S&A magwell Not Quite flush...

[Rick O'Shea]

Howdy folks,

I've just put a Smith & Alexander mainspring housing magwell on my Springer GI, and am generally very pleased.
I must say this: when I ordered my matching grips over the phone from S&A, they could not have been more friendly, and went above and beyond to make me happy. Really a quality organization.

The problem?
The magwell is a hair short of the bottom of the frame. Maybe 1/32". Magazines load smoothly (after some minor blending), and part of me says leave well enough alone.

But...
You can hold the gun up and see a crack of light between the magwell and the frame, and you can see the slight gap at the area where the two should blend together.

This bugs me.

So what to do?

The only two things I can think of are to fabricate a spacer/shim to put in the gap, or... ( ) try to redrill and shim the mainspring housing retaining pin hole to move the whole unit up the proper amount.

(Caveat: I am a kitchen-table gunsmith at best; I am not a machinist and do not have anything resembling precision drilling/milling tools.)

Anyone have any better ideas?

Before you mention it, I have read BlindHogg's tutorial on fitting these magwells, but the angle on mine is perfect - the gap is absolutely uniform. I do not see the situation being resolved by his method.

I am open to any and all suggestions, however.
Help me THR gun gurus!

Thanks in advance,
Rick

 

[Jim Watson]

I am not a machinist

Leave it alone.
That is a weld and mill operation to fix.

 

[Kman]

I second Jim's thoughts, the proper grips will hide this slight gap. I've done a few of these magwell/spring housings, and SA makes the best one available, sometimes you have a gap, though very slight, yours sounds to be a bit larger than normal.

 

[Onmilo]

Does the magazine well fit tight at the base pin and is gapping towards the front or does this gap extend the whole length of the bottom?

If the gap extends the whole length back to front, the frame or the magwell are misdimensioned, not likely the magwell because S&A are extremely precise in their dimensioning.
It may be that the hammer spring housing pin is too small a diameter for the frame holes.
This coupled with a strong hammer spring will push a hammer spring housing down away from the frame.
Try a brand new Colt Hammer spring housing pin and see if this allows the housing to fully bottom out.
You may be able to clearance file the top of the hammer spring housing and replace the hammer spring housing detent with a shorter one or reduce the length of the spring shelf on the original spring detent, no more than .003" should do the trick, and this may also allow the housing to fully bottom out in the frame

If just the front of the magwell is producing a gap this is generally due to stress relief in the part after machining.
This gapping can be eliminated with a 6 ounce brass hammer and a bit of judicious tapping.

Once the gap is eliminated you may need to dress the magazine slot with a file and stones to blend the two edges and then polish and add some final finish coloring if it is carbon steel.
Stainless S&As can be polished to a mirror finish if desired.

Every S&A magwell I have ever installed, and I have installed a mess of them, have required a small amount of final fitting, they are not perfect drop in parts though they casn be used as such if the owners doesn't mind slight imperfections in fitting.

 

[Rick O'Shea]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

The gap is uniform along its length, so I don't think tapping and bending will be a solution.

The magazine slot has already been filed and blended. Mags insert beautifully; there's just this slight visible gap...

I have a couple of 1911 pin sets from good aftermarket manufacturers (Wilson, Cylinder & Slide), so I may see if their pin has a higher-tolerance fit than the stock pin I'm using now.

Thanks again to all for their input,
Rick