Stripped frame

[RC3]

I have been seeing that a few places are starting to sell stripped frames. I would love to hand build a 1911, but has anyone done one? Is it cost effective and fun?

[jhc77]

I'm curious about the hand fitting. Not sure you can build one at home and not have a smith involved somehow.  I've run across frames on PSA and Brownell's for not a lot of $.

[JPR1959]

There are several YouTube videos on the process.  You might want to start there.

[nightrunner]

1911s require a lot of hand fitting it's not like building an AR or even AK.

It just happens to be a very popular gun that the patents have run out on.

[seez52]

I have built two over the years. Still have one of them, sold the other. There is usually some slide/frame fitting required and you'll have to fit the barrel/link and slide. You might be able to buy some complete drop in barrels these days, but usually to have an accurate gun they will need to be fitted. You can probably also benefit from custom fitting the hammer/sear for a good trigger pull. They certainly don't go together like an AR which I would classify as snap together. AKs are a closer example if you make your own receiver for them. With 1911s you're also more likely to want something in the end that's accurate, not so much so with the AK. Tolerances on the 1911 are night and day different from an AK.

 

It's likely not cheaper than buying one already made, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be. I enjoy projects like this and do it because I like doing it. You can also dress it up with checkering and other personal touches. I considered building another one a few weeks ago when PSA ran a special on the frames, but decided I had enough projects going now already.

[DJTC45]

Buy yourself a cheap 1911 $500 or less, and buy some good how to books and work from there. Start with learning how to fit the Grip Safety to the frame tangs, learn how the sear and trigger work and fit and go from there. That way you can learn,it's not hard but it's nothing you can build in a day it takes time and some tools will get expensive. Thats what I did and now I work on all my 1911's (Wilson's and my Night Hawk)

[samson7x]

It is a lot of fun and rewarding, but not cost effective.  Hand checkering the grip is a royal pain!  You can order from fusion and have the barrel/link fit for you which makes things easier. 

[JPR1959]

There's 13 videos in this series of building your 1911 from scratch.  Most videos are very long (hour or more).

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvr1DpUZeng&list=PLb_WmE72gAaasE40KWqJOLZujpkPx5Thu

 

 

 

 

[Jct1911]

Get both volumes of the following. Detail strip and re-assemble one of your current guns a bunch first. Not gonna be cheap to build. The tools can cost as much as components.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/199119/the-colt-45-automatic-a-shop-manual-volume-1-book-by-jerry-kuhnhausen

[RC3]

This is going to take some time for me to go over all the material. Might be a fun side project over a period of time.

[Grayfox54]

Building a 1911 from parts isn't all that difficult. Building a reliable and accurate 1911 takes some skill. 

I built up a bare Essex frame to permanently mount a .22 conversion unit on. The project came out much better than I could have hoped for. However, getting everything fitted "just right" was a pain in the rear. Not all 1911 frames are equal. You get what you pay for and the cheaper ones require a lot of hand fitting as QC isn't one of their strong suits. Very minor differences in the specs can lead to major headaches.  :wall:

OTOH over the years I've purchased a couple of "know to be troublesome" 1911s  from fed up owners which just needed some minor adjustments or tweaking here and there that turned out to be excellent pistols. In one case the previous owner did indeed buy a bunch of parts in an effort to build his own custom gun and did just about everything wrong. Took me quite a while to straighten that one out, but its a great gun now.

The 1911 isn't that difficult to work on, but it does have a few quirks and tricks that you need to learn. Kuhnhausen's books are an excellent place to start. 

Rather than trying to build a gun from scratch, I would suggest you find a used gun of decent quality that you can get fairly cheap. Then 'customize" it as you please while you learn.  ;)

 

 

[tnhawk]

After considerable effort and time you can build a pistol or automobile. I'd prefer to spend the time enjoying a functional machine.
I've found few changes worthwhile to either. Edited October 11, 2015 by tnhawk

[RC3]

After considerable effort and time you can build a pistol or automobile. I'd prefer to spend the time enjoying a functional machine.
I've found few changes worthwhile to either.

Dont get me started on building a car. Had to downsize that project line to one car and its been mothballed until I get more funds and figure out if I want to rebuild the old engine (already stripped it fully) or drop something far more menacing than a 250 strait six.