Posted: 8/8/2009 11:40:57 AM EDT
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I would like to build my own 1911. Can someone point me to some resources or something that list all the top brand 1911 parts? |
Building an Ar and a 1911 are two different animals...............I would suggest a fitted slide/frame combo from someone like Fusion or Caspian....to get started...........top quality parts held to tight tolerances will help round out the project..............It can be done for a reasonable investment of time and money and it can spiral out of control.................
one of my homebuilds............I love this thing............. 
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Everyone has to start somewhere. I never understood why everyone has to dog people that want to build a 1911. It's no different than tackling projects around the house or any number of hobbies. It is more expensive than some hobbies, but there's no reason to discourage people (unless they are complete boobs that can't even hammer two boards together without hurting themselves or breaking something).
If someone has the money to burn and they want to do it - I say go for it. It's a great hobby to get into and the really nice thing is you can start off slow with mostly hand tools (a few hundred dollars worth of tools will suffice). |
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If someone has the money to burn and they want to do it - I say go for it. It's a great hobby to get into and the really nice thing is you can start off slow with mostly hand tools (a few hundred dollars worth of tools will suffice).
It is a great hobby! I don't really think it is that expensive, though. I have been doing it for over 20 years, and just now have I barely bought over a few hundred dollars worth of tools. Slow and easy does the trick. Never get in a hurry. Remember, the value of your build will be in your enjoyment and pride of accomplishment. Measured in dollar terms, fllipping hamburgers will be a more profitable past time. As far as fitting slides to frames, that is more tedious labor than anything else. I had a slide fitted to this SS Caspian frame in an evening, listening to the radio. It is even economical, if you choose an exotic caliber, like the 9x23mm Winchester. No way could I have bought the same quality pistol in 9x23, compared to building it. I did get lucky in a couple of E-vilBay auctions, and those days are gone forever. 
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$800 of qualty parts + The Kuhnhausen books + 20 hours = a great 1911. NOT! $950.00 for a Colt receiver and slide to start then another $600.00 plus in custom and aftermarket parts + Kuhnhausen books, AGI dvds, Ed Brown bench guide and about 100 hrs just to start to wrap your mind around project. MidwayUSA and Brownells catalogs. $500.00 in tools, $200.00 in ruined parts, something under $ 400.00 for weapon finish. 20 hours just cussing at your self for undertaking the endeavor and another 100 hours just finishing one pistol and then maybe you will have a good 1911. Of course, I'm just relating my own experience...... Good Luck and remember it's all fun ! Edit: Totaled, I just came up with $ 2,850.00 for my first project. What I got when done was absolutely priceless as an heirloom. |
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Everyone has to start somewhere. I never understood why everyone has to dog people that want to build a 1911. It's no different than tackling projects around the house or any number of hobbies. It is more expensive than some hobbies, but there's no reason to discourage people (unless they are complete boobs that can't even hammer two boards together without hurting themselves or breaking something). If someone has the money to burn and they want to do it - I say go for it. It's a great hobby to get into and the really nice thing is you can start off slow with mostly hand tools (a few hundred dollars worth of tools will suffice). Who dogged someone in this thread. I didn't dog anyone. A lot of people don't realize the work that goes into building a 1911 and I was simply telling him it was not as easy as an AR-15. If he still wants to go for the project, I am all for it and look forward to the results (and OP, if you go through with this, we DO expect pics of the results  ).
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Everyone has to start somewhere. I never understood why everyone has to dog people that want to build a 1911. It's no different than tackling projects around the house or any number of hobbies. It is more expensive than some hobbies, but there's no reason to discourage people (unless they are complete boobs that can't even hammer two boards together without hurting themselves or breaking something). If someone has the money to burn and they want to do it - I say go for it. It's a great hobby to get into and the really nice thing is you can start off slow with mostly hand tools (a few hundred dollars worth of tools will suffice). Who dogged someone in this thread. I didn't dog anyone. A lot of people don't realize the work that goes into building a 1911 and I was simply telling him it was not as easy as an AR-15. If he still wants to go for the project, I am all for it and look forward to the results (and OP, if you go through with this, we DO expect pics of the results ). No one said you personally dogged anyone. If I wanted to call you out on your specific comments, I would have quoted them.
