1911 A1 Rear Sight Loose

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Sun. Sep. 19, 2021 2:06 pm

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My son and I took my Union Switch & Signal 1911 out for a road test today. I'm thinking it has never been fired as it balked at the first few rounds and then settled down happy as a clam. About the fifth or sixth magazine my son noticed the rear sight decided to take a walk, thankfully it didn't fall out into the grass. Anyway, what do the pros do to snug these things up? I'm not going to stake it because the weapon is fairly valuable and appears to be brand new (even though it's about 78 years old).


 
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Post by franco b » Sun. Sep. 19, 2021 2:16 pm

The staking has to be skilfully done to be invisible.

You could also try burnishing under pressure.

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Sun. Sep. 19, 2021 3:46 pm

I'm going to call Turnbull in the morning and see what they recommend. I'm not going to stake it nor let anyone else no matter how skillful.

 
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Post by jedneck » Sun. Sep. 19, 2021 3:50 pm

Maybe a thin brass shim underneath to tighten it up

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Sun. Sep. 19, 2021 4:43 pm

That sounds better than staking it. Going to be fun finding some thin enough though.

 
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Post by Vbull » Sun. Sep. 19, 2021 6:44 pm

A thin sliver of an aluminum beer can work or a drop of loctite.

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Sun. Sep. 19, 2021 6:47 pm

Yes, I looked around online and there was some chatter about Loctite. Blue was recommended, do you concurr?


 
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Post by Vbull » Sun. Sep. 19, 2021 7:13 pm

The Blue is removeable. (242)
Stay away from the red. (271) The red loctite may as well be weld. Takes a lot of heat to loosen it up once set.
There are many different types of loctite. Some for filling a gap, pipe threads, locking cylindrical parts like scopes, etc...and they come in different colors depending on type.

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Sun. Sep. 19, 2021 8:01 pm

I have some blue. Had to get it for my Aliengear holster because the screws liked to back out by themselves. I know all about the red, some moron slobbered a lot of it on the threads on the M1. Had to boil it out with a heat gun to change the barrel. They never checked the cartridge depth and the headspace was about .030" over, LOL.

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Mon. Sep. 20, 2021 1:00 pm

I just talked to the guy at Turnbull who restores these things. I'm going to send him the slide and sight and have him do it. He said even if he has to replace the
sight it will be under $50. Seemes like the right thing to do.

 
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Post by Hoytman » Sun. Sep. 26, 2021 3:17 pm

Stay away from green as well. Not as hard to remove as the red, but not far off.

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Sun. Sep. 26, 2021 4:56 pm

I sent the slide and sight to Turnbull Restoration. He said he'll make it right.

 
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Sep. 26, 2021 7:40 pm

Wise decision C!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

 
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Post by coaledsweat » Sun. Sep. 26, 2021 8:07 pm

It's worth too much money to hack it up. They only made 55,000, only a Singer is worth more, they made 500 of those I believe.

 
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Post by Paper » Mon. Dec. 26, 2022 9:12 am

Just wondered how everything turned out with this?? I would have actually dimpled the rear sight, itself. It sounded like it just needed a little interference in the sight groove, and this wouldn't affect the actual gun, but given the traction needed to eliminate the drifting.
Just three slight taps with a center punch on both sides of the sight contact area, and then drive it back into location on the gun rear sight groove.

I'm not a professional gunsmith, but I've dealt with these issues before with good success and no visible changes to the weapon, and I have stayed at a LOT of Holiday Inn Expresses over the years.. :yes:


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