Norinco Sight change

[dirty harry]

I want to change the sites on my norinco 1911 I called Novak. first question I ask is if they will work on norincos.

the guy said yes. then the next thing he said disturbed me. He said that they have to "heat the slides up good and hot to take some of the tempur out of them."
I did not like this statment. he said that they break to many tools on norincos and would have to take the tempur out befor cutting. one of the reasons I bought a norinco was because of the hardness of it. what effects if any would this have on the pistol down the road? is this standard procedure?

will the metal strech or shrink in this process? would this cause other problems?

[raw52]

dirty harry,

Good Questions!!

Not qualified to answer however I would also like to hear from other forum members, would have never thought someone would actually remove the heat treated temper prior to machining. Could make sense though, as it appears Novak is comfortable enough to tell you on the phone. Would have to be convinced as I have never heard of this practice before.

Good Luck!

Regards, Richard

[Lafeswede]

Dirty Harry,
Sorry, no answers here either, but am very interested in what you'll get. I have a new 1911 Norinco Enhanced on which I plan to have millet sights installed, when the gunsmith gets back from holidays.

Brgds
Lafeswede

[robertbank]

Dlask did that on my A1 they did for me. Both for the front and rear sight. Has had no effect on guns performance and the slides are hard and strong enough believe me. You can contact them via their website: dlask.com
I put Heinie sights on mine. I prefer the way they mount into the slide.

[Brian D.]

Gee, both the friendly local gunsmiths around here manage to cut dovetails in Norks without destroying their cutters, but they do use the hardest ones they can afford for the work. Both guys have told me the key is to not rush the job, and the cutters come through okay. The one FLG has done dozens of Nork slides by now, for all applications from Bullseye to IPSC to personal defense gun setups.

Pretty tough for me to believe that the big-name 'smiths would be all "skeered" of a piece of hard steel.

[Jim V]

Hmm, when Norks were available in the US Wilson would use them as base guns, they never had to "draw" the slides to lower the hardness that I know of. I sure don't think I'd want somebody heating up my slide to the temps required unless they could assure me that the slide was not going to warp and be ruined. A good sharp end mill with lots of coolant and a slow feed rate and there should be no problems. Of course my 'smith was suprised when he found how tough/hard the slide was but he adjusted to that.