Loose Front Sight - 1911

G

Gregory Gauvin

New member
I have a PT1911 with the factory front sight (Heinie) which has their (proprietary?) dovetail and set screw. The front sight always loosens up after a range session. Not to where it is going to be thrown off the slide, but a decent wobble. I have tightened the site back on using blue loctite, when it failed again I went ahead with permanent Red loctite. Twice. I thought maybe the gun got hot enough to break down the loctite (450*..yea right..). Not planning to change the sight ever I decided to fix this problem forever and put a dab of JB-weld or marine-tex (I forgot which) on the sight and put it in place.

Got back from the range. It's loose. Again. Any other suggestions? I mean...come on, JB-Weld loosened up? I must have not put enough on or something this makes no sense.
 
Where are you putting the Loc-Tite? It should go in the threads of the set screw. Loc-Tite is a thread blocker, not a glue; it is made to keep a screw from turning, not to glue parts together.

Jim
 
I have seen a sight tightened by center punching the bottom of the sight, not the more expensive slide. The burrs take a drive fit to get the sight back in the dovetail.

You could mark where the set screw hits the slide under the sight and drill, punch or grind a divot for it to lock into and not depend on friction or glue.
 
Not sure how loose we are talking....Locktite 620 is designed to fill gaps and improve frictional fits. So, yes, it goes in between the sight and the dovetail, not on threads.

Creating roughness and mechanical lock by raising a burr the bottom of the sight helps.
 
tangolima nailed the best approach to your problem. A slight peening along the front and rear of the dovetail would be my first approach. A proper, tight, metal to metal fit is always better than any adhesive or epoxy approach.
 
Back when I was doing guns, on hard use guns with a transverse dovetail I always preferred doing what I called the four point stake, I never had a client come back with a loose sight after doing this method.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
 
"...and duct tape go hand in hand..." Um, no. Vice grips, duct tape and hammers go hand in hand. snicker.
Put a wee shim under the sight and Lock-tite the screw. Wouldn't worry too much about the slide. Peening it won't destroy it.
JB-Weld is just epoxy with powdered metal in it vs powdered fibreglass.
 
The problem with most if not all the other methods mentioned is you end up with an unsightly gap between the sight blade and the slide, the four point stake alleviates that concern.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
 
Staking the junction of the sight blade and slide.
It's a very secure method I came up with for tightening loose front sights.
I went to using this method even on the transverse cuts I milled and my cuts were very tight friction fit.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top