The Chopper Compendium

Oh, hey thanks guys. I was thinking this thing was getting to be to much of the same thing. Now that the receiver is basically done and I've started on the slide I'm pretty motivated to continue.

I had set some money a side to buy a motor for my chopper hoping to make some progress on it ( http://www.choppercompendium.com/ccforu ... ?f=39&t=90 ). Unfortunately Uncle Sam decided they new better what to do with that money, so I had to send it to the IRS. The good news is that I'll focus on finishing this project instead.

Thanks for the extra motivation. It'll be a couple weeks at least before I can get some more done on it.

gearhead1951 wrote:Hell yes I like it !! I've built my share of black powder guns , but seeing a 1911 machined from billet is a marvel !

I'd consider myself a halfway decent machinist, but I've got the latest and greatest equipment available to me. Building this has really got me amazed at the guys that first built them over a hundred years ago. Those guys must have really had some talent. And John Moses Browning was a genius.

I buddy of mine bought an ol' WWII shaper for cheap some years back. I told him he would never find a use for it. Some of the EDM work you did would have been perfect for the planer/shaper.

I must also agree...Those old guys and their old ways created some amasing designs that have yet to be improved. These days the trend is to over design everything. It's interesting to me to see how simple things can be without the knowledge of how complicated they can get.

And, your "overly modest" skills are creating something that I see as a family hierloom.

rudog wrote:And, your "overly modest" skills are creating something that I see as a family hierloom.

Kinda funny. I never thought of that. It started out as just wanting to learn more about how a 1911 works. Then I thought ,"hmmm, wonder if I could build one of those." My wife has a couple paintings that her late grandmother painted many years ago that are family heirlooms. I bet she didn't think about that at the time she was painting them.

This is pretty cool. Might take a minute to load.
http://animagraffs.com/how-a-handgun-works-1911-45/

Indian Mark wrote:This is pretty cool.

It is . Amazing to watch.

Indian Mark wrote: ( http://www.choppercompendium.com/ccforu ... ?f=39&t=90 ).

Sent you a PM.

I'm into it too.

Just haven't been spending as much time here as normal.

Finally had a chance to dabble with the slide. Cut the ejection port, misc lettering and the notches on the left side today. Hoping to put in the holes for the extractor and the firing pin tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

I F'd up. After careful analysis and a few tears I realized I programmed two cutters with the same tool number. Damn that's frustrating. The thing about a CNC machine is that when things go wrong they go wrong in a big way. This slide is now a total FUBAR. Shit happens.

New slide.

I spent most of yesterday working on this thing. I figured if I didn't get right on it I might just surrender in defeat. It'll probably be at least a few weeks before I can do more on it as I'm falling behind on my actual work.

I finally got some time to get back to this thing. I cut the ejection port on the top, engraved the sides, then machined out what I could on the inside. Then I cut the slot. It's still to tight, but better than too loose. I'll get it back in the cnc and fit it to the receiver.

Then HAVOC struck!!

SONOFABITCH! I crashed the cnc again. Almost the same area. I screw up on a somewhat regular occasion, but I almost never crash the machine. I bought this particular Haas cnc brand new in 2000. I can only remember 4 times actually crashing metal into metal. TWICE on this friggin slide project!! UGGH very frustrating. Anyway, I think it can be fixed. I'll keep you posted. In the mean time I've fallen behind on my real work.

Sorry to hear about the problems.

This is very interesting and fun to watch Please keep at it.

Seen this today thought you might have a go on something like it next?