oversized 1911 hammer pin

308plinkerVT

Anyone happen to be able to share info on oversized hammer (and possibly/probably sear) pins? I have found Cylinder and Slide list them, but I am actually kinda curious if anyone has run across a assortment of sizes kind of package?

b0400879

Do you already know what diameter O/S pin is needed?

A colossal waste of time: I just hit the Brownell & C&S sites for nada.

In the past/whenever the need for O/S pins arises, I just gauge the holes, add .001" to the SMALLEST minor dia, grab some suitable stock & start turning a replacement. Boom. Done. 5 minutes max.
Screw the jobbers.

308plinkerVT

Wishing I had a lathe, or machining setup (no space, yet) would have bushed, or repinned already. Maybe will have to remedy that sooner than later. And, with wear pattern witnessed, I'm curious to try diff diameters to see for my own eyes the difference it makes. I'm hands on analytical that way. Just me, bein me.

b0400879

Can you define "wear pattern"?

Is the pin or hammer dismounting itself (jumping off/out)?

perry shooter

Normally there is very little WEAR on pin holes in the frame. Some aftermarket frames and pistols from ASIA have misplaced holes or out of SQuare holes . I have never seen any 1911 pins try to walk and start to come out Or cause any trouble with trigger pull or malfunctions. I just buy lots of sets and replace when building a pistol

charliemeyer007

I had a jig made by Wes? McDaniel's, a former Camp Perry shooter in the 60's I think, that held the hammer and sear in correct position so you could inspect/adjust the engagement. When I got sick of looking for shucked brass I gave it to friend for his Gold Cup.

I had some longer links, but no oversized pins.

added. Mine was hunk of steel with the pins in proper relationship but I like the idea of using special pins made to work on the pistol. Nice pic's forgemonkey. People should be able to clearly see the relationship of the working faces on hammer and sear. Wrong angle and the trigger pull is hard or it doesn't stay cocked. Surface hardening isn't all that deep on the parts, if you change them too much/too often the softer material doesn't last.

308plinkerVT

Thanks guys. Egw suggested possible misaligned holes in the frame. Not sure on that but will look into. What I can say I do have is this: I stoned surfaces to a 2.25lb pull when HAMMER is manually cocked. When the slide is racked, however, pull reading goes right back to as if surface work was never done. Witness mark on right side of hammer (clarified: shiny metal wear on ONLY right side of hammer from firing pin stop, not fully across, as I am used to seeing) suggests hammer is canting (I didn't measure, I am going to presume, for now, that the parts RIA installed were intended as functional from whom they purchased from OR made them that way themselves, I do not have direct insider info on this matter) as it is driven back by the slide/pin stop, and it does exhibit a lot of wiggle when manipulated side to side. Out of frame hammer rocks on pin pretty noticeably, highly suggesting a lot of tolerance from one part or another, and the straight back pull of my thumb, with the exact same scale reading each time, is telling me things aren't biting square when the slide hits it. So, I'm off to get different pins, maybe a tabletop lathe (very long overdue), (for starters anyway, as the owner has only authorized so much repair at the moment) and I'll see where it ends up. Thanks very much to all for input, much appreciated.

b0400879

Re: ".... a 2.25lb pull when trigger is manually cocked."

Triggers are not cocked - hammers are.

Believe that we know the answer, but could you please advise us of EXACTLY what manner of abortion/frame is busting our balls here?

308plinkerVT

Thank you @b0400879, it's great to see whenever I typo no one ever misses them..... never seem to escape 'em ..... there, fixed.
Anyway, yes, when the hammer is manually cocked was what I intended to write, my fingers and brain must have been having a disagreement without my knowledge, ha, ha.
It's not quite so bad as an abortion, (nearly) anything out there with some time, thinking outside the box and patience can be made better.
That said, what I found was a set of oversized EGW pins. As this RIA 9mm with ambi-safety has a "special" pin for sear, I only used the oversize hammer pin (which helped consistency noticeably), shimmed hammer for a tad less rocking, and everything boiled down to a much more satisfying interaction between the owners booger hook and the bang switch with a little more attention to the engagement.
Owners own words: "Nice and smmoooooth".
@charlie - aware of the possibility of surface hardening of things, made sure owner knew as well, we went with "working of" for now, will switch to diff steel parts in future if current/previous depreciates noticeably. Owner just wants to wring out potential as it's a new purchase, and aging hands are giving some issues. So, full circle, current approach was appropriate.
Thanks to all for the various input.

perry shooter

Hello one of the BIG advantage of high quality frames like Caspian is the fact that all holes are drilled to SPEC both in size and location and square to the sides of frame One of the first companies to make aftermarket bare frame was ESSEX Some were great while others were near unuseable pin holes about 75 degrees to side of frame magazine well so far off you had to modify the feed ramp so much it made chamber unsupported I would order 5 at a time and could use maybe 3 as is. Others had to get a good guy to weld up pin holes and use a milling machine to recut pin holes the Mag well issue we would just throw in trash I have seen some early RIA just as bad you spend hours and never get the correct relationship between sear nose and hammer hooks IMHO a jig will give you false HOPE if pin holes are out of spec not in size but in location and not parallel to each other