1911 build

NFD9

NFD9

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I picked up a SS slide, frame and barrel from Remsport and am going to build a comander size 1911.
If you were going to buld a 1911 in .45acp, what company or brand would you use for the internal parts and why?
Also, who would you stay away from?
TIA
Gary

Here is the frame and slide that I pollished.
DSC_0614.jpg

DSC_0616.jpg

DSC_0610.jpg
 
I can't offer any advice, but I'm excited to see how this turns out for you. I'm thinking about saving up to have John put together an officer size for me. Remsport has swag now? I didn't know that. Is that a gun rug or something?
 
Polishing should be done last. It's like painting the fenders before hanging them on the car.
Wilson or S&A grip safety, EGW sear and ejector, Koenig hammer, disconnector doesn't matter, Nowlin sear spring and extractor, Ed Brown or Wilson thumb safety.
 
Ive put a few 1911s together - completed 1 from Remsport and have another one order - also done Caspian kits etc. When I started, I used to buy the most expensive parts - thinking I was getting something more for my money. Then I quickly realized its cheaper to buy parts that are a little cheaper and I can dress them up as I want. What do I mean - the quality of metal does not change *much*, its about the quality of the casting. I mean you can buy a cheap sear, hammer and disconnecter (as an example) and by spending some time removing burrs, castings marks and polishing the contact parts (as you should do anyway) you can get cheap parts that performs and fits better than the expensive parts. All you are paying for is for someone to smooth out all the rough edges for you. Another example would be grip safeties, thumb safeties etc - go for something SS 'in the white.' It will be cheaper and you can then polish it, or paint it, or finish it as you see fit. Why pay STI to polish your thumb safety, when you can do it yourself.

For me, I enjoy the work of polishing the small parts and fitting everything together. Thats the point, isn't it? You can spend the extra money on top of the line, so called drop-in parts - but you will cheat yourself of the actual gun-smithing part of the project.

That being said, Nighthawk, Ed Brown, Wilson all make great parts - expensive, but great. (rumor has it Remsport makes Ed Brown parts anyhow) I think you can do just as well getting no-name parts and spending the time to clean them up, fit, finish, and work the cheaper parts into a fine part. Nowadays, the steel quality is all pretty good - what the difference is how much extra time was spent cleaning the cast parts. Save your money, do it yourself, you will have a product you are prouder of in the end, and it will be just as good. YMMV

Some other tips - I agree with the above - the absolute last thing you should do is finish/polish the gun. Looks like you did that first - no biggie, but you will end up doing it again as you are likely to scuff the frame or slide during fitting the internals, the sites etc - it just happens. The last actual part to fit to the gun is the thumb safety. I had a gun all done, did some additional work on the trigger to get it as light as I could (its danger light now [devil]) and then had to scrap the thumb safety as it didn't work anymore - the hammer would fall to half cock when he trigger was pressed with the safety on. Unless you like throwing away thumbsafetie's - fit that part to the gun when you have the trigger where you want it. Another general guidance, go slow with the file and sand paper - its easier to take material off than put it back on. And keep in mind, it doesn't take much to fit things together - some parts should be fit together 1 file stroke at a time.
 
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I'm not done with the pollishing yet, just wanted to see the quality of the stainless.
Sounds like some good advice, thanks [wink]
 
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its about the quality of the casting.
Click to expand...
Oxymoron alert :). It's also about whether it's a casting at all. The major technologies are MIM (Metal Injection Molding), Casting, Forged (frames and slides, not so much for small parts) and machined from bar stock. You will hear many MIM and/or casting apologists explain why their MIM or casting is as good as machined from bar stock, but you'll never see someone making bar stock based parts feel the need to explain why their product is as good as MIM or cast. That should tell you something. There is also a big difference between "meets all specifications for this part" and "offers the absolute best quality".


