Or alternately, we could title this....
YOU THERE, WITH THE HAMMER STOP! , Drop that hammer and step away from the gun
This story begins with a well meaning gentleman down here in my neck of the woods, attempting to remove the magazine disconnect feature from his new acquired and essentially unfired 4506 no dash. Along the way, plans were to install a Trijicon SA02 sight set. It didn't go well
After some discussion, my Postman delivered the slide and a small bag of parts at the house...
What we have here is a formerly pristine 4506 slide with the adjustable sight base somewhat cockeyed and now firmly wedged in the dovetail cut. And what's worse the left side of the sight base is bent inward such that the sight body wont fit in there anymore.
And even more distressing is this nice collection of hammer dents on the left shoulder extending down into the serrations
Just OUCH!
Methinks I'll be needing to fire up the welder to fix that.
But before we get to the fixing,...Here are some tidbits of Gun-Fu wisdom to guide folks in avoiding similar issues:...
Hammers: Not all hammers are suitable for gunsmithing, And...one pretty much never has the need to beat on the gun directly with a hammer.
These hammers are for building stuff (or un-building stuff for that matter) not for gun work.
These old Stanley soft face hammers are handy for when there's risk of the hammer touching something you don't want marred. These are handy for many many uses... Bumping the sear pin loose from the side plate comes to mind or. Bumping a really tight fitting barrel extension into an upper receiver.
Small steel hammers: cross pein, ball pein, and planishing, handy for getting tiny pins started and a number of other things.
Recall when I said you pretty much never have the need to beat directly on the gun with your hammer? That's because you're using some form of intermediary tool to transmit the force of the hammer blows force to the work. That being a appropriately sized drift or punch. We're talking about drifting sights for the most part here. For that, a big brass punch is hard to beat There's also available the replaceable tip punches but one must be careful with those. If you slip off the work the edge of the steel shank can catch and leave a mark. I make a lot of punches out of delrin (acetal resin) rod. That stuff is quite impact resistant, cheap and easy to machine. See that big delrin drift with the milled flat in one end up top? We'll be seeing that again soon.
If I really need to beat the living snot out of something, a really stubborn sight for example, I use the biggest brass drift that will work for the job and THOR, a big heavy copper mallet. Worst case if the hammer slips and bangs something it leaves a copper crayon mark I can easily wipe away with some copper solvent on a patch.
Bear in mind also the harder you need to hit something to get it moving the further from the work you want the hammer. That means a bigger or longer drift punch to deliver the force to the work.
And, the old adage... "if at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer" applies. So, if light strikes with a little hammer don't get it done, swinging that light hammer harder & faster is not the way to go. More risk of an overstrike or miss that way and bashing something you don't want bashed. The better option is more mass so get a bigger hammer and light controlled strikes with the more massive tool will get it done.
And you need a vise
Here's the slide clamped in my vise, jaws lined with copper sheet and the slide is sandwiched between some cardboard.
That big delrin drift and THOR bumped the base right outa there.
Here is the sight base pinched in a machinist clamp. I was able to get in between the clamp and the bent side with a flat screwdriver and straighten it out a little then reoriented it in the clamp and beat on it with THOR so the sight body will fit again.
Good thing I still had some argon in the tank. Ran a little bead on there in order to straighten the line at the top of the shoulder and fix the bashed serrations and hammer dents.
A bunch of fiddling with some tiny files and were here now. Off to the blast cabinet.
All cleaned up back together.
It's not perfect but a darned sight better that it was. This'll be heading home after the weekend.
Just be careful, they're not making these anymore so ya don't want to be unnecessarily bashing them up, especially when it's a real clean & pretty example you're fiddling with
And I gotta add... That rear slide from the SA02 sight set... Those are a real pain to fit. Quite oversize and takes a good dead of filing and fit file & fit rinse & repeat to get the thing to fit in the sight body. I think I spent more time filing & fiddling with that tiny thing than I did fixing the damage on the slide.