My comments were meant "in general" as any time the topic of building a 1911 comes up, it seems a lot of folks are quick to discourage people from doing so. Depending on the type of build one undertakes, it actually can be almost as simple as building an AR - the build may not be very good, but there are "kits" out there that are pretty much "basic assembly required with very minimal or no fitting actually required". I wouldn't waste my time with one, but they are out there - as are full up gunsmith fit frames/slides and oversize parts which can require many, many, many hours or work/fitting/finishing - not to mention a little of everything in between. |
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Everyone has to start somewhere. I never understood why everyone has to dog people that want to build a 1911. It's no different than tackling projects around the house or any number of hobbies. It is more expensive than some hobbies, but there's no reason to discourage people (unless they are complete boobs that can't even hammer two boards together without hurting themselves or breaking something). If someone has the money to burn and they want to do it - I say go for it. It's a great hobby to get into and the really nice thing is you can start off slow with mostly hand tools (a few hundred dollars worth of tools will suffice). Who dogged someone in this thread. I didn't dog anyone. A lot of people don't realize the work that goes into building a 1911 and I was simply telling him it was not as easy as an AR-15. If he still wants to go for the project, I am all for it and look forward to the results (and OP, if you go through with this, we DO expect pics of the results ). No one said you personally dogged anyone. If I wanted to call you out on your specific comments, I would have quoted them.
My comments were meant "in general" as any time the topic of building a 1911 comes up, it seems a lot of folks are quick to discourage people from doing so. Depending on the type of build one undertakes, it actually can be almost as simple as building an AR - the build may not be very good, but there are "kits" out there that are pretty much "basic assembly required with very minimal or no fitting actually required". I wouldn't waste my time with one, but they are out there - as are full up gunsmith fit frames/slides and oversize parts which can require many, many, many hours or work/fitting/finishing - not to mention a little of everything in between. I'm not picking on anyone, so please don't take this any other way than a question looking for an answer. Have you ever put one together yourself from " drop in " or " over sized " parts ?? |
$450 total parts, 3 years ago, pieced together from several places... Hand fitted the slick-top slide to the frame, for some reason i wanted one with no sights. The slide was actually threaded in front instead of 1/4 turn bushing style, so i machined a 304SS barrel bushing. Been 100% reliable and accurate enough with practice and has a trigger that would make my 3# Timney jealous. Meh, who needs sights  (it is not a carry piece, they have sights)
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| I'd say go for it. I started out with a Caspian fitted frame and slide and a bunch of brownell's parts- had it put together by a smith when i felt overwhelmed. My second parts gun is a Foster ind frame and a slide I got off of Gunbroker and sarco parts kit- did it all myself with the Kuhnhausen books for reference and some hand tools (files, calipers etc...) I got from a home supply. The complete build by me works great, looks a bit like a franken-gun but a great learning experience for the next one... Total build by me cost about $300 for the parts, frame and slide, 40 hours of work- bench, range and fine tuning, about $200 in tools/ reference material- which is definately worth the investment. Definately a fun hobby- just keep it in perspective that you want to learn the gun inside and out and it may not be as pretty as most of the pistols you see here but that will come in time if you want. There's nothing like the feeling of breaking in your 1911 that you made from a pile of parts, fine tuning and troubleshooting and understanding what needs to be done to make it a good/ fun/ safe shooter. |
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Everyone has to start somewhere. I never understood why everyone has to dog people that want to build a 1911. It's no different than tackling projects around the house or any number of hobbies. It is more expensive than some hobbies, but there's no reason to discourage people (unless they are complete boobs that can't even hammer two boards together without hurting themselves or breaking something). If someone has the money to burn and they want to do it - I say go for it. It's a great hobby to get into and the really nice thing is you can start off slow with mostly hand tools (a few hundred dollars worth of tools will suffice). Who dogged someone in this thread. I didn't dog anyone. A lot of people don't realize the work that goes into building a 1911 and I was simply telling him it was not as easy as an AR-15. If he still wants to go for the project, I am all for it and look forward to the results (and OP, if you go through with this, we DO expect pics of the results ). No one said you personally dogged anyone. If I wanted to call you out on your specific comments, I would have quoted them.