Why pay STI to polish your thumb safety, when you can do it yourself.
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In some cases, there is a difference. Most thumb safeties are cast. I've seen the SVI thumb safeties, hammers and sears come off the line. The safeties are CNC machined from bar stock, and the hammers/sears wire EDM cut. The individual needs to decide how/if it is important to have machined from bar stock rather than cast or MIM parts, but it's important to recognize that there are fundamental differences between each technology - and you can't make a cast safety into the equivalent of a machined one with polishing, no matter how good you are at it.

what the difference is how much extra time was spent cleaning the cast parts.
Click to expand...
Only if you are comparing different brands of cast parts.


Ask your vendor if the part is cast, MIM or machined. If you get an evasive answer, you've narrowed down the possible answers to "cast" or MIM. Ditto if you ask a gun maker about their internal parts are are told the answer is "proprietary". Anyone who would use that info to competitive advantage can easily find out by examining a single gun, so ask yourself who would they be trying to hide it from?
 
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I wouldn't get no-name parts for the fire control group. Stuff like that you are going to want well made parts that will last. I like Ed Brown stuff, Had good luck with STI stuff. SV stuff is great. Go slow with the fitting. I took 45min fitting an ejector to my gun last night using a hand file
 
IF you are ordering a single-stack, you can buy the complete SVI trigger kit; trigger (choose shape, length and color of inserts), hammer (more choices), sear and disconnector.

Note that the SVI unit has the patented ball bearing in the trigger bow and sear spring.
 
I have built 7 on Caspian frames,and slides,I would recommed the best parts you can buy because, you buy them once! but thats me!
 
Just remember most of these companies do not make their own parts.
I like the STI trigger also, however it is an expensive part and not eveyone wants to spend that much on a trigger. I have used that trigger on my own guns. The down side is you can get the same results out of a $20.00 trigger sad but true.
 
Remsport Mfg said:
Just remember most of these companies do not make their own parts.
I like the STI trigger also, however it is an expensive part and not eveyone wants to spend that much on a trigger. I have used that trigger on my own guns. The down side is you can get the same results out of a $20.00 trigger sad but true.
Click to expand...


The STI trigger is $24. The SV trigger is a little over $40, without the insert, which is $20 more. The cool thing about it is, once you get a trigger just the way you want it, all tuned and polished with pretravel and over travel set, if you want a different trigger face, you don't have to tune the trigger again.
 
Just remember most of these companies do not make their own parts.
Click to expand...
True in many cases, but for for SVI hammer/sear/disconnector/thumb safety(*)/trigger which are all manufactured in-house.

* - some older SVIs have Ed Brown thumb safeties; current production guns, and all thumb safeties currently sold a-la-carte are made in house.
 
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I am currently working on a 1911 parts build kit it will be mid to high end and will contain eveything to build except grips, sights and a magazine. The blue kit for a government or commander will be around $450.00 stainless steel will be slightly higer.
The kit with ambi safety will be $38.00 more. Mainspring housing with mag well would be an additional $45.00.
Is there any intrest? Before I spend any more time on this project I would like to know if there is a market for a kit at this price.
 
Remsport Mfg said:
I am currently working on a 1911 parts build kit it will be mid to high end and will contain eveything to build except grips, sights and a magazine. The blue kit for a government or commander will be around $450.00 stainless steel will be slightly higer.
The kit with ambi safety will be $38.00 more. Mainspring housing with mag well would be an additional $45.00.
Is there any intrest? Before I spend any more time on this project I would like to know if there is a market for a kit at this price.
Click to expand...

YES. I really want to build one, but would like to do a "training wheels kit" first to build up my skillset. That sounds right up my alley, keep me posted please!
 
Remsport Mfg said:
I am currently working on a 1911 parts build kit it will be mid to high end and will contain eveything to build except grips, sights and a magazine. The blue kit for a government or commander will be around $450.00 stainless steel will be slightly higer.
The kit with ambi safety will be $38.00 more. Mainspring housing with mag well would be an additional $45.00.
Is there any intrest? Before I spend any more time on this project I would like to know if there is a market for a kit at this price.
Click to expand...

always interested in a 1911 kit. [smile]
 
In order to help people judge what they would get for the $450, it's probably worth mentioning what technology would be used to make each part (cast, forged, machined from bar stock, edm, min, etc.).
 
