Fitted an Ed Brown thumb safety and slide stop this weekend...
After doing a fair amount of research and studying some illustrative how-to photographs, I successfully fit a Ed Brown tactical thumb safety to my Colt Combat Elite this weekend. I'll start by saying that I was pretty sure I was going to screw it up. The Ed Brown part fit the frame window and required only a little filling for smooth rotation. Once I reinstalled the disconnector, sear, and hammer, I held the safety in place and scribed the lug where it contacted the sear. Then I began to slowly file in a notch using a flat, square edge diamond needle file.
The original Colt safety was as-cast with no hand fitting, so it was not much help as a guide; the face of the lug that blocks the sear was rounded and blended smoothly into the rest of the lug. I removed metal a few file-strokes at a time and after about 15 minutes I could get the safety to install but not rotate to safe. I then began to adjust the angle of the face until I got a tight, interference fit with the sear. Then I proceeded to adjust and smooth the edges and the angle of the face until I got a positive engagement *without* the plunger in place. Checked for zero sear movement, finished up the rough edges, checked for zero sear movement *again*, and put it back together. It took about hour and half total.
The best thing is, the safety now engages with a positive, nearly interference fit. It actually "clicks" on safe without the spring plunger installed. The Colt safety, OTOH, just flops around without the plunger in place. This makes the engagement and disengagement of the safety much more positive, and yet it feels like it takes less effort. In short, it feels great!
I also installed an Ed Brown Hardcore slide stop, which actually required quite a bit of filing on the slide lock lug to fit properly (the lug was so tall that it bound on the edge of the slide) and an Ed Brown G.I. recoil assembly. My Combat Elite is better than ever and I get the satisfaction of making the improvement myself!
After doing a fair amount of research and studying some illustrative how-to photographs, I successfully fit a Ed Brown tactical thumb safety to my Colt Combat Elite this weekend. I'll start by saying that I was pretty sure I was going to screw it up. The Ed Brown part fit the frame window and required only a little filling for smooth rotation. Once I reinstalled the disconnector, sear, and hammer, I held the safety in place and scribed the lug where it contacted the sear. Then I began to slowly file in a notch using a flat, square edge diamond needle file.
The original Colt safety was as-cast with no hand fitting, so it was not much help as a guide; the face of the lug that blocks the sear was rounded and blended smoothly into the rest of the lug. I removed metal a few file-strokes at a time and after about 15 minutes I could get the safety to install but not rotate to safe. I then began to adjust the angle of the face until I got a tight, interference fit with the sear. Then I proceeded to adjust and smooth the edges and the angle of the face until I got a positive engagement *without* the plunger in place. Checked for zero sear movement, finished up the rough edges, checked for zero sear movement *again*, and put it back together. It took about hour and half total.
The best thing is, the safety now engages with a positive, nearly interference fit. It actually "clicks" on safe without the spring plunger installed. The Colt safety, OTOH, just flops around without the plunger in place. This makes the engagement and disengagement of the safety much more positive, and yet it feels like it takes less effort. In short, it feels great!
I also installed an Ed Brown Hardcore slide stop, which actually required quite a bit of filing on the slide lock lug to fit properly (the lug was so tall that it bound on the edge of the slide) and an Ed Brown G.I. recoil assembly. My Combat Elite is better than ever and I get the satisfaction of making the improvement myself!
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