My comments were meant "in general" as any time the topic of building a 1911 comes up, it seems a lot of folks are quick to discourage people from doing so. Depending on the type of build one undertakes, it actually can be almost as simple as building an AR - the build may not be very good, but there are "kits" out there that are pretty much "basic assembly required with very minimal or no fitting actually required". I wouldn't waste my time with one, but they are out there - as are full up gunsmith fit frames/slides and oversize parts which can require many, many, many hours or work/fitting/finishing - not to mention a little of everything in between. I'm not picking on anyone, so please don't take this any other way than a question looking for an answer. Have you ever put one together yourself from " drop in " or " over sized " parts ?? Yes - I changed over an aluminum frame springfield lightweight .45 to 9mm - all new top end (caspian slide, kart gunsmith fit barrel, yadda yadda, yadda...) and new trigger/sear/hammer. I also built a caspian hicap frame kit from the ground up in 9mm - caspian slide, kart gunsmith fit barrel, yadda, yadda, yadda... I have been shooting both guns for over a year now without issue. They work 100% and are capable of better accuracy than I am. Are they "works of art" - well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. They are clean, 99% mistake free builds that I built to use, but they aren't $3,000 custom built masterpieces. I never messed around much with "drop-in" anything parts for 1911's, so I can't comment on what to expect. But, as I said before, building a 1911 is not as difficult as some people make out. It can be done and turn out quite well. The difficult part is doing some of the amazing work that some of the top smiths can do, which the vast majority of folks aren't going to accomplish on their first build. |
| How did the trigger/sear/hammer job go ? I have gotten a lot of time in mine. I'm OCB about triggers. Depending what I want the pistol to do triggers have to be between 3 to 4 1/2 lbs. I know for the masters they can wrap a job up quickly. For the home smith it's a bit different. How much time would you say you had ineach of your trigger jobs ? |
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Everyone has to start somewhere. I never understood why everyone has to dog people that want to build a 1911. It's no different than tackling projects around the house or any number of hobbies. It is more expensive than some hobbies, but there's no reason to discourage people (unless they are complete boobs that can't even hammer two boards together without hurting themselves or breaking something). If someone has the money to burn and they want to do it - I say go for it. It's a great hobby to get into and the really nice thing is you can start off slow with mostly hand tools (a few hundred dollars worth of tools will suffice). Who dogged someone in this thread. I didn't dog anyone. A lot of people don't realize the work that goes into building a 1911 and I was simply telling him it was not as easy as an AR-15. If he still wants to go for the project, I am all for it and look forward to the results (and OP, if you go through with this, we DO expect pics of the results ). No one said you personally dogged anyone. If I wanted to call you out on your specific comments, I would have quoted them.
My comments were meant "in general" as any time the topic of building a 1911 comes up, it seems a lot of folks are quick to discourage people from doing so. Depending on the type of build one undertakes, it actually can be almost as simple as building an AR - the build may not be very good, but there are "kits" out there that are pretty much "basic assembly required with very minimal or no fitting actually required". I wouldn't waste my time with one, but they are out there - as are full up gunsmith fit frames/slides and oversize parts which can require many, many, many hours or work/fitting/finishing - not to mention a little of everything in between. I'm not picking on anyone, so please don't take this any other way than a question looking for an answer. Have you ever put one together yourself from " drop in " or " over sized " parts ?? Yes - I changed over an aluminum frame springfield lightweight .45 to 9mm - all new top end (caspian slide, kart gunsmith fit barrel, yadda yadda, yadda...) and new trigger/sear/hammer. I also built a caspian hicap frame kit from the ground up in 9mm - caspian slide, kart gunsmith fit barrel, yadda, yadda, yadda... I have been shooting both guns for over a year now without issue. They work 100% and are capable of better accuracy than I am. Are they "works of art" - well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. They are clean, 99% mistake free builds that I built to use, but they aren't $3,000 custom built masterpieces. I never messed around much with "drop-in" anything parts for 1911's, so I can't comment on what to expect. But, as I said before, building a 1911 is not as difficult as some people make out. It can be done and turn out quite well. The difficult part is doing some of the amazing work that some of the top smiths can do, which the vast majority of folks aren't going to accomplish on their first build. PICTURES........PLEASE! |
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PICTURES........PLEASE! I posted them about this time last year in the post your home builds thread and in one or two threads where you also posted pics of some of your 9mm 1911's, but the pics have since been deleted from my online photo hosting account. |