OK folks, this may be stupid, but I've received several questions all those years, from people who thought I was the master 1911 gunsmith. I am sure most of them were very sad to learn that I am not even a starting student of this fine art, but I've managed to solve several problems.

In any case, for those of you who are indeed masters at this, here are some pictures of the barrel of my .45 ACP 1911. The question is:

Do these look normal, or should I get my local smith to do any work?



If I remember correctly, my gunsmith had to reweld the legs of this barrel, when he fitted in the pistol (don't ask why). These marks at the rear of the legs, look as if they are remnants of the tig welding, but I am not sure. What do you think?





Also, why are the corners of the legs (the inside corners) so rough? Should I polish them?





What about the sides of the barrel's legs? They show some scratches. I do not think they are the result of the pistol's operation, probably they were left at installation. Shall I polish them?

Below are three pictures of the frame. What do you think? Is it OK? What worries me a bit, is the small deformation in the last picture. Your ideas?







Finally, a couple of pictures at the hood of the barrel, the lockup area. What's your comments?





OK, here is your chance to diagnoze problems at El Commandante's pistola. Fire away!

LoL

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

How is the ejection of empties? Was the barrel welded on at any time? Scratches on the side of the lugs look like machine marks and should not be a problem. How is the barrel locking lugs on top? How does the locking area of the slide look?

Ejection is fine. If memory serves me right, yes, the lower legs were welded. Upper locking lugs, I'll have to check and come back.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

Hi John,

The scratches on the sides of the lower lug are machining marks, and nothing to worry about. The roughness on the rear tips of the leg feet look like welding and as long as it doesn't interfere with the barrel linkdown, shouldn't hurt anything...The work is a bit crude though...You can dress the sides of the
lug lightly with a fine mill file if you want, but as long as the barrel rises and falls smoothly, there's really no reason.

The area on trhe inside of the lower lug looks a little rough. Does the link
swing freely. or is there a tight spot? Dress the insides lightly with a smooth
file if it binds.

The two darkened areas on the backside of the lug...Are they just discolored or are they deformations in the steel? The impact surface in the frame seems to match those two areas, and could be indication of the barrel lug striking the
impact surface too early...Either the impact surface is too far forward or the lug is too far rearward. How do your locking lugs look? Sharp and square
on the front or rolled and flanged? Any burrs or sharp edges on the tops of the lugs that you can feel with a thumbnail?

Hard to tell, but it looks like there's a little peening at the front of the frame rails. Indicates a little tolerance issue with the slide and frame. The slide might be touching the rails at the front just as it stops on the recoil spring guide rod head. Dress the rails lightly, and follow the shape as closely as you can. Go slow...

Haven't seen the last 3 pictures yet due to slow download. I'll try again in a while.

What think wichaka? Maybe you can see something that I don't on these...

Okay John..I got the last three pictures. The "Slight Deformation" on the top
of the frame's impact surface could be a problem. The scratches on the hood
might be another clue. Unless I miss my guess, your locking lugs are rolled
at the front, and there may be similar signs of that on the slide's lugs.

If I'm right, the barrel is getting stopped by the frame while it's still barely locked to the slide via the locking lugs. The scratches on the hood appear
to be coming from the underside of the slide as it passes over the barrel, and
the barrel isn't linked down far enough to provide clearance.

Put the slide into battery briskly. Remove the recoil spring plug to make it easy to handle. Pull the slide rearward about a quarter inch...or about
7 millimeters...At that point, the barrel should be fully down with .015 inch
clearance between the top of the barrel and the underside of the slide.
Not sure what that is in millimeters, but it's about the thickness of four sheets of typing paper. The barrel must fall...Pushing it to get the clearance is a false reading.

Standin' by...
Tuner

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

Okay......hopefully I'm viewing the pics right. But there may be something I'm missing due to the angles of the shots.......

How old is the gun? I've not seen a barrel that shiny in awhile.

Pic-1 & 2; Indents on the back side of the lugs? or bad pic? If they're indents, that's what we call in the Law Enforcement biz " a clue ".

Pic-3 Again either a bad pic, or the lugs are uneven where the slide stop pin rides.

Pic-4 Like Tuner said, the sides are not a concern as long as the barrel freely moves. Most factory barrels I see have some machining marks on them.

