A 1800 Meter Luger !

[sheepherder]

I received a call from Charles Danner last night that my Swedish sight equipped P08 would be finished later this week. Mr Danner had explained to me some time back that he painstakingly draw files, sands, and rust-blues the parts he refinishes. He also re-cuts any letters/numbers/graphics that the refinishing might diminish. His work removes pits, scratches, and blemishes. He did my Lahti and Nambu projects, as well as my Luger carbine and several 1911 builds. Excellent work, and Charles is a member here as well.

I don't want to tie up my lathe/mill table as I will be using it to install the parts removed from the P08 frame - mainspring, safety & pin, recoil lever & pin. So, in the meantime, rather than start a long project, I whipped up a 1911 recoil spring guide rod. I'll continue to polish it and shape the rear while waiting for the refinished P08 parts to come in.

I made a couple of these back in the 80's but I was never convinced that they did anything. Lately I have changed my mind. I had a 1911 that shot pretty well, so I dropped in a leftover JT Masen one-piece guide rod I had used as a pattern/master. With no other changes and the same ammunition, the point of impact changed dramatically. I'm still dialing that .45 in, but since I had some free time now I decided to make another.

I used a Grade 8 1/2" bolt 4 1/2" long, turned down on the lathe. It will take some time to polish it with many grades of wet/dry sandpaper, and then I'll either drill & ream out a spare guide rod plug or make a new plug out of another bolt. Whichever looks better.

Then I'll tackle the assembly of the 1600 Meter Luger.



Pic 1. Turning down the 1/2" bolt.
2. Bolt/rod polished and flange turned down.

Update: I was expecting this post to be the last for the 1911 guiderod, but as it turns out, I screwed up. I wish I could say that it's a rare occurrence, but hey, I make mistakes too. In this case, I didn't go big enough in my choice of bolt size. When I set the turned-down bolt/rod in the rotary indexing head, I found I didn't have enough diameter in the bolt head to accommodate the 'ears' that prevent the guide rod (stock or aftermarket) from rotating. There is a cut in the head of any 1911 guide rod that allows the barrel to drop down fully under full recoil. If the guide rod were to rotate, then the barrel would hit the rod and jam the action. The ears prevent rotation.

So, back to the hardware store and a couple of 9/16" Grade 8 bolts. I turned down and polished the first this afternoon/evening. I'll set it up in the rotary indexing head tomorrow. Maybe.

3.Turning down the 9/16" bolt.
4. Bolt.rod polished and flange partially turned down.



5 & 6. Rod chucked in the 4-jaw chuck on the indexing head. Pic shows head of guide rod being milled to include the 'ears'.
7. Cutoff tool being used in lathe to turn down the flange center.
8. Grinding wheel being used to extend the ears on each side to clear frame rails. (I didn't mill the circumference far enough). I just drilled a hole in a block of aluminum and turn the rod with a padded visegrip. Field expedient grinding jig.

I had noticed that I had an original Colt 2-piece guide rod assembly in my parts box, and after looking at it I decided if Colt could make one, so could I. So, I'll cut that first guide rod made from the 1/2" bolt and thread it to screw into a cut-off Colt guide rod plug.



9. End of rod has been threaded to 1/4" x 28tpi.
10 & 11. Guide rod plug is cut off ~3/8" from flange.
12. Guide nub is threaded 1/4" x 28tpi.

Threaded rod back in lathe chuck.



13. Threaded nub fitted to rod.
14. Both 1-piece and 2-piece rods ready for final fitting to length of 5" slides.
15. Making a guide rod plug for a Colt Commander.
16. The completed guide rod plug, guide rod (shortened to Commander length), and recoil spring for a Colt Commander.

I'll show pics of the finished Colt Combat Commander (with a Bo-Mar rib!) on page 3.