Tisas GI type 1911 9mm upgrade

[Magnumite]

Some Oxpho-Blu…

 

[Magnumite]

Reducing size, smoothing, texturing and Oxpho-Bluing the Mainspring housing. Before pic (1) and after pics.

 

[RFBfromDE]

How many Wooly Willies will you be able to make after this project is completed?

 

[Magnumite]

Front sight didn’t play well older eyes..’post’ cut the front sight.

 

[Magnumite]

How many Wooly Willies will you be able to make after this project is completed?

Well the effect works…lol.

 

[Magnumite]

Checked the barrel fit at the chamber end. Link out - some vertical clearance is evident. The link was short, mid section measuring .095”, a #3 link. No barrel bump was evident with the short link. Selected a next rbest takeoff link, .097”, mid way between #3 and # 4 link. Just a bit short. Barrel timing checks were okay.

Selected a pair of grips bought from a member on another forum. Dark cocobolo, full checkered. Grip are flat bottom and have a covered mainspring housing pin. Might have to change those features or the grips.

Now to shoot it again. I keep my old targetscas works sheets over my work mat. Oddly, this target is one of two I used to shoot transition drills with this pistol.m
Pics attached. One is of the final radius under l/behind the trigget guard. Those offended by the texturing need not observe.

 

[RFBfromDE]

Tasty!

 

[Magnumite]

I neglected to include relief cutting the top of the slide stop. I also tuned the extractor. Pics included.

 

[Magnumite]

Well, shot it. This time around it did not like the top round of a fully loaded mag. The round would nose dive into the bottom of the ramp. All I used was the Mecgar 9 rounder supplied with the pistols. I didn’t have any other 9mm mags with me (slaps own forehead). So I’ll look into this issue. It will be a magazine issue or I’ll have to move the barrel ramp forward. Otherwise, reliability was 100%. It was pleasant to shoot. Tracked well. These older eyes are demanding modern sized sights.

Two targets kept…basically all the shooting I did with it except when I shot it on a hostage target preceding these targets.

Target with large colored circles are a composite of distances 12,17, and 25 yards. Shooting was standing, two handed, most of the caffeine sight walking diminished.

The other target with 3 small circle were called fliers, target shot at 25?yeards. I was favoring the left half of the target today. The remaining group was 1 7/8”. Ammo used was CCI Blazer 115 grain Blazer Aluminum.

 

[Magnumite]

Took an old friend with me. 45 ACP. built it late 90’s or early 200x. This pistol shoots under 3” at 50 yards with Federal bulk ball. Any way composite target, WWB ball. three shots up and to right were called fliers. 3 rounds in the group were shot at 12 and 17 yards. Remainder at 25 yards.

EDIT: I perused the archives. I posted about this pistol in the 1911 gun porn thread April 2008. I do recall shooting it for a couple years before that...IIRC.

 

[Magnumite]

Bench testing the FTF top round of a topped off mag. Occurred consistently at the bench. Severe nose dive. I first tried different mags. The SA/Metalforms the the rib down the front and mini ‘feedramp’ fed top round well. So I tried a Metalform with the spscer in the back. This mag is tried and true. Top round nosedive jam. Looked at the pistol closer assembled. Slide off, obvious the ramp needed work. Measured it…33 degrees. Much too mucho.

Maintained discipline and moved the ramp forward but with a steeper angle. The bottom of the chamber was the ‘hinge point’. So the ramp was swung forward at the bottom maintaining a flat plane. The chamber interface was left unmoved. Finished angle was 27.5 degrees. It works (feeds the top round of full mags) with both Metalform mags, the factory MecGar and a 10 round Mecgar.

I cut a transition at the top of the magwell under the barrel after I tested the pistol and verified proper operation. It isn’t a big blend but I haven’t had issue with this small a cut when it was all that was needed…yet.

I disassembled the magazine. Deburred the follower. Knocked the sharp corners off the feed lips. I deburred and polished the feed lips. I incorporated a very slight increase in feedcangle by polishing the bottom of the feed lips more in the front than in the back. My experience with aluminum case ammo in 9mm 1911’s is this is standard operating procedure with the mags.

There is one before work pic of the barrel in the frame only. One pic of the finished barrel in frame only. The rest are of the finished assembled pistol. One pic is with the transition.

 

[jrumann59]

I am sure the angling helps but that ramp looked rough before the polish my guess is the manufacturer figured round nose would mask the problem

 

[Magnumite]

It’s possible. After I uploaded the pics I reviewed the post and thought that was a rough job I did. Then I realized it was the before pic.

Biggest problem was the ramp didn’t extend down far enough. The bullet nose was hitting the corner at the bottom of the ramp. What I was most surptised by was the ramp angle. Standard angle on a 1911 is 31.5 degrees off vertical (on the print 58.5 degrees) off the horizontal datum line of the frame.

My finished angle as stated is typical of what I get in a 9mm 1911. It works. A polished ramp helps a great deal in 9mm. In 45 not needed as much.

 

[Magnumite]

Preparing for the next range outing with this pistol. I moved the rear of the thumb safety paddle forward because of a couple of ergonmics issues. Gave ot the ‘two tone’ finish found on GI gins. I need to work on the scallop of the thumb safety also.
I also extended the texturing on the front strap all the way across the front strap to the flat sides of the receiver. Much better aesthetics I believe. This pistol is fast becoming a favorite. It 'works'.

 

[Magnumite]

Okay, the thumb safety scallop left something to be desired. The curves on the rear of a 1911 are alluring and graceful. Don't read into the last statement. So I redid the thumb safety so the arc coincides more closely to the frame's arc yet doesn't leave too much of a 'smilie' showing.

 

[Magnumite]

Sights had to go…needed something I could see. Had to knock off the new sight’s sharp dovetail edges. Diagonally filed to keep ot flat and on plane. Sight installed with sight press when it finally fit into the dovetail. I lost .025” off the height of the rear sight. No issue, it will be taken off the front sight. New rear sight was fitted until it would slide into the dovetail the same distance as the original sight then was pressed in.
Pics of old rear sight, new sights, preliminary sight fitting, and fitted sight installation.

 

[Magnumite]

New front sight and slide prepared. Sight installed, tenon swaged, cleaned up and smoothed, height of sight adjusted (filed down), front of sight raidius’d and oxpho blued.
Pic of sight swaging tool I made over 34 years ago.

 

[Magnumite]

Pics of installed sights and complete pistol with new peepers.

 

[Magnumite]

Considering contemporary values and market prices. I removed the wood grips and reinstalled the original grips just as a “let’s see..”. They work so the original grips stay with the pistol.
Bushing, trigger were used…$11
New sights, frt & rr…..$51
New sear spring and link…..$14

Total out of pocket to modify, sans on hand supplies…..$76

Experience, tooling, and parts to get to this point…$4.5 billion

 

[Crosseye Dominant]

I was having "mag related" issues on my Tisas until I swapped the mag release for a Wilson Bulletproof. I think the stock catch was lining things up slightly off. No issues since that part change.