How to build a 1911 from a part kit

T

T-man 18

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I was wondering about information on how to build a 1911 from a part kit , how much a part kit might cost,and where i might find a book with instructions?

thanks for any help you might provide
 
re-parts kit.

Dear Shooter:
If I were you I'd get the best parts there are. I truly feel that you would be better off buying a new Springfield Armory military style and doing modifications on that.
A "parts kit" is a very involved set of things you really need experience in doing. This is a job for a real pistolsmith (I don't mean to infer that you are not.)
I may get clobbered for suggesting this but Rock Island Armory or Charles Dailey (I think they are both made in the Phillipines) the ones I've examined and milled for sights are pretty decent guns. I HEAR?? that the frame and slide are castings but investment castings are O.K. I feel.
At any rate, I hope I've helped.
Harry B.
 
I agree with Mr Bonar

I would rather you buy a good pistol and exchange a few parts on it to make like you want it vs buying a frame and slide and building the pistol from the ground up. I would look around and find one basically set up like you want from the start to save time and headache later on. The rock island pistols seem to be a good pistol. I bought one for my brother and he really likes it. All he changed on it was a beavertail grip saftey and a shorted trigger. I did the trigger work on it and left it close to four pounds with no creep and it has the let off screw to adjust it like he wants it. The only thing he may want to do later is change out the guide rod and let me fit him a new bushing. He says the rails seem to fit pretty well and he hasn't mentioned tighening them up any.

As far as books and so forth, I would suggest that you look at AGI or another gunsmithing school about possibly gettting one of their 45 pistol videos. I think AGI has on on how to make the 45 work for about the same money as you would spend on a gunsmithing book. Good luck with the project. The low end pistol can be built up with good parts and made to be a very good shooter without the headache of fitting the rails most of the time like you will if you buy a frame and then try to match it with a good slide.
 
Even though this thread seems to be done . . .

After coming across Dave's web class and seeing it full, I decided to try this on my own (doing lots of reading though). I would think that, excluding tools, prices would run somewhere between $1000 and $2000 depending on how fancy you get with the frame and slide (assuming this is completely from scratch). Tool cost is probably related to how much of a hurry you are in. You can do everything by hand, but it is slow going. This has to be the ultimate in tweaky work.
 
Good Luck on "trying it on your own". It can be done, but it is very difficult to find the correct order in which to build a 1911 from the ground up.Also, the material available is very vauge about Custom Guns because very few people know how to do it other than the nice folks who do that for a living. If you find a book that will tell you how we do it, please let me know and I will no longer bother with the Online 1911 classes.
 
Don't stop giving the class!

Like I said, when I checked it out initially it was full. I probably don't have enough free time to keep up with everyone in such a class. I am sure you provide a lot of information that is pretty much impossible to find (other than learning the hard way through many mistakes and guns).

Kuhnhausen seems to have some good hints but no roadmap.
 
Ok We will keep it going as long as we can. You are right about the information we provide and the "Road Map" It cannot be found in any book that I know of. There is a common sense order of things and we teach that so the students are eased into the Pistolsmith World in comfort. We also provide 24/7 supoport for them so they do not get lost along the way. It is something that no one in their right mind would do, but we do it and have a lot of fun at the same time. The finished product speaks for itself. They are beautiful 1911's.
 
Against all odds, I was able to build a 1911 from a box of parts, with not so much as a high school metal shop class to draw on for experience. I had Kuhnhausen's manuals, Hallock's .45 Auto Handbook, and a desire to do the job. When the gun was finished, it worked, and the only bit of work that was done by someone else was staking the front sight. I did it all with files, stones, emery cloth, Brownells catalog, and a . . . gasp . . . Dremel tool. This was ten years ago, and the total cost was about $800.
 
re-building 1911

Dear Shooter:
I cannot emphasise too much the part that books still play in our learning! I think you're right to try this; you will only learn by interpreting what various books teach you and by making mistakes.
My first muzzle-loader that I built I gave up the first try, but the next year completed my first gun; years later I "refurbished" that gun and it WAS a muzzle-loader.
By using the word "muzzle-loader" I DO NOT refer to these plastic packaged abortions which fire a revolver bullet in a sbot! I think these are modern weapons which have NO, read, "NO" relationship to a real muzzle-loader. Those who use them profane the word muzzle-loader and have no idea of the real craftmanship that a real front-stuffer shows!
Harry B.
 
Listen to Dave S. and Harry B. I've seen and fired Patriot 10 built by one of Dave's students. Beautiful gun and no mal functions in 500 rds of various ammo. The Am Hand. pictures didn't do them justice. Amen to Harry's comments about muzzleloaders. daleltaylor@att.net
 
$800.00 would be close ten years ago. Our online 1911 parts kit would retail in the area of $1600.00-1800.00 now, and that includes the shipping from ten suppliers and the machine work we do. There are cheaper ways, but you don't end up with much. I am all for "do it your selfers" in any area of work, but the idea that anyone can assemble a great 1911 from parts is silly. I have seen the P/P/J/G (Pieces/Parts/JunkGuns) 1911's that result from that. Beauty is only skin deep, but Ugly goes all the way through. I know Ken Hallock personally and he is a neat man. 20 years ago I found a lot of useful information from his book and talking to him on the phone. We do things a little better now. In fact , we do things a whole lot better now!
 
1911 class

I've known Dave S for more years than we can remember together. I'am a pistolsmith Daves class is a good one. Bite the bullet take the class have fun diong it have a nice gun when your done. Not a bad way to go. Easy
 
It took me a year, but I finally finished mine (I used a Les Baer Monolith frame).

DSCN0023.jpg
 
It isn't impossible, and it doesn't have to cost 1600 dollars. I built a perfectly serviceable 1911 from Kuhnhausen's books and a parts kit from DIY guns. It isn't the prettiest gun ever built, but with a match bushing in it I can shoot golf balls from 15 yards if I do my part. I have about 500 into it.

You won't save any money over a Daley. But you get some satisfaction, and improve some areas if you know what you are doing, like the slide to frame fit and the bushing fit. My gun is totally reliable, shoots better than I can, and was fun to build.

http://www.homegunsmith.com/cgi-bin/ib3/iB_html/uploads/post-30-80485-side.JPG
 
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