thing! I have not had any problem with Fed Ex so far, but tomorrow is amnother day and my last badly shattered marble is almost gone. Wishing you Good Luck on the outcome.
 
Ouch, I feel for you Chuck. I know we were talking the other day and you said you were waitng on Fed-Ex, I just thought they were late, not lost. I'm pulling for you on my end.
 
Chuck that's ashame, that was a great job at fixin' the butcher job....

Shipping services, they all suck, my boss sent a set of cyl heads thru UPS, they dropped 'em and the purchaser refused 'em and the driver threw 'em back in the truck... they were pretty beat up from abuse and they didn't honor their own insurance policy.

You can't trust anyone :rolleyes: .
 
Well, as Dave mentioned above, insurance through USPS is really bad. They only wanted to reimberse 300.00 on something they lost that was insured for 750.00 and retailed for over 1000.00 .

So far I have had good luck with Fed-Ex, but feel for Chuck's loss on this, hopefully the person they dropped it off with has some conscience.
 
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Lost Slide

Dayumm Chuck! Sorry man.

Somethin' like that happened to me once...One shop that I was
doin' the Travelin' Wilbury thing for a dealer who had a new part-time employee that actually sold a customer's gun to somebody else...They asked about a particular gun, and he told'em that there was one in the back. He brought it out with the repair tag still on it, and sold it to the guy! When they tracked it down...in a town 50 miles away, the buyer didnt want to part with it, and they wound up payin' 75 bucks over what he paid for the gun.
The legal owner was a bit miffed, since the gun was an early 60s LW Commander. He brought it in for a cleaning and checkup.

Hope your recipient is honest enough to return to sender...
 
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