Todays project

[AllenM]

I am having fun trying something I have not done before.
I am installing night sights on my Para Ordinance 16.40
The rear sights fit right in the existing dovetail but this model has a funky front sight dovetail. real small. I could not find the correct ones aftermarket even emailed para with no response.
So I bought a para set that fit their .45 pistol and today am getting ready to redovetail the slide.

After taking my time setting up on mill I am opening up the gap with a straight bit to a couple thounsanths under the narrow part of the new sight.
Done that, unforunatly my Dovtail bit won't be here until Monday from Midway.
The I can finish the cut.
I plan on building my own sight push tool to do the final install.


(40calpunisher did trigger job on this too. I will be better next steel shoot )

 

[KimberCarry]

I can see you have the tools for the job

 

[esrice]

Good luck!

 

[baldmax]

Keep us posted. I would like to know how it turns out.

 

[HiRoller]

My 2 cents would be to modify the sight and not the slide if possible. It's cheaper if something does not work out, then you haven't bastardized it if you need to go back or lessened resale value.

 

[AllenM]

My 2 cents would be to modify the sight and not the slide if possible. It's cheaper if something does not work out, then you haven't bastardized it if you need to go back or lessened resale value.

I Thought of going that route but the cut in the slide was so small I felt it would have weakened the sight to much. Trust me it took me a couple of days to get up the nerve. The one I took out was all steel the new one seems much more delicate

 

[obijohn]

sounds like you have a front sight with the standard dovetail. recutting the slide to match is the way to go. make sure you measure the sight before you make the final cut, depth of the final cut is critical. then, with a #2 swiss file, fit the base of the front sight to the dove tail. it should be a FIRM interference fit. just drift it in with a small hammer and a delrin rod as a punch. you could use brass, but it will smear.

 

[AllenM]

sounds like you have a front sight with the standard dovetail. recutting the slide to match is the way to go. make sure you measure the sight before you make the final cut, depth of the final cut is critical. then, with a #2 swiss file, fit the base of the front sight to the dove tail. it should be a FIRM interference fit. just drift it in with a small hammer and a delrin rod as a punch. you could use brass, but it will smear.

Thanks for the advice, My dovedovetail bit just showed up and I will be doing the cutting later today. I want to do it when nobody from work is bothering me.
I will post some photos.

 

[AllenM]

My camera won't take a good close up, might be me.
But here is the bit I bought and the finsihed product.
The runout on my mill seemed a little excessive so I had to ever so slightly tap do the top edges to make it fit like I thought it should was tight with out snuging it but now it is very tight.
Test them out in a couple of days. Maybe tomorrow
Once I bought the dovetail bit this was actually fairly simple since there was already an existing cut that I used for depth.
If I sent this out and had someone do it for me I would be happy with the finished product.

 

[USPc40]

The runout on my mill seemed a little excessive

Allen, I can't see what type of machine you are using, but if you can in the future use a collet instead of a drill chuck to hold your endmills. Should eliminate the runout and be a stronger setup.

 

[AllenM]

Its just a cheap grizzly combo lathe and mill. I really didn't anticpate doing gunsmith work when I bought it but I am anyway
I will get a collet for next time. I am open to any advice I can get.

Allen, I can't see what type of machine you are using, but if you can in the future use a collet instead of a drill chuck to hold your endmills. Should eliminate the runout and be a stronger setup.

 

[obijohn]

Allen, I can't see what type of machine you are using, but if you can in the future use a collet instead of a drill chuck to hold your endmills. Should eliminate the runout and be a stronger setup.

+1

 

[AllenM]

Since it sounds like both of you have experiance, any advice for doing a crown on a cut down rifle barrel?

 

[USPc40]

Can't help with that. I have zero experience doing gunsmith work, my background is in tool and die.

 

[obijohn]

Since it sounds like both of you have experiance, any advice for doing a crown on a cut down rifle barrel?

sort of depends on the barrel profile and what you want to do. do you have access to a lathe? if so, brownells and midway (among others) have some great bits to profile the crown. then you lap the crown with a brass lapping tool.

you can do it by hand. there are a few 79deg tools (cuts the famous 11deg target crown) and others that work well by hand. mine came from brownells. a rebated crown will need to be profiled on a lathe.

regardless of how you profile the crown, lapping it with a brass tool is a must.

all that being said, this is really an operation better left to a 'smith. they have the tools and skills to knock this out quickly and much less expensive than tooling up to do it yourself. especially if you f*&#p a 16" rifle barrell and don't have enough length to recrown. btdt.