So, be warned, If you're thinking about getting a set, that aint no drop in part by no means
Cheers
Bill
YOU THERE, WITH THE HAMMER STOP! , Drop that hammer and step away from the gun
This story begins with a well meaning gentleman down here in my neck of the woods, attempting to remove the magazine disconnect feature from his new acquired and essentially unfired 4506 no dash. Along the way, plans were to install a Trijicon SA02 sight set. It didn't go well
After some discussion, my Postman delivered the slide and a small bag of parts at the house...
What we have here is a formerly pristine 4506 slide with the adjustable sight base somewhat cockeyed and now firmly wedged in the dovetail cut. And what's worse the left side of the sight base is bent inward such that the sight body wont fit in there anymore.
And even more distressing is this nice collection of hammer dents on the left shoulder extending down into the serrations
Just OUCH!
Methinks I'll be needing to fire up the welder to fix that.
But before we get to the fixing,...Here are some tidbits of Gun-Fu wisdom to guide folks in avoiding similar issues:...
Hammers: Not all hammers are suitable for gunsmithing, And...one pretty much never has the need to beat on the gun directly with a hammer.
These hammers are for building stuff (or un-building stuff for that matter) not for gun work.
These old Stanley soft face hammers are handy for when there's risk of the hammer touching something you don't want marred. These are handy for many many uses... Bumping the sear pin loose from the side plate comes to mind or. Bumping a really tight fitting barrel extension into an upper receiver.
Small steel hammers: cross pein, ball pein, and planishing, handy for getting tiny pins started and a number of other things.
Recall when I said you pretty much never have the need to beat directly on the gun with your hammer? That's because you're using some form of intermediary tool to transmit the force of the hammer blows force to the work. That being a appropriately sized drift or punch. We're talking about drifting sights for the most part here. For that, a big brass punch is hard to beat
There's also available the replaceable tip punches but one must be careful with those. If you slip off the work the edge of the steel shank can catch and leave a mark. I make a lot of punches out of delrin (acetal resin) rod. That stuff is quite impact resistant, cheap and easy to machine. See that big delrin drift with the milled flat in one end up top? We'll be seeing that again soon.
If I really need to beat the living snot out of something, a really stubborn sight for example, I use the biggest brass drift that will work for the job and THOR, a big heavy copper mallet. Worst case if the hammer slips and bangs something it leaves a copper crayon mark I can easily wipe away with some copper solvent on a patch.
Bear in mind also the harder you need to hit something to get it moving the further from the work you want the hammer. That means a bigger or longer drift punch to deliver the force to the work.
And, the old adage... "if at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer" applies. So, if light strikes with a little hammer don't get it done, swinging that light hammer harder & faster is not the way to go. More risk of an overstrike or miss that way and bashing something you don't want bashed. The better option is more mass so get a bigger hammer and light controlled strikes with the more massive tool will get it done.
And you need a vise
Here's the slide clamped in my vise, jaws lined with copper sheet and the slide is sandwiched between some cardboard. That big delrin drift and THOR bumped the base right outa there.
Here is the sight base pinched in a machinist clamp. I was able to get in between the clamp and the bent side with a flat screwdriver and straighten it out a little then reoriented it in the clamp and beat on it with THOR so the sight body will fit again.
Good thing I still had some argon in the tank. Ran a little bead on there in order to straighten the line at the top of the shoulder and fix the bashed serrations and hammer dents.
A bunch of fiddling with some tiny files and were here now. Off to the blast cabinet.
All cleaned up back together.
It's not perfect but a darned sight better that it was. This'll be heading home after the weekend.
Just be careful, they're not making these anymore so ya don't want to be unnecessarily bashing them up, especially when it's a real clean & pretty example you're fiddling with
And I gotta add... That rear slide from the SA02 sight set... Those are a real pain to fit. Quite oversize and takes a good dead of filing and fit file & fit rinse & repeat to get the thing to fit in the sight body. I think I spent more time filing & fiddling with that tiny thing than I did fixing the damage on the slide.
So, be warned, If you're thinking about getting a set, that aint no drop in part by no meansCheers
Bill
Best regards 18DAI
