2011 Updates

Bob Korves said:
A file is absolutely a machining tool, a very basic and quite useful machining tool.
Click to expand...

Completely agree. It takes a heck of a lot more skill to use a file well than it does to turn a handwheel. There are times when it takes a file stroke at a time to get the movement you need, and the finer the work the more useful good files become.

Bill, just keep on posting. I guarantee that I'll be watching for them.
 
Here ya go mikey:

This is the underside of a 1911 barrel. The two 'hooks' are one of the registration points when the slide/barrel/frame go into battery/lockup. The barrel is held vertically by these two hooks resting on the slidestop pin, and the inside of the top of the slide.

Too little clearance between these lower hooks and the slidestop pin will not allow the slide and barrel to finish going to battery (firing position). Too much clearance and the barrel can 'float' vertically between the inside of the slide and the slidestop pin. This is very bad for accuracy.

In the picture here, I have filed as precisely as I can, the lower hooks to allow full lockup, yet offer no friction nor vertical tolerance that I can measure. I use a sharpie on the hook surfaces to see where I am making contact, and where I am not. When I can swipe off the sharpie marks with the slidestop pin and eliminate any friction/interference between the moving parts, I'm done. I cannot get a thou feeler gauge between the slidestop pin and the lower hooks when in lockup/battery. Perfect.

Kinda like scraping in a surface, but doing it freehand with #2 and #4 needle files. :)

This barrel has almost 100% surface contact. Most factory guns are about half that. At best.

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This thing will be WAY more accurate than I am capable of taking advantage of. But hey, when you're retired and playing in your garage/shop almost every day, what else are you going to do? :)

This is where I hang out when I'm not standing in front of my machines.
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A couple more pics of my 'office'.
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I can think of worst places to be... :D
 
Let's see - light over the work area, head band magnifier, files right at hand - yup, that's what a fine craftsman's work area looks like. My late machinist friend's bench looked like yours; everything at hand and more files than anything else. Like you, that guy could file in a part with tolerances in the tenths. He was also a hobby gunsmith and used diamond files on hardened stuff. He told me that anybody can run a lathe or mill but it takes someone who cares to use a file well.

I'm not a gun guy but I can well imagine that working to close tolerances like that takes knowledge and skill. I'm pretty okay with a file but the stuff I work on doesn't have the potential to blow up my face if I mess it up!

Thanks for sharing, Bill. I love your shop!
 
Some progress made. :)

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Question? In the first pic of the barrel, there is a slide stop I made just above the barrel. It has a separate slide stop lever and pin, so I can replace the pin as it wears without having to buy/fit another slide stop. I made the pin in the pic out of some annealed 4140, but I think it's going to be too soft. I need something in the RC 38-42 range.

So does anyone know where I can get pre-hardened 4140 round stock, say 1/4" or so? I don't have the ability to harden or draw down O-1 or W-1 rod. Thanks.
 
beautiful work!

As for O1, if I can harden and temper it, you can. For small stuff like that it's a piece of cake - heat with MAPP torch until it's bright orange and non-magnetic, drop it in some powersteering fluid or oil, let it cool down then stick it in the toaster oven at 300F for a short while. Easy peasy. You can easily do some file tests or even shatter tests on some test pieces beforehand. Pretty sure I have some 3/8 O1 kicking around that I can chop off a piece and put in the post.
 
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