[Coyote6974]

Your skills are supurb Mr. Squid.. Very nice work.

 

[Squidsix]

Driving down to grab the last of the parts today from Midwest Gun Works. They are about 45 minutes away from the house.
I finally got an "in stock" alert from Stan Chen and bought a thumb safety. The only ones he has right now are the "long" variant but I have no problem modifying it if need to. (obviously haha!)
The King's barrel bushing I got was a little too large ID, so I am going with an EGW "Carry Bevel" bushing and plug. Those should be here tomorrow or Wednesday.
The Wilson front sight is too small, I guess they don't use the Novak cut at Wilson, so I am returning that and will do something else. I got the plunger tubes (I bought a few just to have at least a spare if I bugger it up)
I blasted the top of the slide and bottom of the dust cover with walnut tumbling media. That really cleaned up the look. I temporarily fitted an SDM front sight just to make sure I got the height right.
I intend to shoot it this upcoming weekend and see how it groups with the new bushing. The slide to frame fit on this one is great for a factory Colt, and the barrel fit is pretty good too. If it groups well, and the sights arent terribly far off, I will polish it again and blue it. I have decided not to try and blue with the front sight on. I just can't get my head around blending the front sight and then bluing. I will just try and be careful when I re-install. Also have to be really careful staking the plunger tube after finish. For now I have a little bit of card stock holding the plunger tube in place for test firing.

 

[Gray Dood]

This is a thread I won't be "Unfollow"-ing.

Thanks for sharing your work and the detailed pics are VERY helpful imo.

I missed your Classifieds LE sale by a couple of hours...so I went ahead and bought one the same day from a local vendor. I know some poo-poo on Colt these days, but the LE is one of their better offerings of late imo. Like yours, mine has very nice slide to frame fit and barrel fitment. And while I very much enjoy my LE...

Can I be first in line if you decide to part with this one? 🫡

 

[Squidsix]

This is a thread I won't be "Unfollow"-ing.

Thanks for sharing your work and the detailed pics are VERY helpful imo.

I missed your Classifieds LE sale by a couple of hours...so I went ahead and bought one the same day from a local vendor. I know some poo-poo on Colt these days, but the LE is one of their better offerings of late imo. Like yours, mine has very nice slide to frame fit and barrel fitment. And while I very much enjoy my LE...

Can I be first in line if you decide to part with this one? 🫡

I will be sure to give you first right of refusal.

 

[Jim2527]

Very nice, lots of respect for you guys that checker. I'm going to try your French border technique.

 

[Squidsix]

Very nice, lots of respect for you guys that checker. I'm going to try your French border technique.

It ain’t for the timid.
This hammer blended really nicely with the grip safety. I was going to use a Nowlin Speed Demon 2 hammer, but it was just a tad too large of a loop. This Wilson “Retro” hammer fit perfectly. (And I always have another pistol for the Speed Demon hammer)
Cleaned up the front sight as nicely as I could while being able to remove and re-install it.
Waiting for the last coat of tru-oil to dry on the grips, which are looking good.
The only two parts left are the barrel bushing and thumb safety. Should have the thumb safety Wed or Thurs and the barrel bushing close to that.
Here is how it looks now:

 

[Squidsix]

Black linen micarta grips, fire colored medallions, 800 grit polish, and six light coats of tru oil

 

[SlytownHogServices]

Black linen micarta grips, fire colored medallions, 800 grit polish, and six light coats of tru oil
View attachment 1720587
View attachment 1720588

Very nice 👍

 

[Augee]

I like to think:
Smaller surface area = smaller checkering (more lines per inch)
So a tiny space gets tiny checkers.
However, I also like consistency. I LOVE what Chuck does with golf balls on little surfaces, like slide stops and thumb safeties, but I lack the tools to do any golf balls.
I think your 20 LPI on the trigger guard is likely better than nothing. On my springfield and one of my BHPs I stippled under the trigger guard. That made sense because I stippled the front strap.
If you checkered your front to 20 or 15 LPI, you are perfectly good to go with an under-the-tg 20 lpi

Like I said, I like the feel and function of the 20 LPI under the TG, and again, the "macro" looking pattern also has a certain appeal, so I've got no complaints about it so to speak, hahaha.

At the same time, I do think a finer pattern could also look good without too much negative effect on the function, but I suppose the best / only way to find out would be to buy a 25 LPI checkering file and give it a try and see which I like better, hahaha.

~Augee

 

[Squidsix]

Like I said, I like the feel and function of the 20 LPI under the TG, and again, the "macro" looking pattern also has a certain appeal, so I've got no complaints about it so to speak, hahaha.

