M1911 Decorator Build Finished

[JCHannum]

I just finished this M1911 decorator. The frame is from a raw casting from Sarco, the slide was a partially machined one also from Sarco. Most of the small parts are from a Sarco parts kit, I had the wide spur hammer and rubber grips in my supply. I have not installed sights yet as I am undecided what to use.

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn351/jchannum/P1060858.jpg

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn351/jchannum/P1060859.jpg

The frame is stainless, and machined beautifully. The slide is steel, hardened and also machined nicely for the most part. Cleaning out the barrel channel and locking slots was a bit of a chore due to the long, flexible boring bar and interrupted cuts, but the rest was not too bad.

[Bob Ford]

Nice! Don’t quite understand decorator. The 1911 .45 ACP is my favorite auto. Years ago I put Smith & Wesson K model sights on my brand new series 70. While serviceable for target, hard use will make you wish you had a more robust sight. Ramp front Staked and maybe silver soldered. Fixed rear. If it might be used at night you might change to three dot or dot and bar. Never had the slide eat the web of my hand so do not use beaver tail. Do use rubber grips and like the main spring housing checked for non slip. I find the standard safety and slide release just fine even when I shoot left handed.

[Quetico Bob]

Wow, that’s really nice Jim, Like the satin and blue combination. How long did it take you to build?
Don’t know much about handguns, owned a Lama 45 bout 20yrs ago but sold it less than a year later. To much of a pain to use it .

Cheers, Bob

[JCHannum]

Thanks for the nice words.

The frames are called decorators or paperweights as that is what they were initially sold as. This is the frame as received;

http://i320.photobucket.com/albums/nn351/jchannum/P1060849.jpg

I am a fan of the 1911 too, and am quite satisfied with it as designed. I don't like the Klingon invader grip safeties and zoomie safeties and slide stops.

I have an adjustable sight somewhere around here if I can only find it, I will install that. If not, I will probably make low profile fixed sights. I might change the grips and other details as well, for now I have it up and running, refinements will follow.

[chriskat]

Their web site looks like they are out of those frames. How long have you had it?

Jeff

[Ken_Shea]

JC,
That is really nice, you will put a set of beautiful wood grips on it right
Rubber is for shooting wood is for viewing :D


There is nothing not to like about a 1911 style.

[JCHannum]

Chris; The frame is the C45219, currently listed on the Sarco site at $19.99. I got it about a month ago and got another one a couple of weeks ago when I ordered the parts kit. The barrel, magazine and ejector are on back order for the parts kit. I had a barrel and magazines and made an ejector but the frames came right away. It does look like the frames are in short supply, so I would not waste too much time in ordering if you want some.

The slide I used is no longer available, but the C45222 is probably close to it. It might have more machining done.

Ken, I might get some fancy wood grips later on. For now, the rubber are better than the beat up plastic GI grips that came with the parts kit. Other than the grips, all the other parts were new manufacture, and for the most part nicely made. I did use a hammer and grip safety I had on hand because I preferred their looks.

[andy_b]

I am a fan of the 1911 too, and am quite satisfied with it as designed. I don't like the Klingon invader grip safeties and zoomie safeties and slide stops.


same here. i always liked the 1911 handguns, especially in the basic, no-frills version. hard to believe such a fine design has been around for 100 years. yours came out great. maybe i should pick one of those decorators up.

andy b.

[Cecil Walker]

Good job (as usual) JC.

Cecil

[Sophiedoc]

Had an FFL years ago but got too busy to keep records etc.Sarco states the decorator model need not go through FFL licensee but nothing about other castings and they have not answered Email.Local gunshops are difficult to deal with.What are the rules on unfinished castings?I have most of the other parts from years ago.(Pushing 80 now).

[JCHannum]

Thanks Cecil.

Sophiedoc; I won't pretend to know what the rules are, but the frames are described as some percent complete. The casting I used from Sarco had no machining done at all, and is probably a 0%, it goes up from there to the finished frames available from Brownells and other vendors which are 100%. I think the break point where a FFL is required is an 80% complete frame. Just what constitutes that percentage I do not know. If anyone has any better information, feel free to chime in.

I will say that machining the Sarco frame is relatively simple compared to some other casting sets I have built. It was all done on the mill with some filing and final fitting. Drawings are available on-line from several sources, and the Kuhnhausen book is a good reference. I don't have the book, but did have two other 1911's for comparison.

I also don't know the whole story on the Sarco castings, I think they might be QC rejects that have minor flaws. On the completed one, the dust cover appears to have sagged slightly. I have seen this defect described on others but I was not aware of it until I had decked the casting. Had I been aware of it, I could have compensated for it. As it is, it is not readily apparent but on a high end gun, it would be objectional. The unfinished frame I have has a small goober on the trigger guard, it can be dressed out, but will require the media blasting to be redone or the whole frame to be polished. These are minor defects, but would require handwork and are probably not worth the extra expense for the manufacturer to correct.

