1911 Trigger bow R&R question

[ar15barrels]

I was so nervous and cautious with that carbide bit. Even more so after I saw what it was doing.

The trick with carbide is to run them slow and use enough pressure that the cutter does not bounce off of where you are cutting and go chewing up other areas of the workpiece.
I use a foredom tool because they have the power to cut without high speed.

[nedro]

I experimented on speed and pressure before ever touching the barrel. And that's exactly what I found.
A slower speed and a good medium pressure.
I also experimented between just a dremel and then with the long flexible attachment that makes it run similar to a Foredom. It was so much better with the attachment as it uses a bearing. The dremel is straight off the armature and not very concentric.

[MosinVirus]

The trick with carbide is to run them slow and use enough pressure that the cutter does not bounce off of where you are cutting and go chewing up other areas of the workpiece.
I use a foredom tool because they have the power to cut without high speed.

That is still something i need to get.

[ar15barrels]

I experimented on speed and pressure before ever touching the barrel. And that's exactly what I found.
A slower speed and a good medium pressure.
I also experimented between just a dremel and then with the long flexible attachment that makes it run similar to a Foredom. It was so much better with the attachment as it uses a bearing. The dremel is straight off the armature and not very concentric.

Good tools are a wormhole.
Once you use a foredom handpiece, you will never want to go back to a dremel or even a dremel flex shaft.

My favorite foredom handpiece is the h20.
It has a lever to unlock the collet, but it uses 3/32" shaft bits.
I wish they would make a 1/8" collet version.

[nedro]

Randall,
I think your old Foredom is just too old.
Sell it to me and get you something new to be proud of.

[pklin1297]

I have and love the Foredom, but since I don't have a full time workshop, for quick and dirty jobs my Black and Decker RTX (their version of the Dremel) still gets more use. For 1911 or general smithing, it still has plenty of torque to do the job at lower speeds. But for the jobs that require even lower speeds, Foredom is great!

[ar15barrels]

Randall,
I think your old Foredom is just too old.
Sell it to me and get you something new to be proud of.

Which one?
I have 4 motors and a dozen handpieces.

[nedro]

Here's the shoe in question.
Now, don't go teasing me about it being ugly or almost the same as brand X. Guns are a personal thing. And God knows that gunsmiths would be out of work if we weren't so finicky about them.
[IMG][/IMG]

[nedro]

Which one?
I have 4 motors and a dozen handpieces.

The cheapest good one with a good hand piece. Which else would you figure?

[ar15barrels]

If you have 220v power available in your shop, watch ebay for 220v foredom tools.
They usually sell for a lot less than the 110v models because people don't want to deal with 220.

[nedro]

I do and will.
Another great tip.
Thank you.

[ar15barrels]

Here is the dirty (grinding) corner of my shop.



Foredoms hang on the wall.
Lots of bits in the boxes on the shelf as well as handpieces on nails on the board that supports the shelf.

[nedro]

Is that a perpendicular grinder/sander?
Man, I was fitting a PRP match trigger into my new to me XD .40. It's almost brand new but made in 2006, so the molds were still fresh and very tight when the gun was produced.
I had to file/grind both sides of the sear to get it to fit. I sure could've used that thing.

[ar15barrels]

Is that a perpendicular grinder/sander?

It's called a surface grinder.
It has a magnetic chuck.
Any flat magnetic metal part simply sits on the chuck and is held by the electromagnet when you turn it on.
It's used for making things very very flat.
You typically don't grind more than a few thousandths of an inch and you do it a thousandth or less at a time.
The downfeed is marked in 0.0001" increments and you can easily split those into 2/3 segments if you don't turn the downfeed wheel a full division.

When you get good with it, you can put a sharpie mark on something and grind half way down into the thickness of the sharpie mark.

[nedro]

Wow!
I love that kind of accuracy. Definitely would've made the XD trigger job so much easier.