1911 Rail Jig

[jdgabbard]

Anybody know of any sites that sell jigs for cutting the rails on a 80% 1911 receiver?

[waksupi]

Look at Brownells.

[jdgabbard]

Yeah, they don't offer one.... Wish they did tho, they offer a jig for about everything else...

[jdgabbard]

KT Ord offers one, it's basically a steel block from what I can tell, and I'm working on wide-body castings. So I don't think it'll work.

[Bulldogger]

I used to know where to find a post in another site where a guy cut the rail slots using a dremel tool routing table, bit by bit, using a bunch of stacked cutting wheels that ended up the right width. He then tidied it up the usual way with lapping compound and elbow grease. Anyway, that's another idea if you are "tooling deficient" like I am.
Bulldogger

[jdgabbard]

Yeah, I've seen that method, and the hack saw method. But looking for something that will give me a little more precision.

[deltaenterprizes]

Do you have a mill?

[jdgabbard]

No I don't, and that's the problem. If I did it wouldn't be an issue. But no room for one at the moment.

[lup]

Could you chuck a woodruff cutter in a drill press and rig some kind if fence like a router table?

What are the dimensions that are key?

[David2011]

KT Ord offers one, it's basically a steel block from what I can tell, and I'm working on wide-body castings. So I don't think it'll work.

Doesn't it use a standard 1911 slide? Caspian, Para and STI hi caps all use standard dimension slides. Unless I'm missing something I don't see why a wide body 80% would be different. I've built some jigs that emulate a 1911 top end for putting slides in a mill or drill press and it was pretty easy to cut the rails but I was using a mill.

David

[MBTcustom]

Dang! You sure backed yourself into a corner.
The best tool for the job is a milling machine.
If you are just bound and determined to finish it by hand, then you are going to have to make some tools.
What you need to do is make a jig for yourself, and a cutter.
The jig needs to be a plate of aluminum or steel that is about 2" wide and about 4" long, and about 1/4" thick, with a 1" X 4" X 3/32" steel plate, bolted along the long edge, with a .007 shim between it ans the 1/4" plate. This will give you a strait edge that extends below the rails on one side .100. This will be a guide for the cutter you are going to make.
You can attach this fixture rigidly to the gun in several ways, but I would be tempted to run a 5/16 piece of all thread through the magazine well with a piece of scrap on the bottom to act like a washer and nuts on both ends that will hold the jig in the correct place.
All you are trying to do is get a guide that is about 1" tall exactly as thick as your rail is going to be, extending strait out the side of the frame.
Now, you need to make a cutter/scraper to put the grooves in there. For this application, I would try a hook cutter first.
Buy a piece of 1/8" X 1/2" X 36" 01 tool steel from McMaster Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-steel-sheets/=lehmgf
File a hook cutter on the tip of this tool. If you dont know what I mean, look at the teeth on a woodruff key cutter. Don't put much curvy hook on it, but make the tooth look more angular in appearance. It is going to want to break down fairly quickly so you want a strong tooth.
once you have the tooth cut, draw-file about the last inch of the tool from one side until you have slimmed it down from .125 to .118. Remember that one side of the cutter is going to have to slide along your jig, so you want it to slim down from one side only.
Now, take your hacksaw, and cut the tool off about 12" from the tooth. Use some scrap pieces of oak or walnut to fabricate handles, and pin them in place with 1/8" brazing rod. In order to make the pins, first strip the white flux off a brazing rod (put one end in your cordless drill and hold it over the trash can as you use a pair of pliers to pinch and slide as it spins at high RPM, follow with scotchbrite) and heat the end till it's almost starting to think about going red hot, and quench in water. Cut the end off just a little longer than your gripps are wide. Use a ball peen hammer to peen the ends of the pins so they will not come loose. Bust it down with a belt sander.
Now take your MAP gas torch (oxygen/acetylene is better) and heat the tip of that tool till it's cherry read and quench in some kind of oil (not water!)
Use stones to clean and sharpen the tip. Be careful not to drop it, because it is extremely brittle. (At this point, I used to temper the tool, but I found that you need it as hard as it can get if you are cutting steel, so I just leave it now. Seems to work quite well)

Whew! Now, hold the tool against the guide with your thumb and use your strong hand to pull the tool across the workpiece.
You should see shavings and scrapings coming off the workpiece. Manipulate the angle of the handle, and the angle of the cutting tip to achieve optimum results. You will have to resharpen the tool occasionally. You should get the feel for it in a short period of time.

If I were on a desert island without my milling machine, that's probably how I would attack a project like this, but there are thousands of ways to make it happen. You just have to use your imagination and improvise.
Hope this helps!

[pacomdiver]

me and my buddy got a batch of the wide bodys ones like your from sarco, but my buddy is doing them on a mill

[Willbird]

It is not a receiver yet, and there is no firm line in the sand at when it becomes one, I would send it out and have that part milled. ATF has never really defined a % except in 1986 when the MG ban went into effect, and they disallowed some guns then lost in court decades later (group industries uzi's being just one).

Bill

[BACKTOSHOOTING]

http://aresarmor.com/
This might help

[quasi]

it should be possible with a metal shaper, maybe you have room for a 7" Southbend model?