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Hmmm... lint.... glue..... Harold, have you ever thought about patenting that ?

I know what you mean though..... looking at it, hand-cycling the slide ought to feel and sound like two cinder blocks mating.... but it doesn't.

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that Patrick only shot a 250 that day. I've seen him score higher with less accurate pistols. As part of the instructor staff we are required to qualify (270 min of a possible 300) in each and every class, so we've taken to making it interesting-- using pistols instead of carbines, doing it left handed, using unfamiliar guns...... hey Patrick, do you have any stilts, by the way?

11 on the pop-ups is a record for our little group though, equaled but not surpassed by our boss. Ya gotta know this guy, the competitive drive in him is pegged at 200% and the glass on the gage blew out a long time ago. In cases like this there's just no leaving the range until he matches or beats it!

Have you guys heard the story about Lockheed 'Skunk Works' in the late 50's when building the then code word secret aircraft that would later become known as the SR-71? For those not familiar, the 71 is largely Ti and as the gents here are experiencing, Ti is difficult to machine and use in bearing surfaces because it galls. Their solution was to cool it to extremely low temps and machine it. The Russians figured something was up when the workers at the facility would come outside wearing winter coats during the summer in So Cal. How does this relate to 1911s? It doesn't really... except that this problem has been around for a while. Lockheed and later Grumman (on the F-14) relied on coatings to overcome wear issues as well.

Also, as I've been told (don't know it from personal experience) the fuselage plates were hand-fitted. Then they'd fly them to run each plane up to a certain temp, which would cause the plates to expand. Afterwards, the crew would inspect each plate and where they found plates that had expanded and rubbed edges, they'd file/stone/sand the edges for clearance.

Up in the air again, to a higher temp, until they had hand-fitted each and every fuselage plate to the highest operating temp of the plane. (Which was hotter than molten lead.)

No such thing as "ordering standard spare parts."

As for the gun, if I had shot a 12, the boss would still be there, getting regular shipments of ammo dropped in by air to keep his shooting going until he matched or beat me.

Ned, has he ordered a super-accurate gun yet, just for this competition?

I've been wanted a ti-framed gun for a while now but, after everything that I've read up to and including this thread, I think that I'll just stick with all-steel components from now on. The slight weight reduction isn't going to make enough of a difference for me to trump the possible problems.

Of course, I think that some gunsmith or other already explained that to me....

If you want a lightweight but durable gun, get something with an aluminum frame and have it plated with something hard like NP3, hard chrome, etc.

Of course, in years to come this one will be a collector's piece: one of the few Ti guns built by the Grand Old Master of 1911; Nedster.

Well, here's hoping it's a long time before anyone has to ponder the collectability or not of that gun. The boss has not ordered a Sweeney-beater yet (at least not from me..... but he said something today about having been on the phone with the Louisville Slugger factory ).

Heard of the Skunk Works, yes, Mr. X. I reckon a lot was learned there about making things from Ti, eh? That stuff's a heartbreaker from the moment its ore comes out of the ground.... a real tedious process to make it into metal.... no wonder it's so 'spensive. The ore or some refined form of it gets welded into a pressure vessel and through some kind of difficlut, dangerous and costly processing, it is made one step closer to being the barstock we might buy to make something. They CUT the tank open and scrape the precipitate from the walls.....

....but the finer chips burn real cool, kinda like magnesium.....

Ned, I have heard that the refining process was difficult at best... but that sounds tough to the extreme. It almost makes you wonder why it is used in common applications, doesn't it? The fact is that it looks awesome (when left uncoated) and adds major cool points to anything it is associated with... at least to engineers and anyone that knows what it is. I have a watch (soon to be delivered) that is made of Ti. Trust me, it in no way stresses the metal in a way that requires an exotic material, but it does look totally sweet.

Patrick, as far as fitting each panel individually, I am sure that is true. Each bird was basically a 'one off' job and was slightly different. The skin used to crinkle and ripple at high speed due to thermal expansion.

One of the great coups of the Cold War... the Ti used to make the Blackbird was purchased from the USSR through a front company, built into 71s, and flown on recce missions all over the Eastern Block... if only they knew at the time.

Bottom line, nice gun and great job making such a masterpiece out of a difficult material.

Ned, we all hope for the time to wax nostalgic over this gun is a long, long way off. Until then I plan to shoot it a lot (like all the other guns around here) and see what happens.

Who knows, maybe you'll get to replace the barrel two or three times before you're done.

nice gun

Passed the course. I shot a 270/300, dropping three shots at the 75 yard line.

Tried some shots (a magazine or two) on a LaRue at 300 meters. The range is grassed, so I couldn't see any hits, and really had no idea where they were going. When I went to retrieve the LaRue later, there was a hit on it. I didn't hear a "ding" nor did it fall, but I hit it .

Yep-- no way of knowing if it was the shot with 22' elevation or the one with 36'.....

Actually I'm thinking 8' or so would do it, don't you Patrick?

Pat,

I really like the looks of your pistol. It's sure one to be proud of. Also, not to hi-jack the thread but I picked up a copy of your gun smithing book yesterday at Sportsman's Warehouse and so far I've been quite impressed with it. It's really quite in-depth compared to some books I've read. Kudos on a job well done.

Ned, kudos on building a swell looking blaster.

_________________
9/11
Never Forget.
Direct Action. No Prisoners.

I'll have to plug the variables into an external ballistics program for next year's classes, and construct an aiming "ladder" for hold-overs.

Make it a contest, and we'll solve the problem quickly.