M1911 Barrel Bushing Q

[Olle]

So they never wore out, but still came with 10 O-rings?

It sounds like a good idea, but the fact that they're not on the market anymore probably means that they were not all that great. Or did you see a noticeable improvement?

BTW: I just came up with an easy way to custom fit a barrel bushing. I had a gun with a loose bushing, so I dug through my treasure chest and found one that was very nice and tight in the slide, but too tight for the barrel.

I have made an attachment so I can mount a Dremel on the compound rest on the lathe, so I put the bushing in the chuck, a grinding bit in the Dremel, and ground the bore in the bushing until it fit snugly. I just worked the carriage back and forth until the bore was smooth, tried the barrel, moved the compound rest 1/1000", worked it again and so on until it had the right fit. It only took minutes to do, and the barrel is now nice and snug in the bushing.

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Olle

So they never wore out, but still came with 10 O-rings?...did you see a noticeable improvement?

I'm not sure about either of those...The barrel chamber on the AMT was so out-of-spec that it 'bulged' the ejected cases...A Series 70 Colt Gold Cup came up and I sold or traded the AMT...

BTW: I just came up with an easy way to custom fit a barrel bushing.

Sounds good! I had a 4-flute adjustable reamer that I used to use...It was tapered as well as adjustable so I could just keep hand reaming until I had a good fit...

I haven't seen it lately...A lot of my tools grew legs...

[Olle]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

Sounds good! I had a 4-flute adjustable reamer that I used to use...It was tapered as well as adjustable so I could just keep hand reaming until I had a good fit...

I haven't seen it lately...A lot of my tools grew legs...

I was thinking about buying a reamer, but it would be one of those expensive tools I only use once or twice a year. It would probably be cheaper to take it to the machine shop than buying a quality reamer of that size?

It wouldn't take but a few minutes to mock up the Dremel and take a picture if you want to see the setup. It's a bit wobbly, but it works surprisingly well for very light grinding like this. You only need it for the final fit anyway, if you need to remove a lot of material you just use the boring bar first. The only drawback is that grinding on the lathe makes a horrible mess, so you really need to cover the ways and clean/lube everything when you're done.