ltwguns.com

I have one mainspring housing left from the last time I made a few..... I dug it out and it was 2003 or 4. I made some out of aluminum because I wanted the forward step and it couldn't be effectively fabricated onto an existing aluminum MSH, which, anyway, at the time at least, there were none made of aluminum that I wanted to use.

Making them out of steel with the forward step is no biggie since welding or silver brazing the extra forward metal on is possible. You can weld aluminum, yes, but.... on things finer than trailer frames and such it doesn't always work out well. In recent years for steel ones I have often used Stan Chen's MSH's with the forward step. They saved me the welding or silver brazing. Other times I went ahead and made them as I have since I first did it in, I think, 1989 or 90.

But when I do a radical girth reduction, I still need extra metal as I need to add "hips", as in this one:


So.... I needed to make some more in aluminum anyway, and decided to make them with hips, so I made a batch in steel too. I made enough to offer some for sale. They will be a nice fit in the biggest, sloppiest frame, and need fitting on all others. Widths are a full .545 and .634, perfectly concentric. I've seen some pretty varied frames in terms of these dimensions and many where the frame slots are well off-center from the main body width, so..... that all needs to be checked. Rails are a full .085, again, so it can be made a no-slop fit in just about any frame out there. Not that it matters that much but on a gun that's costing somewhere between $3000 and the sky's the limit, nobody wants to feel the MSH shift in dry firing. I did not even cut a radius on the back side; these are not for the hobbyist and I figure a 'smith that's going to cut a pattern on the MSH probably has a setup to machine the radius and may want more, or less, girth, or an angle, or what-have-you. And I have left metal on it in case anyone wants to do my style of girth reduction. The reason for the hips is explained in this thread: http://forum.ltwguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9678

And if a guy does not want the hips, just mill 'em off in the fitting process. In the next couple weeks I will get my process written down to go with the MSH's-- which I am calling MSH-F, for fitted. They are not the most bargain-priced MSH at $125.00 (NOW $67.00-- 10/24/2016)but they are a lot of work to make on a small scale and offer a lot of extras like not having to peen or weld rails to get that no-slop fit. If these sell well I will make bigger batches and the price can come down.

The forward step is at .300 from the MSH retaining pin hole center and is perpendicular to the rails. This makes cutting the frame easy and should you need to trim this dimension on the MSH, it's easy to just put it in the mill vise and rest the rails on top of the vise jaws, no need for parallels.

More later, but for now some pics. Could not get them to post with the usual method, I'll have to work on that:
A big ol’ block of prehard chrome moly steel:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

….gets squared up….
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

…..divided into four blocks, each will make two MSHf’s. More to come off first. Lots of blue chips on the floor.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

Retaining pin hole and angled front surface….
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

Drill and ream the mainspring hole. Depth has to be just right and the hole must have a smooth finish.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

Cutting the top profile.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

Checking the top, back surface for proper location from the mainspring housing retaining pin hole.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

Drilling the mainspring cap retaining pin hole. I got ahead of myself, this should have been done before the mainspring hole.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

Cutting the side steps, front.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

Side steps, rear, cut.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92534225@ ... hotostream

Separated, logo added, ready to go. One from a 1918 Colt thrown in for comparison:

Well, at $125 I sold them all. So in keeping with my tradition of doing things backwards when it comes to finances and economics......

MSH-F is now $67.00, stainless or prehard 4130 (28-32 Rc).

This part is intended to be fitted by the gunsmith who has some machining capability / experience-- of which there are more and more these days. There is no other MSH out there that can give you this kind of fit.... even if you don't use the "hips" option, that portion is easily milled to the exact width you need, and the rails the exact thickness you need. No wobble in the MSH, no feeling it move side-to-side or back and forth when you cock the hammer. When building a true high-end custom 1911 it's nice to not feel and hear that. A guy paying big bucks for his custom pistol is always happier when things don't rattle

The MSH-F is offered only in the white and plain, no checkering or anything-- that is up to the client to choose and the smith to execute.

These are made from real-deal gunmetal. Guns that get genuine hard use will best show, over time, the toughness and durability of these materials, and yet they are no harder than, or more difficult to machine than, the frame itself.

....what I'm saying about material selection is this: the steel types were not selected based on what was the least expensive and softest / easiest to machine.

A couple pics from the new batch:

Beautiful work even in the unfinished state.

Even better when not magnified 6X !

The forum used to auto-size pics but on my screen at least, those pics are like three screens wide.

Edit: old dog new tricks, just figured out how to shrink them on the hosing site.

Here's a pic showing a hips-style girth reduction from 2010, with the MSH not quite seated to show the hips better:



....from this 2010 thread:
http://forum.ltwguns.com/viewtopic.php? ... s+complete

Putting in two MSH-F’s today. One will use the “hips” and get a radical girth reduction; the other won’t. Here’s the one with the hips, just installed, plenty of steel left on the bottom so it can be milled to a perfect match. More to follow.


Yep, the ledge blues off nicely:


(Next day, 7/22/17)
The bottom surface has been matched, the magwell has been chamfered and stoned smooth....

Gun #2. Getting an MSH-F fitted but without the hips.


Hips coming off—real easy, no special setup required nor even a set of parallels. Assuming the vise jaws are parallel and down flat, just set it on top of them and the locating rail does it all. Hips get milled off—and in the process, if it is a gun with extremely wide rail slots or a wide-open MSH width cut, at this stage you can adjust the corresponding dimensions on the MSH-F. But—since the MSH-F is already made to the large side to accommodate almost any frame dimensions, in this case I didn’t need the extra MSH width or rail thickness, in fact I wound up reducing both a few thou. This MSH now fits like a really good slide to frame fit. Not necessary I’ll grant you, but sometimes it just happens and it is after all much better than all rattle-loose. Some even move when you cock the hammer.


Forward ledge blues off nicely for a seamless ramp surface at the magwell rear.

Here are these two MSH-F's as they progress. These two guns will have significantly different feels to them. One has quite a bit of girth reduction (although not the very max) and each FRAG has a texture on top. The other a very slight reduction and a nice rounding at the bottom-- and each FRAG is perfectly smooth on top. I plan to give each one about a 400 polish after blasting in fact. On both guns measures have been taken so that at the very heel, there is nothing in the way of sharp edges to catch on and shred clothing. The bottom row on the larger one, has been given a pretty decent chamfering to this end.

Comparison of levels of girth reduction-- left is a standard-ish flat MSH (albeit plastic):



"Hips" step with no radius. I have typically done it with a radius as seen above but I think this will be the new process and it's one less step-- no need to mill or file a radius on the MSH hips.

I'm gonna have to order a couple of these to try out.