I know. Let's put it in the milling machine and cut away a lot of metal
Whoa whoa, not so fast.
Yes, you can cut out slots in the frame. I've seen it.
Save some weight that way. You can cut some slots on the slide
You can go more aggressive with the metal removal, too. Those are relatively small holes. Let's discount the troubles the infiltration of holster debris might cause you, for purposes of argument. Go for big holes. And you can 'rout' away metal in other areas. Make sections of the metal thinner, but leaving critical areas where stress happens beefy. Middle areas, where you can make a hole because you need SOME metal there.
Ok, now maybe start with all titanium parts! Lighter than that scandium stuff. The frame on that top gun may actually BE titanium. "Wait, T-Bolt, you want me to use the mill to hog away metal on titanium parts? Do you know how hard titanium is to machine? You can't even file that stuff" I know, I know bear with me! Let's say it was managed.
Now what?
Well, now it will take a long time trying to get the recoil springs the right strength so it will run the slide. But it also has to strip a round from the magazine, so maybe you have to tune the magazine springs. And the slide needs enough OOMPH to overcome the hammer tension of the mainspring in the mainspring housing, so you may have to lighten that, as well.
All these changes... You might push the gun out of a functional envelope. If you lighten that magazine spring so the frame can strip off a round because the recoil spring is now a different tension maybe it can't present the next round for stripping in the first place. And you are getting light strikes because the mainspring is out of spec. And the recoil spring isn't robust enough to get that round to slid up the breach face and under the extractor hook that is properly tensioned.
You have paid the price for tampering in God's domain. Well, JMB was pretty religious, so change that to, "tampering in Gosh's domain." Things on a 1911 are the way they are for a reason. Deviating from spec is more complicated than a swap-out.
Which is why I love the 1911. All the little intricacies I've been lucky enough to learn about. Did it seem simple at first, maybe? Not so simple, is it?
There, if I am LUCKY.
---
Where else can you shave off weight? Balsa wood grip panels! Flutes on the barrel! Give the whole gun the melt treatment to round all the corners and edges, because that removes metal, too. Have you gun where a track suit and sit in a sauna to sweat out a lotta excess water, dip so it spits a lot, and hit the head before weigh-in.... No, wait, that last part is wrestling.
Yes, you can cut out slots in the frame. I've seen it.
Save some weight that way. You can cut some slots on the slide
You can go more aggressive with the metal removal, too. Those are relatively small holes. Let's discount the troubles the infiltration of holster debris might cause you, for purposes of argument. Go for big holes. And you can 'rout' away metal in other areas. Make sections of the metal thinner, but leaving critical areas where stress happens beefy. Middle areas, where you can make a hole because you need SOME metal there.
Ok, now maybe start with all titanium parts! Lighter than that scandium stuff. The frame on that top gun may actually BE titanium. "Wait, T-Bolt, you want me to use the mill to hog away metal on titanium parts? Do you know how hard titanium is to machine? You can't even file that stuff" I know, I know bear with me! Let's say it was managed.
Now what?
Well, now it will take a long time trying to get the recoil springs the right strength so it will run the slide. But it also has to strip a round from the magazine, so maybe you have to tune the magazine springs. And the slide needs enough OOMPH to overcome the hammer tension of the mainspring in the mainspring housing, so you may have to lighten that, as well.
All these changes... You might push the gun out of a functional envelope. If you lighten that magazine spring so the frame can strip off a round because the recoil spring is now a different tension maybe it can't present the next round for stripping in the first place. And you are getting light strikes because the mainspring is out of spec. And the recoil spring isn't robust enough to get that round to slid up the breach face and under the extractor hook that is properly tensioned.
You have paid the price for tampering in God's domain. Well, JMB was pretty religious, so change that to, "tampering in Gosh's domain." Things on a 1911 are the way they are for a reason. Deviating from spec is more complicated than a swap-out.
Which is why I love the 1911. All the little intricacies I've been lucky enough to learn about. Did it seem simple at first, maybe? Not so simple, is it?
---
Where else can you shave off weight? Balsa wood grip panels! Flutes on the barrel! Give the whole gun the melt treatment to round all the corners and edges, because that removes metal, too. Have you gun where a track suit and sit in a sauna to sweat out a lotta excess water, dip so it spits a lot, and hit the head before weigh-in.... No, wait, that last part is wrestling.
4 comments:
"'No' Nothing"
???
Most of us are in the same area... sigh...
"I want to carry a 1911, but it's heavy."
*Sigh*
Get a HK45 and carry it in SAO mode. That'll save a boatload of money.
You could acid dip the thing, like Roger Penske did back in the 60's this dipping reduced his Trans-Am race cars weight by 10%.
:>)
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