Lesson Learned

Not long ago I posted about having my Nelson Conversion Unit’s dedicated lower cerakote finished to match the black of the conversion unit. At the time and only until recently the only practice Ammo I had over the winter was high velocity. I noticed no malfunctions. Recently I’ve stocked up on Standard Velocity practice and match ammunition and with it I have experienced frequent failure to feed/chamber issues. To describe the problem the slide was short stroking; ejecting but not picking up the next cartridge at all. The slide was slowing down. I checked a lot of places but what ended up making the biggest change was removing the cerakote from the rails and polishing the rails. The slide is pushed upward slightly by the hammer as the slide rides over the hammer and ejects the spent roundebthevjob is dontbyou go back over with a fine toothed comb and . The slide was binding against the frame as it was both coming back and being pushed up. Once the rails were cleaned up the gun felt pretty darn slick. So with it being late right now, having a one year old asleep and Momma not feeling well, test fire will have to wait for tomorrow. 

So lesson learned. Cerakote looks cool and it’s affordable but make sure after it’s done you go over your gun with a fine toothed comb and re-polish everything that needs to be.

Don't want to Hijack your thread, but I also learned something last week that was kind of funny...

I've been transitioning to shooting my dot with both eyes open over the past couple of weeks, shooting my 45 exclusively, which has a reflex sight with slight magnification. Well, I shot a 22 match with a friend's gun as mines been out for a trigger job. The gun was a Pardini with a matchdot2. I had a couple targets with pretty nice groupings, but some were on the bull, some were about 3" right and slightly up. Couldn't figure it out for the life of me.

The next day at the range I realized I don't have a dominant eye (ambi-eye-trous?). I was totally lining up the dot image of my right eye with the bull image from my left eye. Hilarious.

Fixed it with a piece of scotch tape. Ah, the things you learn...

Dave

Not surprising that it happened to a .22lr conversion as these things want to run on the loose side.

Amati wrote:Not surprising that it happened to a .22lr conversion as these things want to run on the loose side.

Mines built as tight as a custom wadgun.  Runs perfect

It’s not so much that it has to be loose fitting. It has to be smooth. So imagine if you will - the guy I had do the cerakote work, he media blasted the frame so the finish would adhere to the frame better. Then cerakote finished it. Now, the hammer wants to push up due to the hammer spring. But the slide has to push it down and ride over it. So the slide will meet some resistance and even bough it’s pushing over the hammer the slide is being pushed upward as it travels rearward. Now, imagine the rails. Cerakote is not as smooth as polished metal. I don’t care if you disagree - in my case it’s just not. So the slide is being slowed down causing a short stroke and failure to pick up a round. Hand cycling the slide you’ll feel a fine grit. Stripping the finish and polishing the inside and underside of the frame rails has shown an improvement. But I still have work to do.

so you have enough vertical play in your frame to slide fit that the slide is pressing up on rails while it tries to overcome the hammer?

My marvel slide fits the frame perfectly tight as well, like a wadgun, but after many many thousands of rounds, i do see that the finish has worn off the undersides of the frame rails, suggesting that there is upward pressure on the slide as it cycles.

Chris Miceli wrote:so you have enough vertical play in your frame to slide fit that the slide is pressing up on rails while it tries to overcome the hammer?

Yeah my slide is loose on the frame.

I'm only quoting recent talks with Marvel and those guys have studied more clearance issues than most. 
They tell me that while it is possible to build a VERY tight AND at the same time  flawlessly cycling 'conversion, few are those who can do it well "enough".

Well I hope you transferred this lesson learned back to the guy that cerakoted frame rails, that is where the problems lays. Taping the rails and other areas off is the preferred method. Anybody thinking that cerakoting would not have an effect is hopefully not a gunsmith because this should have been self evident. Did he do the magwell and trigger opening?

robert84010 wrote:Well I hope you transferred this lesson learned back to the guy that cerakoted frame rails, that is where the problems lays. Taping the rails and other areas off is the preferred method. Anybody thinking that cerakoting would not have an effect is hopefully not a gunsmith because this should have been self evident. Did he do the magwell and trigger opening?

Sprayed the whole frame.

Re pin holes: a trick I saw decades ago (in a paint spray booth) was to take a small section of disposable ear plug foam - roll it tight - insert into pin hole - let expand - cut off any excess - spray - remove foam with toothpick - bake finish.   That way, the holes stayed their drilled dimension.