Monday, April 13, 2015

Did You Learn Anything

Retaking that class?

Yes.  I did.  I learned my gun is now unsafe.  I done broked it.

Lemme esplain...

I took the first 1911 I ever bought.  Springfield Loaded from 2007.  Upon disassembly I noticed the trigger bow was loose and wobbly.  No good.  So, because I had done this class before, I was able to fit a new one on the in-between portions of the class.  Other replacement parts were tried and discarded as I went along.  A new slide stop?  Naw, it's not fitting so well.  New leaf spring?  Naw it's not releasing the grip safety. 

In the end, the only new bit is the had-to-be replaced trigger and trigger bow. 

But when re-assembled, the trigger releases the hammer even if the grip safety is not squeezed.  Not so good a thing.  And that was found at the end of class.  No time to swap parts around and mess with it.  I gotta do that now in my home shop. 

So... Put old, original, grip safety back in that I had another gunsmith swap out years ago.  See if it fails the same.

 Put faulty original trigger back, see if it fails the same.

The little tab on the grip safety must not be contacting the back of the new trigger bow.  That's the fault.  Has to be.  I may need to lengthen the tab somehow.  There are ways to do that.  A popular way is a WHOLE NEW PART. 

Holy... I just realized.  I have no 1911 I am comfortable carrying right now.  Not good. 

5 comments:

Angus McThag said...

Such as always when fixing thing which are not broken.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

That's the thing, it WAS broken. The trigger was a legit problem. Like "YIKES! Don't put that back in the gun."

Angus McThag said...

Isn't the case more along the lines of making yourself aware that there's something not up to snuff then it snowballing from there?

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Naw, the trigger shoe and bow were too close to separation to be safe. I was lucky to catch it now and not have a failure while shooting it.

But, it's 1911 gunsmithing... A tedious and often frustrating bit of work. You change one thing then you gotta change this other thing, then that makes you change something else...

It's like the married couple that paints the dining room and realizes well now the LIVING room looks shabby in comparison. Paint that and then the hallway looks like it needs it. Pretty soon there is a fight and then the house mysteriously burns down.

Angus McThag said...

But the empty lot looks so much BETTER than those drab bedrooms did next to the hall.