The Recipe - 3rd gen slide serrations

Ahoy there Gents...

I have this fellows 5906 here and among other things to do he was pretty insistent on adding forward slide serrations. Not a problem says I but... I haven't done this operation before and a mistake here is quite difficult to un-do. So, I took a good deal of time to crunch the numbers, work out the fixturing and do a bunch of test cuts.

I figured the information I compiled would be useful to share here. Should any of you gents want similar work done on one of your pieces just take these details to a machinist or gunsmith and you should be golden...

The Recipe
Cutter or Mill head angle 22° towards muzzle
Vise rotated 14°
Depth of cut 0.025"
Advance workpiece 0.060" per cut
And it's 15 cuts (assuming you want the front to match the rear)

Here I'm running a bunch of test cuts on a block of 6061 Aluminum. That slide there will be the first victim...


Used my Starrett #359 to capture the 14° angle and transfer it up front...


A couple things to note here. Many of these slide are tapered. The slide is taller in the rear than up front so, you must register the angle of the cut off the bottom of the slide rails.

Observe how the slide is clamped in the vise. The bottom is against the vise jaw and the top is cushioned with some soft aluminum bar to allow for the taper.

Both sides of the slide are dyed and a staring scribe line marked. You cant see the line in the pic but it's there. Before spinning up the tool, I run the table in & out the verify the cutter is following my scribe line precisely...


Right side done...


And the left...


Turned out quite nice if'n I do say so muhself
This one gets a bit of a de-burring then wipe the flats, media blast and off to H&M for Isonite QPQ.

While the mill is still set up properly I looked about for other stuff to do...


The #71 gun got an impromptu spa treatment with a bit of machine work


I'm considering doing something to the #40 gun too

Cheers
Bill

Outstanding look! The kind of precision available from a good mill with a skilled operator is truly impressive. I’m not sure whether your customer really needed front serrations but no one can deny they add to the cool factor.

Froggie

Man, oh man, you do nice work Boats.

Great job Bill!

The tradition of the manual machinist is strong in you sir!

I absolutely love the work that you do and the pictures and write-ups that accompany them. At the same time, I'm horrified at the curb appeal of the pistol wearing them.

I think the work was done to perfection, but it looks alien to me. In the interest of full disclosure, I have a white-hot seething hate for forward cocking serrations on pistols, and the hate goes quite deep. I'm fully aware these are merely my opinions and I own them, I'm not looking to coerce anyone.

HEY! Can you do the wavy serrations like on my Pro Series SW1911?

I'm kidding when I ask this.

UNLESS you actually can do these... in which case my head might explode! (I find these alluring!)

Outstanding! Amazing work BMCM! Best regards 18DAI

SWEEeeeet........Nice piece of work.

Now go for the gold ......... round off that trigger guard !!

Very well done, even though I am not a fan of forward serrations. It certainly looks like you have duplicated S&W's factory serrations.

I remember seeing a pic of a slide, I think the poster said it was something experimental... the rear serrations extended farther to the rear, continuing underneath the decock lever.

It would be cool to have serrations in the right-side end of the safety body so that (in fire mode) they aligned with the slide serrations.

As a friend used to say, "Just an idea, for your copious spare time".

(Edit: found the thread/pics) http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-...2-factory-experimental-5906-slide.html?270802

BMCM Custom is walking all over what the real Performance Center used to do.

A M A Z I N G !!!

Thank you for posting this !!!

Love the look on the M4506...

I bet those forward serrations would look great on a 457.........maybe with a Melonite finish on the slide.....and a big dot sight up front.....with blacked out Novak rear.

Decent Bill decent! That’s amazing work hats off to you sir!!

I had cut the grooves on several Colt gov models that we reworked in the mid 80's, I was wondering was the 59 slide in the front as hard as the series 70's were? I guess my problem was I was using a 3/32 carbide endmill and I had not tipped the head of the Bridge port and just cut about .030 deep. Jeff

mikerjf said:

I remember seeing a pic of a slide, I think the poster said it was something experimental... the rear serrations extended farther to the rear, continuing underneath the decock lever.

It would be cool to have serrations in the right-side end of the safety body so that (in fire mode) they aligned with the slide serrations.

As a friend used to say, "Just an idea, for your copious spare time".

(Edit: found the thread/pics) http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-...2-factory-experimental-5906-slide.html?270802

Click to expand...

Mike, I have that slide (and some other fascinating experimental curiosities from the S&W R&D Department).

John

Perfect excellently executed job of course. True pistol art.

Other than cosmetically cool, I was never one to appreciate front slide serrations. (I really hated the “fish scale” ones that started appearing years ago both fore and aft.)

It seems that I’ve reconsidered my opinions and can perhaps see a real reason for them other than cosmetics. I don’t have very many S&W examples with forward “serrations” and until today I have never tried to rack any of the slides that have them. Turns out it’s not that hard although I don’t know when I’d ever have to. Thankfully I’m not experienced in such situations.


Jim

BMCM, That type of craftsmanship just amazes me. I have worked on SWs for over 25 years, sat between 2 guys for 5 years who had done it for over 30 years before I ever got sent to a SW factory school. But the machinist type skill, like you have, makes me shake my head, like how does a computer work. Please keep up the tutorials.
I do agree with SEVENS though, I have never cared for forward serrations. And when the PC came out with that fish scale stuff, I wondered who had flipped their lid....

This is outstanding. Beautiful work!

Absolutely beautiful!

BAM-BAM said:

SWEEeeeet........Nice piece of work.

Now go for the gold ......... round off that trigger guard !!

Click to expand...

Nope! Not doin' it

We likes the big trigger guard just fine we do

I did however mess with the sights...

Stuck a Dawson F/O out front and changed the slide on the backsight to no dots, plain black...


If I do anything to the frame it will likely be a cleanup and stipple job like I did on the #40 gun...


Also thinking about two tone because, why not

Cheers
Bill