Remsport Mfg said:
I am currently working on a 1911 parts build kit it will be mid to high end and will contain eveything to build except grips, sights and a magazine. The blue kit for a government or commander will be around $450.00 stainless steel will be slightly higer.
The kit with ambi safety will be $38.00 more. Mainspring housing with mag well would be an additional $45.00.
Is there any intrest? Before I spend any more time on this project I would like to know if there is a market for a kit at this price.
Click to expand...

Yes, there is interest - especially if you could "package" it similar to an AR kit - a "Add a stripped lower for a complete rifle" type kit.
 
It would be a mix of parts manufacturers, however no junk parts sorcing the best parts for the best price. Currently there is no complete kit on the market. The questions this kit has already posed is I am sure the reason no one puts a kit together.
This kit will be complete small parts kit less grips, sights and magazine. It will not include the frame, slide or barrel.
All other small parts pins, springs, trigger, hammer, bevertail grip safety, main spring housing 25LPI checkring, extended thumb safety, full recoil spring rod, barrel bushing, sear, disconector and extended mag release.
Is there still intrest if so I will go ahead, order parts and start putting kits together. This is not as easy task as you might think.
 
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Remsport Mfg said:
Is there still intrest if so I will go ahead, order parts and start putting kits together. This is not as easy task as you might think.
Click to expand...

I know, I started ordering parts last week. If this were available last month I would have jumped all over this kit. When I go for a carry gun build I would definitely go this route.

Dumb question, with your gov SS slide am I looking for a series 70 or 80 ejector?

Thanks
Ed
 
Remsport Mfg said:
Is there still intrest if so I will go ahead, order parts and start putting kits together. This is not as easy task as you might think.
Click to expand...
I might be interested depending on price point. I'm pretty intimidated by the tools and skill that might be involved in actually fitting parts.
 
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Remsport Mfg said:
I am currently working on a 1911 parts build kit it will be mid to high end and will contain eveything to build except grips, sights and a magazine. The blue kit for a government or commander will be around $450.00 stainless steel will be slightly higer.
The kit with ambi safety will be $38.00 more. Mainspring housing with mag well would be an additional $45.00.
Is there any intrest? Before I spend any more time on this project I would like to know if there is a market for a kit at this price.
Click to expand...

Remsport Mfg said:
It would be a mix of parts manufacturers, however no junk parts sorcing the best parts for the best price. Currently there is no complete kit on the market. The questions this kit has already posed is I am sure the reason no one puts a kit together.
This kit will be complete small parts kit less grips, sights and magazine. It will not include the frame, slide or barrel.
All other small parts pins, springs, trigger, hammer, bevertail grip safety, main spring housing 25LPI checkring, extended thumb safety, full recoil spring rod, barrel bushing, sear, disconector and extended mag release.
Is there still intrest if so I will go ahead, order parts and start putting kits together. This is not as easy task as you might think.
Click to expand...

John, I'm interested. I'll come see you this coming week. Thanks.
 
Remsport Mfg said:
It would be a mix of parts manufacturers, however no junk parts sorcing the best parts for the best price. Currently there is no complete kit on the market. The questions this kit has already posed is I am sure the reason no one puts a kit together.
This kit will be complete small parts kit less grips, sights and magazine. It will not include the frame, slide or barrel.
All other small parts pins, springs, trigger, hammer, bevertail grip safety, main spring housing 25LPI checkring, extended thumb safety, full recoil spring rod, barrel bushing, sear, disconector and extended mag release.
Is there still intrest if so I will go ahead, order parts and start putting kits together. This is not as easy task as you might think.
Click to expand...

I'm interested as well. I've been wanting to do a build for a while, but I really don't know where to start. A "dummies" kit would be great.
 

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