Gunsmithing info? on a hand gun project

[eli polite]

so I bought my first glock the other day. A glock 17 9mm

I want to do some work on the slide my self. I'm not a machinist but I have access to a fully equipped machine shop. A friend is a retired machinist he owned the shop and now it is just his hobby shop of sorts. 3 end mills 2 lathes and many other tools. He will be there every step of the way to make sure I don't do any thing to stupid and help me with the work.


-This is what I want to do to the slide.. as you can see very simple cuts I already have the tooling needed. I want to cut the slot for a trijicon sight as well.

Here are my questions

- by cutting the notches in the front of the slide and the notch in the rear for the dot sight will I have to get a better recoil spring?
- will the weight of the sight compensate from the weight taken away by making the notches?
-If I take the dot sight off for any reason will I have to change the recoil spring so It cycles properly?

-Is the factory slide Stainless Steel ? just wondering if I have to recoat it or can I polish it up..

-is there any smith work involved in properly adding an after market barrel?

This glock was $600 bone stock so its not an expensive first project gun if I mess up the slide so what its the factory slide ill get a new one but I have to start some where.
I have a block of aluminum that is the same outside dimensions of the slide and I plan on making all the cuts on the aluminum block as practice. Before I go cutting into my slide.
any feed back on this would be appreciated

Any other suggestions are welcomed as well

 

[eli polite]

no input on this ??

 

[seanh]

-This is what I want to do to the slide.. as you can see very simple cuts I already have the tooling needed. I want to cut the slot for a trijicon sight as well.

Here are my questions

- by cutting the notches in the front of the slide and the notch in the rear for the dot sight will I have to get a better recoil spring?
- will the weight of the sight compensate from the weight taken away by making the notches?
-If I take the dot sight off for any reason will I have to change the recoil spring so It cycles properly?

-Is the factory slide Stainless Steel ? just wondering if I have to recoat it or can I polish it up..

-is there any smith work involved in properly adding an after market barrel?

Will the sight compensate for the lightening cuts regarding spring rate? Maybe but I'm guessing you'll likely have to do some testing. Get an assortment of springs and see what works to your liking. Remember what works for one gun/load will not necessarily work for the next gun.

Don't believe the factory slide is stainless but could be wrong

Gunsmithing on the barrel- Yes/No. It all depends on what barrel you get. I'd advise not to go with the drop-in barrels...have yet to see one that was worth a crap. It appears that you're building a precision pistol- don't go cheap on the barrel just because it's easier.

Fitting a Glock barrel isn't that difficult but it does take time, patience and some skill. There are barrels that just require hood fitting and some that need fit everywhere...just speak to the manufacturer as to what area needs to be fit. Briley for example seems to need fitting everywhere (or at least they used to). You'll end up with great lockup but it takes time to get there.

as to working with the aluminum block...not a bad choice. I'd ask if you can get some wood or plastic to work with...cheaper. The only issue is that you'll have to prep/clean the machines properly...talk to your machinist about this. What you're wanting to do is to get familiar with the machine so you don't panic in an "oh shit" moment. Try making a slide out of oak, laminated wood, walnut...it would be a great paper weight/conversation piece

Good luck...keep us posted...get plenty of pics.

 

[josh1982]

The only other thing I will add to this is be prepared to pay for mill tools since the factory slide sits at a 68 Rockwell with the nitration process that covers those slides now. The other thing with taking away weight from the slide, you are going to have to really tune the recoil spring to the gun to keep the recoil from beating the piss out of / stress fracturing the lug on the bottom of the barrel. That locking block above the trigger in the frame can crack barrel lugs when people tamper with the stock setup. Seen it more than a few times through the years. Other than that, good luck!

 

[Mark Housel]

mine in bold

so I bought my first glock the other day. A glock 17 9mm

I want to do some work on the slide my self. I'm not a machinist but I have access to a fully equipped machine shop. A friend is a retired machinist he owned the shop and now it is just his hobby shop of sorts. 3 end mills 2 lathes and many other tools. He will be there every step of the way to make sure I don't do any thing to stupid and help me with the work.

-This is what I want to do to the slide.. as you can see very simple cuts I already have the tooling needed. I want to cut the slot for a trijicon sight as well.

A Trijicon RMR vs the C-More STS pictured? The outline is quite different. The front/rear of the C-more are flat. The front of the RMR is curved.
Make sure you have Carbide tooling for a factory Glock slide.

Here are my questions

- by cutting the notches in the front of the slide and the notch in the rear for the dot sight will I have to get a better recoil spring?
- will the weight of the sight compensate from the weight taken away by making the notches?

The sight will weigh less than the material removed. Whether you need a heavier recoil spring will depend on how much weight you remove. you may need to determine this experimentally.

-If I take the dot sight off for any reason will I have to change the recoil spring so It cycles properly?
Just removing the RDS won't require a spring change.

-Is the factory slide Stainless Steel ? just wondering if I have to recoat it or can I polish it up..
A factory Glock slide is not stainless and I'd suggest some sort of finish on the exposed milled area as the protective Tennifer treatment is gone. The picture is of a Lone Wolf slide which is stainless.

-is there any smith work involved in properly adding an after market barrel?
Depends on the barrel. Most drop in unless they are specifically meant to be fit by a gunsmith (Bar-sto has gunsmith fit barrels).

This glock was $600 bone stock so its not an expensive first project gun if I mess up the slide so what its the factory slide ill get a new one but I have to start some where.

I have a block of aluminum that is the same outside dimensions of the slide and I plan on making all the cuts on the aluminum block as practice. Before I go cutting into my slide.
any feed back on this would be appreciated
Send me an email if you have other questions, I do a fair amount of this.

Any other suggestions are welcomed as well

 

[pyplynr]

Mark Housel won't steer you wrong. I had him install the ATOM mount and rmr with tritium iron sights in my slide a few weeks ago. And it's awesome!

Thanks again Mark.