1911 Slide tightening

I have an old wadgun and am wondering about the various practices for improving slide to frame fit. The pistol was originally accurized by pinching the slide, which was the practice of the day.

With the Acc-U-Rail process, are there shops that are licensed to perform the work or does the pistol need to be shipped to the one shop?

Is it popular to build up worn surfaces on pistols with chrome plating and machine them back to dimension? In aerospace this is a common repair process. I would imagine welding and grinding is more popular due to not having to have the plating equipment and supplies around. (At work a few weeks ago we had the cyanide alarms go off in the shops)

Any suggestions?

I have done the squeeze and peen, for quite a few years, which is the least in terms of quality and performance, the weld and grind, which is pretty good.. But, I think the Acu Rail is by far the best..

Can you tell us more about the accurail process?

Is it something a local machinist can do?

Rob Kovach wrote:Can you tell us more about the accurail process?

Is it something a local machinist can do?

Not likely..
Prints are rather essential to get things to come together. It's very precise..About 10/12 years ago I bought a similar process from Joe Cominolli which used a different anchor system. The prints are invaluable..
The Krieger system is a patented process. I do my own but I can't advertise or sell it.
Doug Jones is the main shop.. It was under $200. Not sure now.. Really a good deal for the quality, and longevity.
If you Google Doug Jones his site will come up..Has pics of the rails..

Jerry Keefer wrote:I have done the squeeze and peen, for quite a few years,  which is the least in terms of quality and performance, the weld and grind, which is pretty good.. But,  I think the Acu Rail is by far the best..

I have one gun that has the Acc-U-Rail System. I had them installed after Alex Hamilton said that he could tighten the slide on the old gun but it wouldn't hold for long. He recommended the Acc-U-Rail System. Certainly, older accurized 1911's which won't stay tight, can really benefit from this, but there is no reason not to have them installed on a new pistol. The slide to frame fit is super tight and it feels like the slide is running on ball bearings. I think Larry Carter has Acc-U-Rails on all of his 1911's. I'm surprised that Acc-U-Rails aren't more widely used by shooters.

Would accu rails installed on a frame prevent it's use with a Marvel or Nelson conversion?

kwixdraw wrote:Would accu rails installed on a frame prevent it's use with a Marvel or Nelson conversion?

http://www.acc-u-rail.com/

Here are some pictures . Looks like the Marvel / Nelson units won't work after you have this alteration done.
So Kwixdraw....." you can't have your cake and eat it too " !

I've never seen/held the conversion units so I wasn't sure if their slide was riding on the 1911 frame or how the thing was set up. See ya Tuesday Frank.

Do the shops that offer Acc-U-Rail work do the work themselves, or do shops have to ship the frame/slide to Doug Jones in Michigan for the work to be done?

It does appear that the Acc-U-Rail repair is a more elegant repair than welding or plating to build up the contact areas.

Bubba Blaster wrote:

kwixdraw wrote:Would accu rails installed on a frame prevent it's use with a Marvel or Nelson conversion?

http://www.acc-u-rail.com/

Here are some pictures . Looks like the Marvel / Nelson units won't work after you have this alteration done.
So Kwixdraw....." you can't have your cake and eat it too " !

Yes, the ACC-U-Rail system is NOT compatible with the .22 conversions.

Looking at the Acc-U-Rail illustrations and my Nelson Conversion, it looks like the conversion slide would have to be modified to accommodate the rail inserts. I'm running my conversion on the loose wadgun frame for now until I get it tightened, but also have a dedicated frame arriving soon. Initially the conversion seemed like a good idea for easy installation on my 45 frames, but after a few swaps, like a lot of other conversion owners have found, I decided a dedicated frame would be better.

Just a heads up on my experience with recent accu-rail work, I sent a colt 70, and after getting it and it being a sloppy fit, returned it twice and each time it wasn't right, several other guns from friends who sent them in the last year were the same. I would not recommend this done by doug jones at all. His work from years back was very good but things are not the same now from our experience.

Jerry,

Can you speak to this?

Storms have knocked out my internet.. Hopefully the techs coming in the morning can get it back.. It has been about three years, maybe four now. I was backed up with several rail jobs.. I sent two to Doug. His work was excellent, then..

BE Mike wrote:

Bubba Blaster wrote:

kwixdraw wrote:Would accu rails installed on a frame prevent it's use with a Marvel or Nelson conversion?

http://www.acc-u-rail.com/

Here are some pictures . Looks like the Marvel / Nelson units won't work after you have this alteration done.
So Kwixdraw....." you can't have your cake and eat it too " !

Yes, the ACC-U-Rail system is NOT compatible with the .22 conversions.

I tried a Marvel #1 on a Colt Commander w/ Accu-Rails. I took the rails off and ran it for maybe a year, maybe 3 or 4k rounds. It suddenly quit feeding. Asked Marvel about the practice and they advised against it. Seems odd it ran that long and then quit?At the time it was all I had w/o swapping a .45 wadgun.

Ron

The frame rails are machined to larger width to accommodate the insert. This would make the conversion slide fit very loose. It may still work, in some cases, but not a desirable situation.