Build your own Baby
 

About the 1st of May I will be starting on a few new Baby Lugers. Speaking with Hugh Clark he and I thought there may be some of the Forum members that may want to build their own Baby. So, if anybody has a Luger that they want to convert to a Baby I am offering to cut and weld the recveiver, cut and weld the barrel which includes re-crowning the muzzel end, cut and weld the spring guide and cut and weld one mag with the receiver. The price to do this will be $425.00 which includes one of the new springs which we made for the babies and return shipping in the States. The receiver, upper and mag must be sent in completely stripped of all small parts. Seeing as how we wire EDM the parts apart this will only be done at the time we are doing our other guns. You may contact us at kellers@mchsi.com

Neil

Neil,Just for the sake of clarity, to educate those who may not be familiar with what would come next....What would be left to do once this work was returned to the client?

Grip panels cut? Spring for magazine cut? Reblued and polished? Please point out what work would be required after you finish your work...Thanks, Jerry Burney

I finished the last one that Hub did! Grips are probably made by Hugh

In answer to what has to be done to finish the Baby it really isn't too much other than to get it to function properly again and to finish it in the manner you desire.
(1) The welds on the receiver would have to be filed down(I could do this also if desired for a modest fee)
(2) A set of grips would have to be purchased and fit. I use those from Hugh Clark and he knows the length the grips have to be made and there is only a slight amount of fitting.
(3) The welds on the mag would have to be filed down (the slot has to be welded as it opens up when shortened) and the base re-installed and pined. I normally use new ones, wood and aluminum from our GT. But there are customers that desire the original bases and these can be used as well as the pin hole will be in a new location. I use the coil style spring in the mags with 2 coils removed.
(4) The gun would have to be re-assembled and test fired for function with the round you desire to use. The new spring included will reduce the time required as it was developed to be used specificly with the shortened receiver and with Winchester white box 115 grain FMC. There is a tinkering time here but if you have modest knowledge of the Luger it isn't Too Bad getting them to function.
(5) About all that is left is to refinish the gun and we have a very good person doing that, Thor. He has done some Babies for me and most of the forum members are aware of his work. I have had those just desiring a hot salt dip and if this is what you desire you can remove all the present finish, polish them to the finish you desire and have them dipped. IT TAKES SOME TIME.
(6) After all of this is done you just shoot the Baby and smile a lot at the project you just finished.

I hope I have not simplified it too much as it is time consuming. Some of the ones I have done just seem to come together very easy and then there are those that you work on for awhile, put them down and then go back later. We all know the the Luger was a labor intense gun with all the hand fitting and these are not different. However, I have found that if you thest fire the gun and have it working before you start the project they go pretty easy as a Baby.

Neil

Neil, Thanks very much for your post on what would be required to finish a Baby Luger after you do the shortening work.

I am interested to know what Thor would charge to finish the Pistol and test fire it after your work and what a pair of grips from Hugh would run. I know both of these gentlemen do top quality work and for those of us who might want the work done profesionally it would be a help to know all of these details.

So Gentlemen, do you have any quotes you could provide? Thanks to all on this fascinating subject. Jerry Burney

Jerry, I am doing full finish, rust bluing, fire bluing normal parts, strawing of the parts for a REDUCED rate on Baby Lugers if done through Neil Keller's Kustom Ballistics. The job I just finished for him was $470 and looking at my prices for restorating a 4" Luger is around $600, a savings of $130. This work also includes internal reciever, mag well polishing. Test firing and adjusting to ammo is $25 per range visit. The springs that Neil had made up go a long way to make these Babys work right! The effort here was really worth it! I also had to spend an hour on the sideplate as it was very bad on the last one but that was included in the $470.

Has been awhile since I have been here. The baby Luger thing caught my eye. I have had the opportunity to examine 2 of the perhaps 3 known GL baby Lugers. The first I saw was the Bulgarian and that wasyears ago--long before it got in the collector chain. Both of these babies had frames that were cut and silver soldered back together. The original barrel was cut and the original sight band was sleeved back onto the shortened barrel(sweat soldered I believe) The original grips had been cut in center, shortend and joined in a dovetail fashion. Now --I am still learning about babies even after having built 14 of them. My first many years ago---I silver soldered like George did it. After several rounds fired---a crack developed in solder joint. So I welded and have done so since. I didn't realize that I could have advertised here free. But no matter--I am not looking for work anymore! There is an easier way to do the recoil spring follower, grips and mag conversion----but I will just let the experts guess about it. I have added grip safeties to a couple. Have done both .30 and 9mm. Original recoil springs can be modified. No need to pay for a new one. I quit looking at the forum some time ago because to me---it kind of got to be a bring and brag place and free advertising place. Want to make your own baby luger? I will go one better----send me your frame-------I will cut it ready for you to weld, shorten your barrel and send you info on how to do follower, recoil spring, convert mag(no welding required) and how to do grips for about 1/3 the previously advertised price. You will not need a machine shop to finish the baby. AND---I really do not care if I get any work. Just thought the new guys should know there are alternatives.

I am making baby grips from new, smooth Nil-Grif. With their recent price increase, a pair retails for around $80 delivered. My price for a new set of baby grips will be $140 delivered.

Hello all, I have two examples of Art Buchanan's fine craftsmanship on ''Baby Lugers''.I will share them with the Forum if I can send scans to a moderator and then he can post them for me. Lemme know....

Daniel, send them to me,

Ed

hub try to contact you at kellers@mchsi.com but it come up can't. find page.you can contact me
mailto:nbarton126@msn.comnbarton126@msn.com</a>

norm4391