Building a 10mm

wrmiller

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I am building a 10mm, based on a 80% Jem frame and slide. I also bought the Jem GS as well. I am currently waiting on the Jem slide, and a KKM barrel. But I have the GS and a Chen MSH, so I thought I'd start at the bottom and work my way up.

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The Jem GS 'almost' fit, but I needed to clean up the frame a bit on the inside as well as take a bit more off the radius to get the EGW thumb safety to go into position. The Chen MSH was not even close to slipping into the Jem frame. So out came the files and sandpaper. I'm in no real hurry on this project and I'd like to give this build a little extra effort.

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Finally got the MSH to fit. It's VERY tight though, needing a little persuasion from a drift to start it out of the frame.

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I liked the little mini 'round butt' I did on my Kimber, so I decided to do it to this pistol as well.

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I finally made up my mind to put a mag well on this thing. And I decided to make my own this time. First thing is I need a nice flat piece of stainless, 0.300" thick.

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I hate face mills because they throw sharp, hot, chips half-way across my shop! I managed to cut the frame and the mag funnel without scrapping either part.

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Those are grips I fitted to a different pistol, but it looks like they should work on this OK. The mag funnel piece fits nice and tight on the frame. I won't be silver soldering it on until I cut the frame rails. And I can't do that until I get the slide and get some dimensions from it.

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But I'm liking it so far.
:)


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Edit: I guess I can start on the frontstrap checkering while I wait for my slide to show up.
 
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I interviewed for a job back in the mid '80s at the Bren Ten facility in Long Beach when the new owner was trying to resurrect the company.
Would have been super sweet, they were looking at all new equipment.
The shutdown shop had several BP Series 1 CNCs and a boatload of manual machines.
There were still piece parts in vises on the machines when I went through.
Got to see No.1 in it's case.
Offered to let me fire a clip with another, but could not get the lights to come on in the test range... :concerned:
The pistol was close to hand built (fitted?).
 
i have not had the pleasure to touch off a 10mm.
i love the .40 S&W, i'll bet the 10 is even better

I do have one 1911 in .45, but I just like basically having a 357 Mag in a semi-auto. My 2011 that has both a 6" compensated top end as well as a Commander length top end gives me 15+1 of these little boomers. :D

The Castings of your mill look wonderful :)

It's just a little PM935. And I love it. :)
 
Disclaimer: This isn't real-time yet. I started on this a couple of weeks ago, and just thought that some folks here might like to see a thread on how I'm doing this. So I'm giving a bit of back-story here. :)

So I figured I'd tackle the back of the pistol frame, because this is a very important part IMO to how the pistol feels in the hand both static and during shooting. Given this is a 10mm, I want comfort and recoil/muzzle control. Well, as much as I can get anyway.

So the GS (grip safety) has the popular memory bump/pad on it to help disengage it what the pistol is properly gripped. But as I'm going to pin the GS I really don't need/want that hump in the middle of my palm. But first things first, in that I need to finish blending the top of the GS to the frame.

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More progress, and I've started removing that memory pad.

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I don't like that large gap I'm seeing between the grip safety and the mainspring housing. So I decided to do some good old fashioned blacksmithing and fix it.

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Much better... :)

Now it's time to modify and blend the ambi thumb safety.

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I want to shorten and narrow the paddles of the thumb safety so they don't dig in my side, and to reduce 'printing' when it's carried.

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That's better.
 
Still waiting on the slide at this point, so I decided to replace the single-port compensator I had on the 2011 with a 3-port compensator on a bull barrel and to make a threaded cone for a bushing barrel I had and make a commander length 10mm for easier concealed carry.

Here's a quick run through that.

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I put some cold blue on it for now, until I can afford to have it blued. The commander barrel is on the right in the last pic.
 
Very well done. Is that yours fpr good or eventually a customer gun?

I can't afford a custom built 1911 in 10mm, I had to settle for a Colt Delta Elite. Can't stand the SS finish, had all metal nitrided. Those hard cast from Double Tap are hell on hogs.
 
These are my personal firearms. While I do favors for friends on occasion, I don't have a ffl or business license. Can't afford them to be honest.

Known smiths are building four and five figure 1911s on these Jem frames and slides. But they put a whole bunch more 'pretty stuff' on theirs. I'm more of a form follows function type and don't care much for frills. Mine are reliable and accurate, which is what matters to me.

But having said that, I do like looking at those fancy firearms though. :)
 
When the slide finally showed up (took over 5 weeks...) I measured it as best I could with what I have, as I don't have the fancy slide rail thickness micrometer and a couple other wigets.

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I borrowed a friend's frame holding fixture as it was easier than making my own. Wrote down my dimensions and other numbers on my whiteboard, and proceeded to attempt my first ever frame rail cutting. Hey, what could go wrong? ;)

First one side,
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Then the other.
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After narrowing the frame rails to my target number, the slide would 'just' go on the front of the frame rails. But it needed a bit of coaxing to even do that. Did I leave too much meat on the rails?
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Yea, I left a bit too much on the rails. Combine that with a little taper in the slide and it took me all morning to finish hand fitting the slide to the frame.
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And then fitted the new bull barrel to the slide. So far, so good. :)
 
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