ltwguns.com

Just a couple things I've done on a recent project to get a little weight out.

Very little, to be honest-- but if you take a little out of a lot of places, eventually you get enough out to notice.

There's a lot of metal on an MSH that really doesn't need to be there:
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Even the rear sight is not immune:

Gun parts on a diet !

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GO-FOR-IT

I have to admit, it took me a minute to figure out what in the heck that thing was! I bet it took a little bit of head scratchin' to figure out how much metal not to take.

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J. Timmons & Sons Custom 1911 Pistols
South Carolina
864-558-1911
www.jttimmonscustom1911pistols.com

You mill and mill and mill until there's nothing but chips and then weld some of them back together

I find this exercise interesting, but really can't figure the reason why the owner/end user thinks an ounce or two will make any difference.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Kind of reminds me of the guys who want an M4 profile barrel on their AR carbine, as opposed to the HBAR. Just do a few more pushups....

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No good deed goes unpunished.

That is one way of looking at it. My brother used to scoff at some of the measures guys would go to in motorcycle roadracing to take weight out-- even turning fork sliders down. Now that was a small return because when your whittling out aluminum already 1/3 the weight of steel...... he always said, "just visit the head before getting on the bike".

And yet, like I say of you can get 4 oz. out of it, that's going on 10%..... I won't know what I have got out of this one until it's all done but I can say that comparing this MSH to one unmachined there's quite a dif just hefting by hand. But yeah, that dif would be hard to perceive in an assembled gun.

An old adage from the backpackers; "Look after the ounces, and the pounds will take care of themselves."

Very nice work there Ned! Did you weigh the entire project before you started?

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DerrPrecision.com

No I didn't. I will get some weights before I ship though!

Even if it didn't make much difference in the end, it is very cool to see the project. As always, great work Ned! The things you accomplish never cease to amaze me.

Some more air added to this pistol. Holes in the slide were done before the decision was made to fit this one with a Series 80 safety:

Hulk? Jolly Green Giant? What is purpose of the socket head screw? Ambi thumb safety stop?

Gumby. Time has not been good to him, so-- I gave him a job.

Yes, that's a down stop. Threaded in, staked over and trimmed on the inside and could not come out anyway because its trimmed head has a space to live in, but no clearance, in the grip.

Gives a nice big contact area, safety has a corresponding radiused cut so it is a good solid stop that won't change over the years.

Ned's so cray cray.....lol. One day I will own a gun from Ned.


Always cool stuff from you Ned. It gets me looking deeper into the realm of possibilities.



Chris

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Thanks in advance,

Chris

http://www.combatprecision.com
info@combatprecision.com
Facebook/CombatPrecision

Recent “adventures in weight lifting”.

Gold is at $1275 / ounce today. The cost of this stainless steel removed approaches that. Not going as far on this one as I have on others in the past because, well, you can always put another hour into getting another 1/20 oz. out but at what point is it worth it? It’s easy enough to find places where you can get some actual, measurable weight out without compromising integrity, but if you obsess and keep going, at best you will put a lot of time into getting an amount of weight out that no gun hand or waist line in the world will notice. At worst you may do it somewhere you shouldn’t have and create a durability or reliability problem, or worse yet, a safety issue. Your chances of breaking through somewhere you didn’t mean to go up. I'm not doing anything on this one to lighten the slide and I never, ever flute a standard configuration .45 barrel.

This is a Colt Rail Gun frame with a Colt Commander slide—the client bought both stainless Colts brand new and asked me to combine the parts for this configuration.

I was also comparing the weight of different grip materials. Below, my FRAG grips of locust and some FRAG'd VZ's..... the locust is among the toughest of woods and a little lighter but since these VZ's have already been fitted to the gun and there's no denying G10 is about as tough s grips get.... they stay.




Many smaller holes under the grips this time, in place a few bigger ones. My four-post plunger tube will be installed after test firing and DLC.