I got a set of Mepro tritium sights for $44 the other day.  And now I'm finding out that this isn't simple.  I have an old Series 70 Colt with a narrow tenon.  So I had to thin down the tenon on the sight.  That took me about 2 hrs, but I did a pretty clean job of it, and the sight now drops down into the slide with a little wiggling.

I made a little anvil that the blade fits into for when I stake it.  Anvil is a 1/4" thick square of metal with a deep groove cut it in, and the sight blade drops into the groove.  My plan is to apply loctite to the sight, assemble onto the slide.  Put my anvil over the sight, and tape it to the slide so I can flip everything over, and clamp the slide in a vise with the anvil is supporting the front end.  Then tap away with the staking tool.  The front sight will be supported on it's shoulder rather than the tip of the blade.  Does this sound about right?

From what I've read on the interwebs, this is going to either work, or not work.

Thoughts?

Here's the sight upside-down in the anvil, so you're looking at the tenon.  Hopefully this will keep me from cracking the vial.  That tenon was .125" wide originally.  Is now .057".  Not too shabby, eh?
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That looks good. What does your staking tool look like?

You don't need a vice necessarily. You just need your holder on something with as little "give" as possible, like a cement slab (the floor, even). Make sure something the height of your support block is at the rear of the slide for support. Otherwise the front sight will not actually be "flat" in position while you stake it. Use masking tape to prevent marring the slide. I've always used multiple layers.

Thanks.  I'm feeling a little less apprehensive about it.

I'll have to get back to you on the staking tool.  It's not here yet.

Well the home brew stalker I got on the cheap broke shortly after I got started. Swing up to the gun shop to ask if they had a guy that could take it but no go.

I ended up up doing the wrong thing and went at it with a skinny flat punch. Took me about 30 min to carefully spread the tennon face out smooth and another nervous 10 minutes with a dremil to finish it.

And guess what?  I got three bright lights and a tight front sight!!!  Miller time

Made the grips myself.   Ole Loudmouf is back in action!!

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