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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.
 
#3 ·
Pretty easy and controllable if you hold the MSH upside down on a finish nail in a board or punch in a vise. Or...



LOG
 
#4 ·
No pictures available, but I have made several over the years. Frame way bars, rail swaging punch from a large chisel, slide pusher made from an old screwdriver, bench blocks of various descriptions from blocks of aluminum and steel. I copied the tools sold by Brownells using their pictures and description as a guide. Also copied the MGW frame wrench for revolvers. Bought one insert from Brownells and worked backwards from there.
 
#17 ·
Yeah? That's nice, I use a straightened paper-clip...:biglaugh:
 
#14 ·
A little pricier than Logs' block(I wish I'd seen that a long time ago!) but the 10-8 Armorers Block has a pinhole and pin for that very purpose. I can attest that logs' Block works.

don't have pics but I took an old John Trimble penknife with a broken blade and flattened the last 1/2" of the cutting edge with a file. It works great for depressing the Safety plunger when installing a Thumb-Safety. It's thin, and if you're halfway careful, it won't damage the gun at all.
 
#21 ·
If the FPS is in tight I can use my tool to depress the firing pin and tap the tool to move the firing pin stop. Notice that the end is just long enough to push the firing pin in; it's almost flush with the back of the firing pin stop so you don't have to guess how far to push it in. When you do this several times per day is saves a few seconds and there is less fumbling.

I don't think you could do that with a paper clip or golf tee.

I was hoping to see some tools people made and share some of mine so folks might be inspired to do the same.

I will post more photos when I return from my trip to Riverside County (Sun City) tomorrow. Crap, I hate having to go to the SPRofK.
 
#22 · (Edited)
I built a modified Yavapai slide jig that also holds the barrel to cut the hood and lower lugs.
I would love to have a better fit and easier and more accurate way to hold the barrel but it was what I needed at the time.
I will post pics later, can't do it at work.

Standard jig use...


Modified for barrel machining...this was before I milled the angles on the main block.


I would like to see the big aluminum block that Joe C uses, it looks handy.
 
#27 ·
I guess these are "tools", I don't know, but we have been carving these frame fixtures out, it's kind of slow making them, the dremel gets hot in the hands and you have to stop and let it cool down. I should get more dremels I suppose, so when one gets hot we could just grab a cold one.

 
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