80% 1911 frames?

[Dr_Fwd]

Anyone have any experience? How difficult is it to finish?
Any info is greatly appreciated

[furbis]

I did not know they did 80% 1911 frames. I might have to check them out, I bought an 80% AR lower then rented a CNC from the guys and just put it together yesterday so it made it easy but to finish one at home might be fairly difficult

[7insert]

http://www.ktordnance.com/kto/products.php
KTO offers a 80% 1911 Frame

According to them to finish it you must: "The slide rails cut, the barrel seat cut, hammer, and sear holes drilled."

Slide rails have to be straight and I imagine the barrel seat cut is pretty difficult the hammer and sear holes seem to be drill press tier. Im no machinist professional but 1911's require a lot of hand fitting after milling so you will also need a 1911 slide frame file from brownells.

Then again I have seen gunshops in the pacific where workers make them in back yards from blocks of steel without a CNC. If they can do it you can do it.

[BPTactical]

An 80% AR lower is one thing, a 1911 would be entirely different.
I have the prints for a 1911, the fixtures to properly index the frame would be very time consuming and expensive. The slide rail cuts would not be fun, they are cut simultaneously with a gang mill in the factory and the barrel seat must be dead nuts on. If the frame is already heat treated you would damn near carbide tooling
I'll pass

[ray1970]

An 80% AR lower is one thing, a 1911 would be entirely different.
I have the prints for a 1911, the fixtures to properly index the frame would be very time consuming and expensive.
I'll pass

It's OK. He wasn't talking about someone of your caliber doing it.

He meant it would be a cool project for someone like me.

Never can get too much practice with the dremel tool and a drill press.

[Coffee]

[KS63]

http://www.ktordnance.com/kto/products.php
KTO offers a 80% 1911 Frame
What the hell did they do to that front strap? Also, what's a barrel seat? Maybe barrel bed? Never heard of this in relation to a 1911 frame or barrel. I'm thinking you'd be better off buying a semi finished frame from Caspian or Wilson Combat and then just hand fit the frame slide rails to the slide.

[BPTactical]

http://www.ktordnance.com/kto/products.php
KTO offers a 80% 1911 Frame
What the hell did they do to that front strap? Also, what's a barrel seat? Maybe barrel bed? Never heard of this in relation to a 1911 frame or barrel. I'm thinking you'd be better off buying a semi finished frame from Caspian or Wilson Combat and then just hand fit the frame slide rails to the slide.

That is hideous. The barrel seat is the pad that the barrel registers on when the slide is completely to the rear. Its height is critical to the proper feeding cycle.
Personally I would rather get a fitted frame/slide combo and build from that.

I would have to machine it all on manual machines without a DRO, that would be time/cost prohibitive for me. Now if somebody had one of them new fangled CNC gizmos where they just clamp in the frame and hit the go button then yes it is attractive I suppose. But it would only be as good as the programming.

If I want to BUILD something I will go with about a 40% firearm.
I have wanted to build a flint, fullstock early Hawken for quite a while now.
Take a step back.

[KS63]

That is hideous. The barrel seat is the pad that the barrel registers on when the slide is completely to the rear. Its height is critical to the proper feeding cycle.
Personally I would rather get a fitted frame/slide combo and build from that.

I would have to machine it all on manual machines without a DRO, that would be time/cost prohibitive for me. Now if somebody had one of them new fangled CNC gizmos where they just clamp in the frame and hit the go button then yes it is attractive I suppose. But it would only be as good as the programming.

If I want to BUILD something I will go with about a 40% firearm.
I have wanted to build a flint, fullstock early Hawken for quite a while now.
Take a step back.

Funny you say that. I've got the Colt blueprints and access to CNC lathes and 5 axis mills. A few of the guys have been thinking about machining billet 1911 and AR15/10 receivers. They can also do the programming too. The bad news is the cost of tooling we'd need for the receivers that we may not already have. Tooling is EXPENSIVE for a one shot run. Would make sense if we had an 07.