[George Bulliss]

Great job on the build Jim, it’s a nice, clean looking gun.

I have been thinking about building a 1911 for some time. My original thoughts were to build the frame from scratch, but now that I don’t have a VMC and an EDM at my disposal I've started to look around for an old gun to rebuild. All the guns I’ve seen so far are way overpriced, so I started to check on the decorator frames after seeing a thread on PM last week. I called Sarco today, but they are out of the frames and didn’t know when/if they would be getting more in.

George

[Sophiedoc]

Sarco finally answered.No FFL liason required but they are out of stock as noted above.thanks.

[JCHannum]

Their web site shows they are out of the decorator frames, but still shows the C45219 frame, which is essentially the same. This is the frame I used. They may be out of that as well, and the site has not been updated, but you might check that specific number.

An alternate to buying a frame and kit is the Rock Island Armory 1911. They sell for between $300 & $400, which is less than the cost of a frame, slide and parts kit. They are a plain vanilla 1911 with no frills and are not bad out of the box. One could provide a good starting point for building up & accurizing a 1911 of your own.

[Bob_W]

Jim:

Nice job on the 1911. I have been working on two frames and slides for quite a while. I purchased two frame and slide casting kits from Sarco some time ago, then bought three more frames about a month ago. Today I order 3 more slide castings. That should keep me busy for a while. The more difficult parts are setting up datum's on the castings such that everything works out while machining and then the special tools I had to make.

The castings do make a good project for someone interested in the 1911 and have the desire to build one.

How are you going to finish the pistol? Leave as is or something other. My brother did one and painted it with Guncoat in dark green and black. Really looks great.

Thanks for posting your pictures

Bob

[Bob_W]

Jim:

When you started machining the slide what did you use for the reference features for the initial setup? I set up my first one by machining one side flat removing the minimum amount of material, providing at least one surface for further setups. Then used the average of the centerlines of the outside walls and the inside walls to zero the slide. The cast bore was then probably .005 off center, which wasn't too bad. I did notice on mine that when a barrel was assembled, the hood would cause cause the barrel to rotate several degrees out of position. Some tweaking on the hood width or slide would fix that but I would have preferred a tighter fit. Maybe I should have aligned off the notch for the hood?

Bob

[JCHannum]

Bob, my slide had most of the internal details done. The slots for the frame rails were undersized and needed to be opened up and the firing pin and extractor locations were center drilled. The barrel channel and ejector slot were still as cast and needed cleaning up. I would not be too concerned about having to adjust the barrel hood to fit. I am by no means an expert in fitting a 1911, but kind of filed and fitted to get a pretty good side to side fit, with the rear of the hood very snug fit to the slide.

I intend to leave the gun as is for finish. I have picked up a Micro sight from eBay, and will probably redo the slide when that is installed.

[531blackbanshee]

nice job jc.
i would love to do the same.
right now tho i have an ak-47 parts kit calling to me to complete it.so any other projects will have to wait.
i wanted to buy an older beatup(cheap?)1911 and then modify it the way i wanted.even beatup 1911's are not cheap to my definition.so i thought "i will buy a rock island armory GI and then modify it with parts from wilson or wherever".once i priced the GI i seen that they also had a "tactical" version that was dura coated and had all the little extras i wanted to add.i would have spent more on the parts to upgrade the GI than it cost to upgrade to the tactical,plus i would have the time to fit all the extras.
so i bought the tactical and was pleasantly surprised at the quality and the extras.
it has lowered and flared ejection port,beveled magwell,adjustable (for windage)low profile novak sights,skeleton hammer,skeleton trigger,extended beavertail(i have a scar on my hand from trigger bite),full length guide rod,ambidextrous safety.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj287/531blackbanshee/dalesslide-mymotor059.jpg

http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj287/531blackbanshee/dalesslide-mymotor058.jpg

i have since jeweled the back of the barrel that is exposed through the ejection port,done the fluff and buff,and beveled the hood.i am very pleased with it and would definately recommend them to anyone especially to modify.

leon holmes

[chriskat]

I called yesterday, Thursday, and was told that the C45219 had been discontinued. I take that to mean they are out of stock.

Jeff

[Sophiedoc]

Got 2 of the slides from Sarco but the frame was not included(NA).They added the cost of the frame to the shipping but no frame.(Shipping $29.95).Any other sources for frame castings?

[JCHannum]

There currently are a couple on Gunbroker for around $50.00. That seems to be the going price now. Maybe check the other auction sites as well.