Madhouse

Have you checked with other owners? It could just be that's where the ejector puts them?

Congrats bro, that is a badass pistol.

Yeah, I'm gonna get with this same seller and get several more of these frames now. That one only ran $175, and I bet he'd give me a discount on multiples. AR builds just got too boring lately. I still have several to do, but I see 1911 work in my foreseeable future.

Thanks, but I'll pass.

And their cover of bad company is baller.

I've been listening to those guys since their first album! I'm a fan for sure.

Thanks Tom! I gotta say, I am bragging it to every gun guy I know. My first range trip with it is going to be a proud moment!

I have the wilson combat jig.

I forgot to mention, I have a jig to grind down the tangs on the back of the frame to accomodate a beavertail safety, so I will be doing that later on too.

This was a complete parts kit minus the frame. I actually don't know whose it is. It came bagged in plastic with literally zero documentation. I don't really care much about it, that's why it didn't bother me to tear that grip safety up with the dremel. I see myself building much better equipment in the future, this was the practice piece. I'm missing one plunger from the safety plunger tube assembly, that's why it's not put together and installed. I just ordered it and a staking tool from MidwayUSA. I'm quite happy with this, it was a lot of fun to learn and work on it. I'm going to strip it completely back down and work on tuning some of the parts. I still think I can get the trigger to be smoother. Again guys, thanks for all of the help with this!!

She ain't pretty, but she seems to move well.

Not the best looking grip safety I've seen....

I don't want to jinx myself, but I think I just built a fully functional 1911. Holy shit.

Screw it. The dremel is coming out to play.

Forgive me for talking to myself. So, with the grip safety off the weapon seems fully functional. Before I ruin this grip safety, is it OK to grind it down?

Oh, duh! I just need to take about an eighth of an inch off the top of the grip safety where it contacts the hammer. ..

Disregard that. It's the hammer stopping the slide from going any further. Seems this hammer is too fat in both directions.

I'm racking one of my other 1911's while I'm working, and while the disconnector does protrude, it doesn't stop the slide from moving.

It's the disconnector that is hanging up the slide. ...

Again, thanks very much for all of the input guys. This is indeed more trying than building an AR, but I expected it to be and wanted the challenge. Ok, so I've manipulated the right tang on the sear spring and it holds the grip safety out nicely now. I'm actually able to cock the hammer (it does indeed stop at the first notch), and will lock back in full cocked position. A pull of the trigger fires the pistol as it should. But there are still a couple of things that need tweaking. I had the pistol fully assembled, and racking the slide back cocks the pistol, but the slide only goes back barely enough to cock the hammer and does not go its full travel. Obviously this is an issue, it seems to have a hard stop, at first I thought it was catching on the ejector, but it isn't. I can't quite determine what is stopping the slide from travelling. The other issue is, when I cock the pistol, the hammer comes back so far that it pushes down on the grip safety and depresses it. The good news is, the pistol cocks fully, the trigger fires the pistol, and the thumb safety stops the pistol from firing. I've just got to get the action working correctly, and get the hammer to not push the grip safety down. I'm not getting frustrated, and I'm certainly not going to rush anything, I want this thing functioning completely safely before I test it with snap caps. Then I might mail it off to Tom so his crazy ass can do the first live fire! >:D

Love my XD's too! Had one in .40, sold it, bought new in both 9 and 45.

Thanks again Terry. So I'm closer than I thought I was to done. I've got it essentially all together, but I'm having trouble with the fire control parts. The hammer doesn't seem to want to stay back (cocked).

I really appreciate all of the help so far fellas. I watch countless videos on this as well, and have done almost everything so far based on those, since I came into this with very little 1911 inner-working knowledge. I will try all of the input you've given me. One more topic, if you don't mind - it seems to me that when I slide the mainspring housing in, the sear spring flattens out almost completely, and it doesn't even push the grip safety out. Before the housing goes on, the grip safety has decent resistance, but once it's slid on, the grip safety just flops into it's resting place and is not pushed out. Might I have to manually manipulate the tangs on that sear safety to defeat this?

Well, frick. I guess that would be a problem. Thanks hemi!

The strut has plenty of room in the slot of the hammer, it is defintely binding on the roll pin. I would have assumed the the hole in the strut was a slightly bigger bore than in the hammer.