Weld 1911 slide rails

[KY DAN]

I have a Springfield 1911 nm prefix serial frame. It's lose and I want too tig weld the front .375 and rear of the frame rails and once done machine with a mill to the thickness of Slide rail and finish lap.

What is your thoughts on this?

I am building a accurate range pistol and will fit a match barrel after frame is tigtened

 

[Jim Watson]

It is being done. Mostly by custom gunsmiths whose customers want their showpiece guns tight and smooth as well as pretty.
I don't know the application to target pistols.
So you can if you can, so to speak.
I have seen pictures, the welds are tiny, they are not laying down a heavy bead and doing a lot of remachining.

 

[BBBBill]

Pullman Arms is highly regarded by many for their welding. Numerous pros send their welding jobs to them. They do Micro TIG and laser welding as well. It would make for better appearance and much easier cleanup to have them do it unless you are very skilled.

Pullman Arms
33 Pullman St.
Worcester, MA 01606
{ t } 508.926.8730
{ f } 508.853.0843
email: [email protected]
gunsmith email: [email protected]

 

[Texas10mm]

Slide to frame fit is way overrated.

 

[BBBBill]

Slide to frame fit is way overrated.

Depends on how loose, how out of spec, and how much accuracy you are willing to spend the time, effort, and money to get. Any top shelf bullseye gun will have perfectly fit slide and frame rails. No top tier bullseye smith will build a gun that doesn't have a perfectly fit slide and frame. As the OP stated -

I am building a accurate range pistol and will fit a match barrel after frame is tigtened

 

[jmorris]

I have welded and re machined things for a better fit lots of times.

1911/2011 frame/slide fit, I have used the hammer method before but generally start with new parts and machine and lap them together until I get what I want.

Then there is the acc-u-rail. http://www.acc-u-rail.com/

If I didn’t have the ability to do the work myself, I wouldn’t have paid people to fix the problems I have, in many cases.

In the end, I would have had something that was right but not worth the money I put into it. I would have instead, sold the item I didn’t want and go buy an item that already had the quality I desired.

I have seen lots of guys have smiths spend countless hours on pistols that come out nice but not as nice as something like an SVI pistol, despite the final out of pocket expenditures being the same.

 

[rbernie]

It's lose and I want too tig weld the front .375 and rear of the frame rails and once done machine with a mill to the thickness of Slide rail and finish lap.

What is your thoughts on this?

With things like this, the decision tree is more of a loop than a tree, and consists of questions like 'it is feasible?' and 'is it functionally worth it?' and 'is it monetarily worth it?'. Other (more qualified) folk have provided input regarding the feasibility and functional worth of the notion. But you still need to ask yourself the 'is it monetarily worth it?' question, and the answer to that will depend on your objective. For example, there is a different in objective between 'I want to have a target 1911' and 'I want to make a target 1911'. For the former objective, the 'is it monetarily worth it?' question would drive the conclusion to a 'buy vs make', whereas the latter objective would be the opposite - making is better than buying.

I have seen lots of guys have smiths spend countless hours on pistols that come out nice but not as nice as something like an SVI pistol, despite the final out of pocket expenditures being the same.

True dat. Folks that do this for a living tend to be more efficient and effective, and the incremental costs in piecing it together yourself are commonly more in total than if a body had just set that same amount of money aside and bought what they wanted.

 

[JRadice45]

In my limited experience, so long as the slide and frame are not terribly clapped out (subjective) then accuracy will be good assuming excellent barrel and bushing fit. One 9mm I built the slide and frame have a little play but the barrel and bushing fit are bank vault tight without affecting function. That gun will print 5 rounds of 124gr Sig V-crown at or below 1.2 inches when shot from a ransom rest. I couldn't ask anything more of a paper punching gun.

 

[JFrank]

I have a Springfield 1911 nm prefix serial frame. It's lose and I want too tig weld the front .375 and rear of the frame rails and once done machine with a mill to the thickness of Slide rail and finish lap.

What is your thoughts on this?

I am building a accurate range pistol and will fit a match barrel after frame is tigtened

Waste of a good slide IME , barrel fit barrel link barrel bushing, quality ignition and good sights are money well spent along with trigger time.

If you want to test it shoot a group before and after slide tightening’ I’ll bet you can’t see the difference...

 

[12Bravo20]

I have to agree with others here. Now I don't blame you for wanting to work on your 1911 and tighten the slide. I can tell you that slide to frame fit is not as important for accuracy that some make it out to be. I shot enough old GI 'Battle Rattle" 1911s that the slides were very loose on the frame. On all the "Battle Rattles" I was issued, the barrel to slide fit was very good on them and they were plenty accurate for me to qualify expert every time.

The 1911A1 that I carried during Desert Storm sounded like it would fall apart when shaken but it still shot accurately and the loose slide worked great during and after 3-4 day sand storms.