Stainless slide tab breakage?

[TonyW]

I just noticed on the Caspian site that the tabs on the rear of their stainless and damascus slides are not guaranteed against breakage, whereas their steel slides are. ("Stainless Steel slides require extreme care during the fitting
process, to avoid breaking off the small tab of metal behind the safety notch. CASPIAN WILL NOT REPLACE SLIDES IN WHICH THE
TABS IN QUESTION HAVE BROKEN OFF.") I would think it would be pretty hard to break a piece of steel, stainless or otherwise, that is about 1/8th" thick. Is this a real concern or reason to avoid stainless?

[gbw]

I've done a couple, but take their advice and be careful when fitting the slide - they warn to NOT pull off a stuck slide from the front. I did stick one once. What worked for me was to oil it very thoroughly, let it sit overnight. Then drive it off carefully from the rear with a brass drift. It did gall slightly, but dressed off that caused no problems.

[ColtAllure]

They usually break where the rail channel is cut, and that's not 1/8". The harder steels are less impact resistant, and Caspian slides are usually around Rc 40.

Take an old 1/8" drill bit, put it in the vise, and tap it with a hammer. It takes amazingly little effort to shear it off. Of course Caspian's 416 stainless at Rc 40 is much less britlle than the high speed steel drill bit, but you get the idea.

Try the same experiment with an 1/8" rod of 6061T6 aluminum (one of the cheaper firearms alloys), perhaps with a notch filed in it, and you'll get similar results. Al frames have their place, but they're not my favorite.

Caspian may be worried about what happens when one squeezes this area in a vise to *narrow* the slide rails. This is not an impact situation, but the same theme of metal breaking rather than bending plastically is operating.


CA

[Casmaster]

Caspian stainless slides are machined from forged billets of pre-heat treated certified, 416ss. All Caspian slide rails are slightly undersize, and the receiver rails are slightly oversize, to insure a custom fit to most new and used 1911 components. Therefore the Caspian slides will not slide onto the Caspian receiver rails without prior fitting. An attempt to force the slide onto the receiver may cause them to become "stuck/galled." Wiggling or Twisting the slide in an attempt to free it from the frame may cause that piece to break off. (WE CAN EASILY TELL IF THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED) This tends to happen only with stainless and we have seen it happen with Damascus since the Damascus is also stainless. When this occurs use a leather mallet and gently tap the slide parallel with the rails.

[TonyW]

Thanks Casmaster. Must be nice up north in Vermont now -makes me wonder why I ever sold the land I had in Tinmouth.