Slide rework (pictures!)

[CJB]

I'm doing some slide re-work, and refinishing for a fellow forum member (nameless).

Thought I'd show you (and him) some pictures of the progress.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/The%20Slide/DSCF0094.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/The%20Slide/DSCF0093.jpg



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/The%20Slide/DSCF0090.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/The%20Slide/DSCF0089.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/The%20Slide/DSCF0088.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/The%20Slide/DSCF0087.jpg


Here's the work I'm doing -

Take off the sharp edge at the front of the ejection port
Gently round the back end of the ejection port - to help prevent finish wear.
Gently round the sharp edge at the bottom of the recoil spring area at the front of the slide - again, to prevent finish wear.
Fix assorted details - of which I found....
A big nasty burr hanging on at the back end of the "half moon" cutout at the back of the slide. That cleaned up pretty nicely.
The half moon at the front of the slide, at the recoil spring area was anemic. That was opened up for easy barrel removal/insertion.
The "bevel" although not needed was sort of there, I cleaned it up, polished it a little.

The whole idea was to go thru the slide, correct anything (burrs, cutout) and get it ready for a refinish with black "Kal Guard K-Kote", aka GunKote original series, which pretty much wears like iron. It CAN wear where there are sharp edges present, like any finish does. So... by rounding the edges a little, its hoped that any wear from rubbing will be mitigated a bit.

~~~~

And, I finally got a good look at a MIM slide stop.

Folks, its a TOTALLY different animal from the "machined" slide stop.

My machined slide stops appear to be either MIM or investment cast levers, with ground pins attached via a little cross pin.

I'm not gonna say one is better than the other.. just different. Neither presents problems.

If your slide stop has the little circle under the lever where the cross pin is, thats the attachment pin. If it has a cast finish look, its the MIM pin.

There are "at least" two different styles of levers used on the .45 cal "machined" slide stops. One has smooth grooves, one has lightly knurled grooves. I know... I've got one of each on my PM-45's.

Here's the 9mm MIM slide stop....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/The%20Slide/DSCF0095.jpg

Thanks for lookin!~

Tomorrow, I should be able to ground-glass blast the slide and lever, spray the first coat of K-Kote.

More pics as work progresses....


(ps, no, the slide has not been cleaned... it still needs to get blasted, THEN cleaned....)

[CJB]

Oh and btw... if somebody tells me what OTHER work I did... they get a gold star.

I'm not mentioning it....but it took me nearly an hour of handwork to do.....

Hint:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/bandersnatchreverb/The%20Slide/DSCF0092.jpg

Don't ya like the way an spare piston makes a great pedestal for taking slide pictures?

[jocko]

I think the big difference in the two slide stops is the pin itself. The machined one if supposably a bery high proprietory steel where as the MIM one is not. U might indeed beright on the levers , they both could be MIM, certainly no stress there. looks like nice work CJB.

[CJB]

The pin on the MIM, for CM series... is not a separate piece. Its all once nice integrated molded part. That in itself doesn't bother me in the least! Colt has been doing that for years, as also have the aftermarket folks... you hardly ever hear of any problems at all with a molded or investment cast part in that application.

The slide still looks a little rough... it needs to be blasted, then it will look nice and homogenous again.

[PYROhafe]

Did you do some sanding on the underside? Maybe get rid of some sort of mark that was there? (mine has an X on the under side, so just a guess from the hint) Did you smooth down the serrations on the slide? Ive heard these can be wear points for coatings.... (idk... just somethin ive heard)
(Do I get a gold star?)

[jocko]

The pin on the MIM, for CM series... is not a separate piece. Its all once nice integrated molded part. That in itself doesn't bother me in the least! Colt has been doing that for years, as also have the aftermarket folks... you hardly ever hear of any problems at all with a molded or investment cast part in that application.

The slide still looks a little rough... it needs to be blasted, then it will look nice and homogenous again.

right, I was referring t thepin itself being of different material than the MIM slide lever complete. I think the lever itself for both are MIM, again neither to my knowledge have ever given an isuse here either. I sure would not pay $25 to get a forged lever if I had a MIM part or vice versa. Kahrsells um bot for the same price, which makes zero sense to, why ot just have one lever and be done with it, other thanthey use that slide stop lever in their advertisng of differences between the cw series and P series etc.

u know CJB, some people have a fobia about MIM parts and alot ofit is just repetition of hearing it elsewhere..

[CJB]

Did you do some sanding on the underside? Maybe get rid of some sort of mark that was there? (mine has an X on the under side, so just a guess from the hint) Did you smooth down the serrations on the slide? Ive heard these can be wear points for coatings.... (idk... just somethin ive heard)
(Do I get a gold star?)

DING DING DING DING~~~~!~~

Give that man a seee-gar!

I stoned, sanded and stoned and scraped, and stoned... and sanded... jeeze that one cross line was a real pain in the prunes to get out. But, its out.

All texturing will be gone with blasting... that just showing grain from stoning etc.

There was NO FRIKKIN WAY I was gonna redo that slide, and leave some fat ass X under the finish... I have more pride than THAT!

[CJB]

u know CJB, some people have a fobia about MIM parts and alot ofit is just repetition of hearing it elsewhere..

Way I see it is like this: You can get a great part, or a turd, no matter how its made. If somebody did their homework, and designed the part and its process for being made, correctly, then you have a good shot at getting a good part. If they're sloppy and slipshod, and just whack out stuff all willy-nilly... well... then you're gonna get a turd. Thats my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

[PYROhafe]

nice work! If that X looked anything like mine, it was UGLY! I can understand the factory making some sort of tracking mark on the assembly line, but come on... at least make it look decent!

[CJB]

I'm lost on that X....

Too many thoughts go thru my mind to figure it out.

First, there are double heat treat tests on this slide. And, the front pocket on the slide, where the X is, has obviously been machined twice. First with a small diameter tool (less than slide width) then just a hair deeper with a larger diameter tool - which is the same as the slide width (or the flat inside the slide's width rather).

Why on earth double machine it? You end up with little "corner pieces" that are not full depth, but too small to be of any structural value.

To me, its like they machined the slides, figured out the cut was not deep enough AFTER heat treatment and testing. So the slides go annealed, recut, and re heat treated and re tested. But then again, I'm a conspiracy theorist as well....

Forget what I said... its all bourbon laced conjecture. I'm just clueless on what the slide is trying to say.

At least the X is gone