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Gunsmith's tools

17K views 61 replies 25 participants last post by  StrikerDown 
#1 ·
Do you gunsmiths make any of your (specialty) 1911 tools?

What is the most used tool that you have made?

What is the cleverest tool you have made?

Please provide photos. Thanks.
 
#42 ·
I am interested in seeing more of the tools people make. The frame fixtures are the only tools I have made to date for the 1911, but a lot of tools I have made for other purposes are not nicely finished, some are and others aren't. Function is what counts most, if you have the time and ability to make them look nice thats good too.


I don't wan't to hijack the thread or ignore questions, so I will start another post about the frame fixtures sometime today.
 
#43 · (Edited)
I wish my faux Dremel was so precise. Playing cribbage at your house must be a treat!

I'm wondering if Daveinvegas saw an early prototype of my firing pin stop removal tool, the look is eerily similar though I never bothered to round the tip. It's in the middle betwixt some failed designs.



Admittedly I gave up early on when I discovered an amazing multi-tool that seemed purpose built for the task. The head features a ball bearing and liquid compound to reduce friction. I've cropped the photo but if you'd like to know where you can get one I'll divulge the info for $19.95 Forgot to mention, I don't take PayPal;-)

 

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#44 ·
Here's a few I made from scraps and a broken screwdriver..


Top: Stop plate guide for serrating the back of the slide and ejector above the rails. I stole this idea from someone...:)

Middle: Jig fixture for shaping the pad on a slide stop, holds it nice and secure to mill the top of the pad. On the reverse is a pocket milled out allowing me to hold and center the pin fr shortening/flattening and other end treatments.

Bottom is a simple Mainsring pin tool made from a broken screwdriver.

 
#46 ·
My firing pin stop tool. The left end removes it and the right end pushes the firing pin in and has a relief to allow the stop to go over the end of the firing pin.


A fixture to clamp a frame down on a new plunger tube for staking.


A fixture to hold the slide upside down on a new front sight for staking.


A mandrel to hold barrel bushing for OD turning/polishing.


Drill fixture for mag base plates.
 
#48 ·
I made that bushing mandrel from a piece of 3/4" O-1, hardened to Rc 56-58 and ground. Center drilled for use between centers if desired. The shank is .500" and is threaded 1/2-20. The nut is a drilled and tapped 7/16 nut with the corners knocked down and the sleeve is .687" so I can fit the slide over them for a test fit.
 
#50 ·
I took a brownells bare polymer bench block, and had a friend with a mill mill out a recess to fit MSHs and MSHs with mag guides in place for installing and removing the internal components of them. I use a roll pin punch to compress the spring, and a small pin punch to push out the retainer pin.
 
#51 · (Edited)
Here's one I made for working on the EGW oversized barrel bushing. It's for turning the outer-diameter of the bushing to get a tight fit to the slide. Jon originally let me in on this and I modified it a bit to suite my needs better.

The first image is a diagram of how to make the improvised bushing tool. The second is an image with the bushing mounted on the tool. I used a table vice and a moderately inexpensive drill to to turn the bushing. The rubber material expands the more you tighten the screw. It really holds the bushing firmly in place, there's no slippage or movement at all.

P.S.,

How do you get the images to show up in the post instead of having to click on the links to see the pics?

Thanks.
 

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#53 ·
Thanks,

Like I said, Jon helped me out in a pinch and let me in on it. I improved it slightly by using better components (IMHO) but he still deserves the thanks for introducing me to it. It really works great, my bushing to slide fit is nice and tight now. I used a wooden dowel and some very fine sand paper to adjust the inner diameter, then finished it off with a little Semichrome metal polish (I think I used Semichrome anyway, I haven't done any work on them for over two years so my memory isn't all that great at this point).
 
#57 ·
:biglaugh:Metal to metal, not accurate enough? The more expensive mandrels are metal to metal, how can it not be more accurate? I have a few times. Admittedly in a drill press and a file/paper.

LOG
 
#58 ·
No, you misunderstood my point. I meant metal on metal touching the edges of the inside diameter and at the back of the bushing, possibly marring or scratching the surface of the bushing. I wasn't questioning the simplicity of the design, which I like. If you can do the same thing successfully with a lot less parts then it's a winner.
 
#59 ·
The OD at the back only touches the slide and the ID of the skirt doesn't touch anything. But snugging a washer against the end doesn't cause any damage.

LOG
 
#61 ·
Got another one. Not sure why I never thought to do this before, but it makes fitting the barrel hood much, much easier, if you don't have the Weigand barrel jig. (which I don't...yet :))

I have a set of cheapo small, precision v blocks hanging around, under utilized until now.

The problem I have always seen is holding the barrel at a precise (and repeatable) 90 degrees in the mill vice. well....took one of the vee blocks and milled a .361 inch slot into the face. fits the lower lugs nicely, holding the barrel secure. Now I can mill the sides and rear face of the hood, square.
 
#62 ·
Here is another shop built tool I thought might be of interested and the build process:

The Cathead Fixture.

Inspired by Jerry Keefer and Dave Berryhill to strive for the best, most accurate work possible I decided to take on this little project. While the project itself is fairly simple cleaning up the mess- not so much!

The cathead is a fixture used support and center a part to be machined that can not be held adequately by the machine alone using the usual holding methods, Chuck, etc.

In my case this cathead is going to be used to hold 1911 barrels, primarily for cutting length and re-crowning.

Her are a few pictures of the process of making my cathead fixture.

I started with a 3” round billet then drilled and bored it to accommodate the 1911 barrel dimensions:



Next off to the mill to locate, drill and tap the adjusting screw holes:



Each hole was located drilled and chamfered, the tap was started with the mill to ensure a straight shot then finished by hand:



When the fixture body was complete I modified the eight adjustment screws with a brass contact tip to reduce the chance of marring the barrel. I will most likely be using small aluminum pads for the screws to rotate on but in case that isn’t needed or possible the brass is a good fall back.

The end of the screws were faced off and drilled to accept the brass then the brass rod was turned down to the large dimension and each tip cut down to an interference fit in the screws. Sorry I didn’t get pics of the tip making process just of the finishes product:





That’s it, a simple project, although time consuming... especially the boring-boring!

Hear she is:



OH! The mess, You really create a large quantity of chips/swarf when boring a solid bar out to almost 1.6”! I would have preferred if the surplus metals place would have had some heavy walled aluminum tubing... But I guess I was lucky to find a section of bar stock just the right size.



This was a fun project... except the mess! :)

Now I need to get hold of a range rod so I can indicate the axis of the bore for those perfectly square crowns!

Hear’s a link to how Dave uses his Cathead:
http://www.1911pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=118
 
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