Thinking of building a 1911

[BondageJaguar]

My father and i were looking at possibly building our own 1911 style handgun (they are expensive premade and don't carry the do-if-yourself satisfaction ) and The logical starting point seems to be a frame, easy enough right?

Well, I have a few questions before i spend my hard earned money on a frame. The first being what is the difference between a 'ramped' and 'non-ramped' frame? is it just a gimmick? do I need it ramped? what's the deal.

My next thought of course, is how much fitting will it take to assemble the parts into the frame? they should be fairly drop in if i'm not mistaken? on www.brownells.com a lot of the frames seem to carry the note 'needs minor fitting, or needs lapping, or worse yet requires gunsmith fitting, etc ,etc' Do these mean that the average joe who doesn't have a lot of metal working tools (got a shop full of wood working tools though ) won't be able to pick these up and put together a working gun without spending out the arse for tools?

Thanks in advance.

 

[stans]

Ramped indicates that the frame bridge has been milled away so that a barrel with an integral feed ramp and fully supported chamber can be installed. Non-ramped is the original 1911 style of barrel where the frame is the feed ramp and the barrel has some of the chamber support removed to facilitate feeding. For most calibers in the 1911, the ramped barrel is not really necessary and in 45 ACP it sometimes inhibits reliable operation. If you are building a 45 ACP, go with non-ramped. The ramped barrels are better for 38 Super if you are going to load them hot and the 40 S&W.

For fitting of frames, Caspian is the most common, but is frequently slightly oversized in the frame rails to facilitate getting a tight fit between the slide and frame. Essex GI frames tend to have a looser fit and may be more of a drop in type proposition. Building a 1911 may sometimes be a drop in project, but more often than not, it will require some fitting of parts.

I highly recommend Jerry Kuhnhausen's books on the 45 Automatic. If you have not read both volumes, do so before you start your 1911 project.

 

[Old Fuff]

Bondage J:

Building a 1911 style pistol is not a case of simply assembling "drop in" parts. If this was the case the many guns that are being made by "name" manufacturers these days would work, and in many cases they aren't. 1911 guns were designed and intended to be assembled by trained and experienced workmen, and when they were the guns worked fine. Do read the words "trained" and "experienced" again.

Does this mean that you shouldn't go ahead? No, not necessarily. But I suggest that you do two things first:

1. Download and print copies of 1911Tuner's many threads on the subject of the 1911 pistol.

2. Make a list of ALL the parts involved, then take a Brownell's catalog and add up the cost of all those parts. Follow Tuner's advice as to quality when picking lockwork. Saving money here will prove to be a mistake later. The total cost will get your attention unless you are picking sub-standard stuff.

Then if you still want to go ahead, do as previously advised and buy the manuals and books that were recommended.

A final hint: You can save a lot of time, money and effort if you buy one of the basic mil-spec Springfield Armory (recommended) or Colt pistols and then rebuild it by replacing certain parts as Tuner did. You will get some of the experience you want in gunbuilding without getting over your head.

 

[Chris Rhines]

I'm building a 1911 on an STI frame right now. So far, damn few of the parts have dropped in - almost everything has needed some fitting.

Not trying to scare you off, but building a 1911 is a lot of work (and I do have a lot of metalworking tools, although mostly I've been using files, india stones, Cratex polishing wheels, and abrasive paper.)

- Chris

 

[Bill Z]

There are quite a few routes you can take, none are cheap and you will never save money doing yourself. Now, if that's not an issue, I wholley encourage you to embark on the adventure.

Now, that being said, don't expect any drop-in parts to drop in, don't expect cheap parts to work, and don't even imagine it's a week-end project. Set your standards high and don't compromise on the quality of the materials or labor.

 

[Dave Sample]

Good Luck on your project. Plan on 100 to 150 hours and about $300.00 $500.00 worth of tools. Cost of quality parts (58) will be in the $1600.00 range. The shop manuals will not tell you how to build a 1911, but they do supply lots of useful information. There are many Roads To Rome. It is harder to make junk parts work than it is to fit the good ones.