Machining Glock slide from scratch

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  • SPOOK331945

    Sharpshooter
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    Feb 7, 2018
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    So I got the bug today to start working on a Glock slide, G20 to be precise. Going to machine one from scratch out of stainless. Got it roughed out on the mill today and did some green grinding. I'll keep this thread updated the best I can. Flying by the seat of my pants on this one, not sure what designs I'm going to have machined in it.

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    ljk

    Master
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    Go get a free account at Grabcad.com , plenty of Glock slide models already on there for download.

    Definitely go for a red dot cut.
     

    SPOOK331945

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    Go get a free account at Grabcad.com , plenty of Glock slide models already on there for download.

    Definitely go for a red dot cut.

    That's actually were I found this model lol. Have to be careful though I've found a lot of stuff on there that isn't right dimensionaly.

    Looked around at some other G21 stuff this one appears to be correct. Well see..

    couple features are gonna be a little difficult to reach. Probably going to wire the firing pin hole and get a Reverse counterbore tool for the guide rod and spring. No way to come in straight with it especially that length, get nothing but chatter that long.

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    Vendetta

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    Tagged for interest for sure. Been considering some machining on my Glock 17 slide and being a machinist have plenty of access but I dont have the YOLO gene like some others do. But out of bar stock, well we have plenty of that laying around. :):
     

    SPOOK331945

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    spending some time roughing this morning. Getting all the excess material out of the way that's behind the guide rod seat. I tend to lean more towards HSS cutters when working with satinless instead of carbide. HSS has a higher rake angle on the flutes allowing it to cut easier. Doesn't push n pull material around like carbide does(lack of better terms). Carbide being very brittle has a lower rake angle just so the cutting edge doesn't chip off. Now there are Carbide endmills specifically for stainless but I don't have those. Most of what I have available are a general purpose cutter. Stainless is gummy as heck, 400 series isn't too bad. Its a lot more free machining than a 300 series SS.

    Still I'd rather the chip cut and get away from the material than smear around like carbide tends to do with soft gummy material. Plus another reason for the easier cutting is it wont impart so much stress into the material itself. Carbide loves pressure when cutting so naturally whatever you're cutting on, gets a lot of stress imparted into the "skin". That's A LOT of material that has to come off and I want to try and reduce the amount of stress I put into it so that it doesn't get ugly heat treating. Rip about 1/4" off or so a pass come back make a finish pass. Get a nice hot chip and keep the heat out of the part. Careful of the extra flex a HSS cutter has though.

    The old Master Tool Makers showed me the difference when you cut thin part with just carbide alone vs. roughing with carbide then taking a skim pass with HSS to relieve the stress in the material. You wont get the warp after heat treat like you would with just carbide cutters. Its a make or break sometime when that part has to be flat and parallel within a .0001".

    well enough of all that, tend to talk my head off about all that. Just absolutely fascinated with metallurgy side of things. Here's what I got so far this morning. Trying and get everything roughed today then move onto the smaller features

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    SPOOK331945

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    Here's some updates from this morning. Really not too much roughing left. Just the ejection port ans some detailing in the bottom of the slide. Everything else is just popping holes more or less. moving right along. got about 4-5 hours in it. Starting to look like the brick. lol


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    T.Lex

    Grandmaster
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    Would be kind a funny to have a Glock slide with the lines of a HiPoint. :)

    (Yeah, this post is really just a "this is me subscribing" thing.)
     
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