It was a long and tedious build. I hate to admit it but I’ve never fitted a compensator on a 1911 before. So while there wasn’t anything special about it, it still took a bit of time for preparations and studies. Other than that, these are, well, just a pair of 1911s that a friend of mine asked me to build for his bowling pin game.

It always starts with a bunch of parts, and then I realize there are some missing and need to be ordered. And then I wait… But while I wait, I can do what I know I can do, that is, fit the slide to the frame. There’s nothing more satisfying than just starting the slide on the frame at first, then getting it further on, more and more, and ending up with a perfect fit, with no visible gaps, no vertical or lateral play, and everything is nice and smooth.

Other parts were fitted, one by one, little by little. When it came to the finishing options, we opted to use Cerakote, partly because the frames are carbon, but the slides are stainless, and we didn’t really want to go for a two-tone look. So I just blasted all the parts to be coated with 120 grit aluminum oxide, sprayed them with Cerakote and tossed them into the toaster oven.

Of course I should’ve known better when I was trying to get the tight fit on all the parts! After cerakoting nothing fits back together the way it was before, and I had to spend quite a bit of extra time refitting the parts, scrubbing the coating from several surfaces and even using some lapping compound. But now it’s done and next week the twins go back to the customer.