Machined dots in slide?

[John R]

You mean they're not lubrication points... one drop of oil in each dot and you are good to go.

Oil wells?????LOL

 

[S&W Rover]

The slides were being machined from bar stock. The revolver frames were being forged on a giant press that took the molten blank and slammed it three or four times to turn it into the rough outline of a revolver frame, which was them milled.

S&W was using contractors to produce some of their springs and small parts, and grips, but was making all of the major parts at their factory. In one part of the factory, they had an old wire lathe cutting the springs that go in the patented S&W revolver sight -- cutting them in an oil bath and dropping them into a wire basket. That old green machine had been running, they told me, virtually continually since 1950 (when the factory moved from the old site down by the river in Springfield to the "new" location).

 

[ou1954]

The slides were being machined from bar stock. The revolver frames were being forged on a giant press that took the molten blank and slammed it three or four times to turn it into the rough outline of a revolver frame, which was them milled.

S&W was using contractors to produce some of their springs and small parts, and grips, but was making all of the major parts at their factory. In one part of the factory, they had an old wire lathe cutting the springs that go in the patented S&W revolver sight -- cutting them in an oil bath and dropping them into a wire basket. That old green machine had been running, they told me, virtually continually since 1950 (when the factory moved from the old site down by the river in Springfield to the "new" location).

Nothing at all wrong with using subcontractors. I worked for some time with major auto manufacturers in the U.S., England, Germany, and Japan. About half my visits ended up dealing with vendors.

 

[Jackdaddy63]

I've inspected three SD9VE's, two made in 2014 and one made in 2013. They each have a different pattern of dots (4 large and 3 small). I think there are two stories being told by the dots. First story is which machine made the slide, and the second story is when the slide was made (or which batch it was part of).

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

 

[HP1]

I have some large dots, small dots and an "L" All 3 of these are M&P Shields 9mm. There has to more to this than just CNC machine tracking.

 

[Ole Joe Clark]

Aliens secret code.

 

[deadin]

Braille for "This side Down" of something similar???

 

[TriumphMan]

I looked at the slide of my SD9VE and saw the dots you're speaking about. The dots are within a square box for location purposes.

Those are CNC markings to tell the QC people that if there's a problem with that particular slide being out of tolerance, which machine to go to, to correct the problem.

If you've ever worked in a machine shop or other production plant, you do QC checks at certain intervals to know whether you keep running or stop to correct tolerance issues to get back on track with production.