1911 slide cut

A little background first. I’m a journeyman tool and die maker, plus I have taught blueprint reading and CNC to apprentices and college students. I’ve downloaded the prints for the 1911. Is it just me, or are the blueprints as confusing to you as they are to me? Maybe I’m missing something, but I can’t find a simple overall height of the slide. There appears to be no dimension that originates at the top of the slide.

I’m going to machine the slide cut for a new Trijicon red dot, the RMRcc. Its design goal is for single-stacks. It works for the sub- and micro compact pistols that are hitting the streets, as well as the 1911. It’s narrow enough to fit within the profile of the slide, so an adapter plate is not needed. The way the sight is designed the locators and tapped holes are combined into two posts. No need to drill and tap into the slide. So, my quandary is how deep I can cut, so no suppressor height sights needed, without getting into the extractor or firing pin holes. Here’s where I get lost in the blueprints. I should just print them out, so I don’t have to flip between screens. Or, just bite the bullet and buy the CAD drawings.

This is where the no adapter plate is really a great setup. I’ll be losing my rear sight dovetail. Well, how about a “reverse” adapter plate? I intend to leave a buttress at the end of the slide as an additional recoil lug. Now I can machine a plate that has the dovetail so I can switch between red dot and irons.

Hi,
Have you looked at Kunhausen's 1911 Shop Manual Vol.2?

To tell the truth I didn’t know that a document like this is existed. Now, onto finding a copy of my own.

Midway USA or Brownell's

Run a search for “redux 1911 prints” I printed out the pdf pages and keep handy. They are modern CAD color re draws of original prints that are hard to find.

By the way the top of the slide slopes toward the muzzle end. So not parallel with the bottom rails.

I have milled a few but for Delta points. These slides vary maker to maker so cannot provide numbers. I like to cut down to where the side just starts the top radius. Not always possible due to having enough material for drill and tapping. You will just drill through into the extractor channel. The expensive custom makers do too. The left side will be a blind hole most likely but again haven’t seen the RMRCc.

Leaving a recoil lug behind the sight I have done and with a press fit of the optic I did not install or machine pins/ posts.

Some have milled a small vertical notch i. The rear of RMRs as a rear sight alignment aid for a front post. Others set the sight far to the rear and dovetail for an iron sight in front of the optic. But all I have seen have been custom made sights with a non standard dovetail.

To get the most of the optics elevation adjustment account for the angle that the slides top goes toward the muzzle. But with the large window the DP and amount of adjustment it has, I have just set the slide on parallels and not accounted for it.

The top radius is .5° from the rails. Drawing shows .0085:1. 1° is .017/inch.

The barrel locks up higher than that, .87°. So making a base parallel to the rails isn't a great idea, IMO. AFAIK, the commercial rails are parallel to the top radius. I've made mine .5° *added*, which was what the iron sights measured out to. That put out of the box Ultradots pretty close to zero.

Hi,
Sort of related, explains some things anyway!

How to flat top and serrate your slide on a mill | 1911 Firearm Addicts