All this talk about 1911 frames...

[wwboater]

The steel insert can not be adjusted. It looks like in your pict of the back side of it there is some loss of finish on it, which would indicate that it is rubbing. Or it could be the light....

I bet the bottom of the metal insert is hitting something on the frame. I would file it down little by little. I would not mess with the frame rails if they are right....

 

[jglenn]

the STI unit looks like a Bob Marvel unit really

 

[bluesman2a]

The steel insert can not be adjusted. It looks like in your pict of the back side of it there is some loss of finish on it, which would indicate that it is rubbing. Or it could be the light....

I bet the bottom of the metal insert is hitting something on the frame. I would file it down little by little. I would not mess with the frame rails if they are right....

Those bright spots were me. I ran a dremel with a wire brush down the rails to make sure there were no burrs. Probably not my wisest moment, but sometimes I get impatient. I'm working on that. When you say it can't be adjusted, are you saying it can't be REMOVED to fit and I should do it in the slide?

the STI unit looks like a Bob Marvel unit really

I think you're right. I know that STI has had several iterations of this. This is back when they were STI branded (I'm sure they were made by somebody else). The new "STI" kits are made by Tactical Solutions.

 

[wwboater]

You can take it out to fit. But there is no adjustment in that piece. I would take it out and see if the catch goes away.... If it does then you know where you have to fit more.... If its still there then..............hmmmm... back to the drawing board...

Have you tried the other 22 top end on it?

Once you have it fited correctly make sure to clean the threads and loctite the screws so you dont lose that small piece...

Quick question bluesman2a ...... Did you mill the slide on your PT build? If so I need to come over and let you cut up some of my pistols...

 

[markj]

I agree. I cant see where removing a few thou off the back of the steel insert would be a problem. If it makes you feel better about it call STI and see if you can buy a spare insert! that way you can mod this one any way you want.

FWIW, the 22 conversion does not rely on slide to frame fit for accuracy in any way. The barrel is fixed, the slide comes back to grab the round, and feeds it into the fixed, non moveable chamber. The breech face is self centering. You can have a really loose fit on the frame, and it wont matter. I do understand wanting it to fit nicely and feel smooth when hand cycling, nothing wrong with that. Plus leaving the frame rails as oversize as possible leaves you with the option to fit another caliber slide down the road, should you choose too.

 

[bluesman2a]

Have you tried the other 22 top end on it?

Quick question bluesman2a ...... Did you mill the slide on your PT build? If so I need to come over and let you cut up some of my pistols...

I haven't tried the other top end on it yet. I had to set things down and walk away last night. I made some good progress, but it's kind of hard with a 2.5 year old wanting to play at the bench with you.

You guys are bringing up some great ideas. My next steps: going to mark-up the steel insert and see if I can do some manner of fitment on it. Then it will be to put the other top end on it, and see what that looks like.

As for my PT build, alas, no I did not do any of the machine work. The original PT build I did was with Glenn at Lone Star Innovations. I have a second PT build with a local smith, Daryl Spaeth at Gunslinger Customs, it will be a 6" longslide 9mm. If you're looking for somebody to do 2011 locally/professionally, I'd recommend him.

As I was telling a couple folks here, I have a mill that needs some love, and I'd LIKE to learn/teach myself to machine, but that's still a bit down the road, and I'd probably want to start on something less expensive than a 2011

 

[wwboater]

Where is our daily update???

Come on now bluesman2a ......dont like my comment. We want to know if you fixed the slide?

 

[bluesman2a]

Well, I got a little more done. The slide fits now maybe even a little loose. The issue WAS that insert for the slide-stop. I spent a LOT of time on it. Once I was past that it was still tight so I had to open up the channel UNDER the rail a little. That and some polishing on high spots inside the slide did the trick.

I'm up against the next couple of problems now.

The frame is ramped (not sure for what) but that ramp is interfering with the base of the barrel a bit. The barrel will not sit DOWN all the way into the slide.


Also got some more fitment/blending work done on the grip safety. It now works with the trigger. More fitment work with the thumb safety.

Also played with some new Cratex bits I got today, those are the DEAL. If you don't have them, you need some!

 

[jglenn]

perhaps some pictures of the barrel issue?

 

[bluesman2a]

As with my other trigger issue, I am happy to report some good news here. I'm a hell of a lot closer to being complete than I thought. I was able to meet up with markj and we compared his Nelson kit to this one. There are very definitive similarities, and has has been said previously, this unit looks to be straight-up Marvel in it's heritage.

So I had the slide fitment fairly well cared for, if anything it was a little looser than I wanted, but there was no binding and it has a very smooth action. BUT when I attempted to put the barrel assembly down on top of the slide, it seemed to ride too high, it seemed wonky. I thought the bottom of the barrel lug was bottoming out on the frame and it was causing things to run too tall (by about 1/16" or so).

The first thing that Mark noticed is that it was NOT bottoming out and the lugs on the bottom of the barrel were sitting on the frame exactly like his were. Next he measured the two units and they were within 5 thousandths or so of one another. In comparison, his kit worked fine on my slide. My barrel worked fine on his slide/frame. There was no issue at all, it was just my perception of how it should fit, and that wasn't correct. At the end of the day, it was an education to me what the kit SHOULD be doing, and yes that slight gap/change is normal. Once we had everything fitted up and able to test, the slide was MUCH tighter, and the fitment/action was MUCH better than I had any right to expect on a learning opportunity like this.

At the end of the day, I learned some valuable lessons:

1. Stop. Think. Look.
2. Think some more, look again.
3. Did you REALLY look at it?
4. Consider your actions before you do something that could be a costly mistake. I'll be honest here, if my mill were up and running I would have butchered that frame in a heartbeat and it wouldn't have solved ANYTHING.
5. Don't be afraid to set it down and come back to it with some fresh perspective.
6. If you aren't getting it, a second set of eyes you trust may be beneficial. They may catch something you've missed (maybe even repeatedly).
7. Having a working model to compare against for similar fit/performance/assembly is REALLY nice. As part of this I also learned why this kit uses a specialized slidestop. I probably would have figured it out myself in fairly short order, but it was nice to skip over any of those "trial/error/mistake" loops we all learn through.

So all in all, today was a REALLY good day, solved some problems, learned a bunch got to hang with some cool folks, thanks again!