Pic-6, Ya I see the same thing. Need to dress some areas there, especially on the left side (right side on the pic)

Pic-7 ok

Pic-8, 9 & 10; Ugh! I'm going to take a stab at this Tuner, but a link problem coupled with the barrel lugs. The hood is not linking down far enough when unlocked especially in pic-10. Unless the pic is mis-leading, the barrel should be down at that point, but it appears that something is holding it up?
Me thinks, that the barrel lugs and/or a link has caused the problem. Yes, I'd like a view of the barrel and slide lugs John. If they show what Tuners talking about, then there's your culprit.

I don't have my 1911 manuals handy, but doing some quick measurements will solve the crime.

That's my first take on it. I'll look the pics over a few more times. Its one of those things where I may see new things everytime I look.

About ten years old, but the barrel is not that old, much newer.

These are most probably spots left from the welding.

You mean that the rubbing is not the same on the left and the right curves of the lugs?

Barrel moves freely, as does the link inside the lugs of the barrel.


OK, I'll do that.

OK, I checked the upper lugs and the slide lugs. Here are a couple of pictures:







Both the barrel lugs and the slide lug cuts seem totally unhurt. I mean they are perfectly square although from the picture above may show a bit deformed, they are not, they are perfectly square, with slight discolloration on the rear edges of the slide cuts, but no deformation, whatsoever. Am I correct in assuming that the barrel unlocks OK from the slide? Maybe it needs to fall down a bit more??

Those areas are hard to describe. I think they are remnants of the welding, but I can't be sure, I do not remember 100%. They do not look like impact marks. As for the locking lugs, they are perfectly square with slight discolloration towards the rear, as shown above.

I'll have to check the clearance of the barrel when it is linked down, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Keep it coming guys.

A couple more pictures, just to make this thread too difficult to download. They show the rear of the barrel as it locks at the breechface.





Rgds

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

Okay John...From the looks of your lugs, the timing seems to be okay. It
might be the lighting, but the #1 lug...the one in front of the very first slot...
looks like there's slight flanging. Scrape it with your thumbnail toward the front of the barrel to see if you can feel a snag.

The horizontal scratches on the tops of the lugs indicate that you have barely enough clearance between slide and barrel as the slide recoils.

Do a quick check on the link...Wichaka may have nailed it square on the
hittin' spot. Slide off...barrel in the frame...Slidestop pin through the
frame and link with the arm hanging down vertically... Push the barrel down and back and hold it there with medium pressure and check to see if the slidestop swings freely. If holding the barrel in the linked down position
puts the link in a bind, the link is holding the barrel up off the bed, and will
reduce the clearance between the slide and barrel.

If the barrel doesn't ride the link, and the front of the lug has the pin in a bind,
you may need to relieve it AT THAT POINT. Use paper or emery cloth and go slow. Cut and check...Cut and check...

If it's the link, elongating the TOP of the hole a bit will let the barrel fall into the bed. Go slow...No more than necessary to free the slidestop pin. You can do it with a round needle file, but be careful to keep the hole square with the sides. Deburr the sides of the link with a knife blade when it's done and finish smoothing it up with a piece of sandpaper or emery cloth wrapped around the round file.



Standin' by...

Tuner

My My Holmes, you're rememdy is most fine 'ol chap!

The chamber lug is a bit suspect, like you said Tuner right on the forward edge. So are the marks on the slide lugs, but if they're only discoloration.........then no prob. there.

I dunno, but the barrel lugs just don't look 100% straight to me, again there's a lot of glare coming off the barrel so that may be it. But pic-4 shows the left lug a bit deeper than the right.

Whats that mark just forward of the barrel lugs?

Dress down any peening that's been done on the frame where the barrel has been hitting, see pic #8 on your first post.

Also the slide stop I just sent you, is it going on this gun? If so you're going to need to probably relieve a bit more off the lugs if it's already in a bind as the pin is @ .200 instead of the stock .196 Not alot of difference, but enough to cause more of a problem if not addressed. Check fit before you do it though.

Actually John, after looking at all this..........I'm inclined to send you a barrel and have you lay that one to rest.

Darn, you guys took the fun out of this.