1911 Hammer build

I got 5 of the 1911 I had wire cut from a hard high strength steel, Hardness is RC48. Before getting the steel cut I tested a blank to see if I could put the needed holes in it. I was able to do so with carbide drills and reamers. Outline is standard 1911 style but that can be altered later. I intend to use the High Standard design for the hammer hooks. (Hook is a U notch very similar to hammers on other guns so there is no need for secondary angle) Also half-cock safety notch is moved back .015" so it will not hit the sear when trigger is pulled to the stop. Suggestions on making a better hammer?

Cut the half cock notch deeper on the sides so it only contacts the center of the sear, so you don't mess up the sear to hook areas.  EGW cuts that clean away, though I think you could just make the notch bottom a V just as easy

Also in my limited experience an over-travel to just release the hammer will still leave the sear scraping over the half cock notch (half cock taller than the hammer hooks), so minimum effective over-travel has to be increased to clear that too.   There may be valid reasons it is engineered this way, or that may be a detail you can change.  I don't know.

Merick; Most triggers the outer edge of the half-cock is the same as the hammer hooks.. Being that the secondary angle pushes the sear off the hooks it will hit the half-cock. Wear and stoning the hammer makes it worse so I had the half-cock blank radius cut .015" smaller than the radius for the hooks. But in addition I added .015 to the hook radius. So as it's shown there is .030" difference. The narrow half-cock is done so it's a wide a the slot in the hammer, since the sear don't touch that spot the sear is recessed to allow the half-cock to pass by when the trigger is pulled to the stop. My lowering of the half-cock eliminates that requirement but it can be trimmed if desired.

Changing the geometry in relationship to the hammer pin hole will affect thumb safety tolerances because of the new sear position (rotated farther forward if hooks pushed forward on the hammer. You will probably have to file a considerable chunk off the safety
Jon

Jon Eulette wrote: ...relationship to the hammer pin hole ...

Cutting the features before the pin hole on which the are referenced feels like pouring a foundation after the doors are installed, then building the walls to fit.

That is not what I did. The hammer is as all other hammers dimensions. The pivot hole will be put into the same place. The thumb safety radius though as wire cut is smaller than required it will be  cut into the the exact same position as needed. The half-cock radius was shortened by .015". The radius where the hammer hooks are was moved slightly so that the end of the radius is at the same location that the standard hammer ends at the thumb safety round notch.
 Simply put I use the drawing of the Hammer available on line and drew the hammer in AutoCad. Nothing was changed except the radius of the half-cock and the moved radius of the hammer hooks. Before getting some wire cut I made the hammer from softer metal so I could machine it. Works great, half-cock works, thumb safety works only problem is the metal was soft and will not last long!
 As to putting the needed holes in correct location I have Moore Jig Borers that are capable of putting holes with in .00005" accuracy. I also have tool and cutter grinders and will use diamond or CBN wheels to grind the U shaped hooks.
 None of the issues mentioned will happen! By the way, an engine block is casted then machined as needed. The most accurate lathe or milling machine is casted then cut as needed. The frame of the 1911 (if casted) is made before any holes are put in! Simply put no one puts all the holes and slots in a piece of metal then cuts the outline of the hammer!

I hear KC has some really nice hammer, sear sets for sale for reasonable $.  
I do envy your mechanical skills, building a 1911 hammer is something beyond my imagination. Even when I try carpentry, all I end up with is a pile of sawdust.

Let us know how it works out.

Why not cut the holes on the edm? If they've got a wire, they've likely got a hole popper as well and could put the entry holes in. Then the wire could cut the holes as well to ensure location accuracy. If they don't/wont, give me a call. I've got acess to both for a reasonable price...

I requested only the outline to be wired. As to hole size I'm putting in the holes on a Jig Borer and sized to what I need to fit the frame. Sometime I make the hole in the frame larger because the sear and hammer holes are not straight or parallel so I re-bore the holes and make larger pins. I also purchased a small Jig Grinder to grind the holes rather than bore them.
 My wire guy used a slow feed rate so I have a great surface finish.

I never liked the shape of half cock notches as they could easily damage the sear. Didn't matter if it was full width or just the center tooth.

Perhaps if the half cock notch matched the sear, landing on it would have more surface area and it might even clean up some wear? Dunno...

Having a hammer fall to half-cock is usually a sign of problems. Basically the half-cock is not used in Bullseye shooting just like the thumb safety. But the half-cock will prevent runaway. I have measured quite a few hammers by many different makers as well as looked at the hammer drawing. The half-cock radius from the pivot pin hole is the same as the hooks. So to avoid having the sear hit the half-cock many have opted to cut the sear and half-cock to that similar to what was done in the Gold Cup.
 Being I shortened the radius of the half-cock, by shortened all dimensions were shortened so that all the dimensions of the half-cock are the same. Therefore the entire half-cock is moved back .015".
 I have noticed that some makers have rotated the location of the half-cock so that when the sear is in the half-cock the hammer is closer to the firing pin. I'm not sure why that was done, maybe to allow the sear more time to fall into the half-cock notch to limit runaway. Maybe on the next batch Ill move it too.

The NRA Ref who frequented our matches had a gauge to determine how much space was between the hammer and FP stop. Got harassed for that too....

During the number of times my Ball gun was checked both by the AMU to get the trigger guard taped and the spot checks on the line no one ever checked the distance. Why?? When the firing pin is flush with the FP lock it still will not extend past the face. I would assume that if the gun were dropped and half-cock broken the shortened distance would impart less force to the firing pin. I guess with light primers like Federal it might be possible to ignite them but the greater distance will be worse. The only reason it's checked is because if it is there it must work, now days with the rules changes guns that do not have a half-cock need not be tested. I think it's a good idea to have one as it will help prevent a runaway especially since to many shooters try to do trigger jobs that don't know what they are doing! Plus he number of drop-in trigger and sear sets that are available.