The little spring that went bye-bye.

[fire259]

About once a year I completely disassemble my EDC and thoroughly clean it to get out all the little bits of lint, dust, dirt and whatever else that has made it's way into all the nooks and crannies. In doing so, I strip my XDM Compact down to the bare frame, removing every piece that can be removed. So that's what I did this afternoon. Disassembly went fine. Cleaned all the crud out, and there was a lot of it. Then came reassembly. Mag catch went in without a hitch. Next I went to install the grip safety. Wedged the grip safety spring into the grip safety, got the pin started through and the spring was slightly out of alignment, no big deal just a little tweak with my pocket screwdriver, and bye-bye spring. Spent an hour crawling around on the floor with a flashlight before giving up. I thought about putting it back together without the grip safety as I've seen others get rid of it intentionally, but I think I will just wait until a new spring comes from Pistolgear. Guess I will have to use my CC gun while I wait. I'm sure I'm not the only guy on here to lose a spring but it makes me like a noob all over again

 

[88GT]

Not a spring, but we "lost" a 1911 bushing in a table lamp once. Took about 3 hours to find and only then because I started looking in all the places I just knew it couldn't be.

You'll probably find yours after the replacement comes in.

And since I saw this in the "New Posts" list, and don't ever pay attention to forum, I thought this was going to be about the weather tease we had today.

 

[fire259]

The good news is Pistolgear shipped my order out today with 2 day priority shipping. Should be back together by the end of the week.

 

[Bennettjh]

I've had some pieces go flying during assembly. Luckily, I've always been able to recover them. Hopefully it goes back easily when your spring arrives.

 

[Dead Duck]

I always wanted a Disassembly/Assembly room just for that reason. All white with a white sheet floor to catch-all.
Like a padded cell, but without the locks.......and the straight jacket.

Did you check your shoes? I've had parts fly into my shoes by the door.
I'll check mine for your spring.

 

[printcraft]

Large gallon size clear plastic bag.
Your gun and hands all go into the bag.
It's clear, so of course you see everything going on inside.
Spring or small pins go flying? No problem!
You can sit back and laugh and taunt the spring that failed to escape.

 

[NavyVet]

A strong magnet can be your friend....

 

[VinceU1]

Yeah, that's kinda like having your recoil spring plug go flying. Found out that when you put your 1911 back together, make sure ALL the doors and windows are closed!!!

 

[88E30M50]

The parts that tend to get away from me are the safety detent on the early CZ 75s. It's a small pointed bit of metal that's under spring tension. The last one that went flying hit the other side of the room and I figured there was no way I'd ever find it. But, when I walked over to start looking anyway, it was sitting in the middle of the desk. I got lucky on that one. There are not many places that stock spare pre-B CZ 75 parts.

 

[ryknoll3]

Yeah, that's kinda like having your recoil spring plug go flying. Found out that when you put your 1911 back together, make sure ALL the doors and windows are closed!!!

My buddy had his Kimber out at the range and when he switched from his .22 conversion kit back to the .45 slide, he forgot to rotate the bushing all of the way to capture it with the plug. Unbeknownst to him, it rotated and puked the plug and recoil spring down range. We never found the plug. =)

 

[Mark 1911]

Do you have one of those dust pans with the hand brush? Might try very gently pulling the brush across the area in one direction then try the flashlight again and see if it shows up.

 

[6mm Shoot]

I have lost more small parts putting stuff together like that than I care to think about. The wife thinks the dogs are building their own gun. I am a big fan of the gallon bag trick.

 

[JTScribe]

I lost one of the pin detent springs in my AR putting the lower together. Sucker just went flying across the room, I never have found it. I just ordered a half-dozen online and stuck the extras away just in case LOL.

 

[fire259]

Got the replacement spring in the mail yesterday and got humpty dumpty put back together again. +1 to PistolGear.com