At the same time, I do think a finer pattern could also look good without too much negative effect on the function, but I suppose the best / only way to find out would be to buy a 25 LPI checkering file and give it a try and see which I like better, hahaha.

~Augee

I read Burton's posts and spent about $200 on files, thinking myself all ambitious and stuff.
After totally wrecking my Tisas, I thought: Hey, maybe this stuff ain't so easy after all...
But yeah, having the files in various lpi really gives you options. Note: THEY ARE NOT LABELED. At least the Grobet's are not. So I put golf ball handles on mine and sharpied the golf balls with the LPI of that file.
I used my 20 LPI on a stainless S&W frame once. That file became a paperweight pretty fast doing that.
I sanded off the nitride on one of the frames I checkered after that. Way better to burn up some sandpaper than a $45 file.

 

[MrMcSimon]

I read Burton's posts and spent about $200 on files, thinking myself all ambitious and stuff.
After totally wrecking my Tisas, I thought: Hey, maybe this stuff ain't so easy after all...
But yeah, having the files in various lpi really gives you options. Note: THEY ARE NOT LABELED. At least the Grobet's are not. So I put golf ball handles on mine and sharpied the golf balls with the LPI of that file.
I used my 20 LPI on a stainless S&W frame once. That file became a paperweight pretty fast doing that.
I sanded off the nitride on one of the frames I checkered after that. Way better to burn up some sandpaper than a $45 file.

I heard the steel Tisas uses is exceptionally hard and difficult to checker.

 

[Squidsix]

I heard the steel Tisas uses is exceptionally hard and difficult to checker.

That may be true, but regardless I was not being careful, not taking my time, and maybe even had a couple of cocktails. (Not that I would mix alcohol and tools...)
I understand my limitations better, and the buggered Tisas is a great tool to remind me of how things WILL go wrong if you don't apply the brain to the task.

 

[Greenleader]

Driving down to grab the last of the parts today from Midwest Gun Works. They are about 45 minutes away from the house.
I finally got an "in stock" alert from Stan Chen and bought a thumb safety. The only ones he has right now are the "long" variant but I have no problem modifying it if need to. (obviously haha!)
The King's barrel bushing I got was a little too large ID, so I am going with an EGW "Carry Bevel" bushing and plug. Those should be here tomorrow or Wednesday.
The Wilson front sight is too small, I guess they don't use the Novak cut at Wilson, so I am returning that and will do something else. I got the plunger tubes (I bought a few just to have at least a spare if I bugger it up)
I blasted the top of the slide and bottom of the dust cover with walnut tumbling media. That really cleaned up the look. I temporarily fitted an SDM front sight just to make sure I got the height right.
I intend to shoot it this upcoming weekend and see how it groups with the new bushing. The slide to frame fit on this one is great for a factory Colt, and the barrel fit is pretty good too. If it groups well, and the sights arent terribly far off, I will polish it again and blue it. I have decided not to try and blue with the front sight on. I just can't get my head around blending the front sight and then bluing. I will just try and be careful when I re-install. Also have to be really careful staking the plunger tube after finish. For now I have a little bit of card stock holding the plunger tube in place for test firing.

I did the same thing with a white gold bead I wanted from Wilson. They use their own cut and if you don’t read really close you miss it.

 

[Squidsix]

I went with SDM. Its a great sight, and perfectly sized

 

[Squidsix]

Fitted the grips. They were not quite straight. Much better now

two slide stops and extractors cut to match, like usual. Should have the bushing and thumb safety tomorrow.

 

[MOshtr]

Incredible work and a real beauty!

 

[Au Jus in Bello]

I'm so tired of all these personal build threads I have to keeping hitting "like" in.

 

[Squidsix]

The bushing and Chen TS did not come today. Instead I am drinking. Cheers!

P

 

[Squidsix]

Ok. I had three cocktails and I have decided to sand off the “Limited Edition” rollmark.
gonna get after it tomorrow. It is a terrible cheesy bit of nonsense on an otherwise beautiful pistol.
It is also pretty shallow already:

 

[MrMcSimon]

Ok. I had three cocktails and I have decided to sand off the “Limited Edition” rollmark.
gonna get after it tomorrow. It is a terrible cheesy bit of nonsense on an otherwise beautiful pistol.
It is also pretty shallow already:
View attachment 1722866

I can understand that, I agree the gun would have been better without the roll mark, but it seems like a big job. I'd be afraid of making my slide all wavy, the way my brain gets after three cocktails.

Since it's your build and truly a limited edition, you could consider having something engraved to add to it. It should match since both would be laser engraved, something like a signature, "Limited Edition" with your initials in script or add some descriptive, "Limited Edition Blaster" something more clever.