Logistics and other Bugs
Dobe...Good points, and if I do understand logistics headaches. I was
a Marine Rifleman in Vietnam and worked in the manufacturing industry
for years. I'm a toolmaker by trade. I'm also a pistolsmith.
Ordnance-spec 1911's are, and have been for years...assembled
with select-fit, drop-in parts...no high level of skill required. It
all started with the high demand for guns just before the outset of
WW2, when the engineers determined that the 1911 could function
with looser tolerances than the hand-assembled and fitted pistols
prior to that era.
As it stands today, all or most of the parts that I mentioned aren't
made in-house by Colt. (or Kimber, or Springfield Armory) They are
contracted out to different suppliers, and are provided by the lowest
bidder. Colt hasn't even made its own magazines in nearly 20 years.
They are provided by Metalform.
I maintain that if a low-cost, MIM or investment cast small part made in
a different location can be made within spec, so can a high-grade steel
part. If a spring steel extractor,say...cost Joe Average 25 bucks a copy
ordered one at a time, that cost could be on the order of 15 dollars
when a contract for 10,000 extractors is bartered for.
I recently underwent a project with my ex-wife's oldest son. He came to
me to ask about building a Commander, and I countered with an offer
to build two...One for me and one for him. I built one while he watched,
and he built his while I guided. Both were built on Essex slides and
frames, mainly for the sake of economy, since he's on a fairly tight
budget. Both pistols are no-frill on the outside, all business on the
inside. Both guns required some hand-fitting in certain areas, but
most of the time was spent on cutting the 5-inch Springfield barrels
down and reshaping the lower barrel lugs to work in the short slides.
Basic prep on the trigger group, with a little attention to detail on
the sears and hammer hooks produced two very nice pistols that
hit the ground running, and will shoot tighter than all but a Distinguished
Expert can appreciate without a sandbag rest. Both pistols required
about 15 hours, total time involved. If we had been able to have
access to a large number of ordnance-spec parts to select-fit, that
could have been cut down to 5 hours, including the time spent
on the lathe for the barrel redesign, and hand-shaping the lower lugs
with files. Time was also spent fitting the King's trigger to his frame.
I used a stock Colt trigger for mine...A drop-in.
The total cost was less than 600 bucks a copy...and remember that all
parts were purchased as a one-item order from Brownell's. Mass-production would have brought that figure down to a little over
half that. Add machined steel slides and frames, and the cost would
have been back up to about 500 dollars...again assuming mass-production.
A 250-300 dollar profit margin per unit would be acceptable from a bean-counter's standpoint, albeit maybe a little lower than a gun assembled with
Molded in Pressed Beer Cans small parts. Colt already uses machined
barstock slide stops, thumb safeties, hammers, and they have recently
returned to steel barstock extractors, so the cost wouldn't be off the
scale to add the sear, barrel bushing, grip safety, hammer strut, and firing pin stop. Retail price on such a pistol would be in the 750-800 dollar
range, and it would be fully the equal of an "Old Colt".
It's doable. Colt...If you build it, they will come.
Cheers!
Tuner
