Polishing a trigger on a 1911

Sadosubliminal

Sadosubliminal

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Hello,

I recently bought a Norinco 1911 Government, just because I got it at a steal. Overall, the pistol is solid, but the trigger is gritty and has a ridiculously high pull weight - like so bad I'm going to end up with finger biceps if I don't fix this. I started to look up some videos on polishing the trigger, sear, and other components to get a smoother pull with a clean break. I noticed many people favour using ceramic or stone blocks of varying grits to get a smooth, mirror surface and tighten up the angles. Can anyone recommend a good set of blocks, ceramic or stone, that are inexpensive and will do the job well? Where can I buy them locally?

I am also looking to polish up the surfaces of the frame and slide where they contact each other, which may require very thin files or specialized polishing tools I am not aware of. I thought about using sandpaper and a thin flat tool to get inside the grooves on the slide and frame, but is there a better tool or set of tools out there for the job?

Thanks for reading!
 
For the trigger pull weight, you will need a jig (Brownell's carries them) and proper grit stones. Otherwise have a gunsmith do it, about $100 most places. You can create a very unsafe situation messing around with 1911 hammer and sear surfaces...
 
Even just polishing them? I'm not talking about removing substantial amounts of material, just getting rid the tooling marks and smoothing the surface. Is it really that touchy?

Here is the video I was looking at, he makes it look easy with the right tools:

 
Polishing isn't going to do what you want it to do. From your description, the gun will need a proper trigger job done on it and by the time you buy the proper tools, learn how to use them correctly and research the 1911 fire-control set and its function and how to work with it, you will have spent more time and money than you would just having a decent Smith do it for you. You will probably screw up a few parts along the way as well.

Safety-wise, bad things can happen if you don't know what you're doing.
 
Sadosubliminal said:
So what kind of grits do you use? Start with a 400 grit and work in 4 stages to 2000?
Click to expand...

Usually just 600 with oil.

To relliotts point, if you want to go further and have a full upgrade done, see a G-smith

Polishing isn't going to do what you want it to do. From your description, the gun will need a proper trigger job done on it and by the time you buy the proper tools, learn how to use them correctly and research the 1911 fire-control set and its function and how to work with it, you will have spent more time and money than you would just having a decent Smith do it for you. You will probably screw up a few parts along the way as well.

Safety-wise, bad things can happen if you don't know what you're doing.
Click to expand...
 
I would suggest that you replace the mainspring and also the 3 finger spring. Norcs tend to have heavy springs.
Then carefully smooth out the sides of the trigger bow and also the rails inside the frame that the trigger
slides in & out on. Burrs here can cause a gritty trigger pull. Fine sandpaper works well.

IMO, leave the sear & hammer surfaces alone. Changing contact angles, removing metal can cause
dangerous situations. Having seen a home " gunsmith " seriously injure himself after his pistol went full auto
after his " trigger job ", I urge caution.
May I suggest buying a quality matching sear and hammer and install those and put the Norinco parts
to one side for now.
 
OK, so popular opinion seems to be leave hammer and sear contact surfaces alone. I do plan to replace main spring and the sear spring with lighter ones. I can deal with that, I'm sure, and I will polish the trigger bow and the surfaces on the frame that it contacts.
 
If you do proceed this is one of those times where a little goes a long way. You'll find that you don't really need to remove much metal at all. In fact you don't even need to remove ALL the tooling marks from the faces of the sear and hammer. Just creating some flat top plateaus that rub together instead of peaks that interfere will produce a big improvement. So once again a little goes a LONG way when doing this stuff.

It's also important to watch the angles when working on the very small faces of the hooks. If you don't and the angle changes or the lip becomes rounded too much you could end up with a hammer that fires without needing to pull the trigger or from a slight bump against the gun. Neither is a good option.

And this need for accuracy in the work is what is at the root of relliot's warning and my post. It's also why jigs to use in conjunction with dressing stones are commonly used for trigger work of this sort.
 
tagged.

also buying an Ed Brown jig and fine ceramic stone some day soon...

I did put a Wolfe sear spring from a service pack into my SAM. It has a MUCH lighter amount of tension on the sear finger. The trigger pull weight has dropped I don't know how much... I didn't want to be dicking with the tension on the old sear spring - not if I had a spare to try.

Go with a lighter mainspring rather than cutting one down. I found cutting it to do little. I'm also cautious to make note of any feeling of the slide hitting the frame, as I understand the main spring plays a role in conjunction with the recoil spring in slowing the slide down.

Don't know much about the 1911, but I'm learning...carefully.
 
This is a very good book to learn from .. just don't jump in and try too much ...

h ttp://www.amazon.com/Colt-45-automatic-shop-manual/dp/B0006EVYAU/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1418847006&sr=8-7&keywords=1911+book
 
Be careful working on the Norinco sears and hammers. I read there are some of them that are only case hardened and not through hardened. You can stone or polish right through the hardened surface (especially the hammer hooks) and then have your trigger job develop problems later on. I had read about that, so I bought a couple of sears and hammers from Brownells when I bought the sear & hammer jig. I practiced first on the stock Norinco sear and hammer, and then promptly threw them away. Was an interesting project - I originally started it thinking it would be fun to learn how to do a 1911 trigger job on a Norinco (one of the CanAmmo deals), and then maybe do my STI Trojan. In the end, I left the Trojan alone as their stock trigger is pretty good anyhow.
 
I'm not going to touch the sear and hammer based on input from others in this thread. I will polish the trigger bow and other contact surfaces around it.

No one really answered where a good set of stones can be located. I looked at Princess Auto, Canadian Tire, Lowes, Rona, Home Depot... seems like everyone just sells the Dremel attachments, which is not what I am looking for. Any ideas where a set of decent quality polishing stones can be found? I mean, I suppose sandpaper will do for this job, but I can think of other applications where some different sizes of polishing blocks in different grits are on hand.
 
I got all my stones and jigs from Brownells. For polishing, I like to use Autosol

Sadosubliminal said:
I'm not going to touch the sear and hammer based on input from others in this thread. I will polish the trigger bow and other contact surfaces around it.

No one really answered where a good set of stones can be located. I looked at Princess Auto, Canadian Tire, Lowes, Rona, Home Depot... seems like everyone just sells the Dremel attachments, which is not what I am looking for. Any ideas where a set of decent quality polishing stones can be found? I mean, I suppose sandpaper will do for this job, but I can think of other applications where some different sizes of polishing blocks in different grits are on hand.
Click to expand...
 
I need the same thing with my Norc form CanAm. Bought the jig and stones (from Brownells), cut the main spring. It helped somewhat but still had excessive trigger pull for my liking. I ended up install a Cylinder and Slide reduced weight trigger kit with new sear, and three finger spring. I also installed a STI trigger. Overall brought the pull weight down to about a crisp 4 pounds. Shots very well now.
 
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