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Had a job to do in my gunsmithing shop today which [uncharacteristically I'll add...] turned out to go completely bad!
I was asked to fit some nice new aftermarket tritium night sight inserts to a .40 XD(M). I had, variously in my past, used...
1) the old fashioned brass "drift" method, tapping sights out, of their dovetails, and then tapping the new ones in. Easy to do on many firearms, but if not...
2) I also bought the universal sight drifter tool that Brownell's sells, that clamps, more or less, onto a pistol or rifle slide or bbl., and then you crank away and push the old out, and the new in. Not as well-fitting or stable as I needed in this case.
Then I had a beautiful Kimber .45 Auto come into my shop a few months ago, and Kimber have notoriously tight sight inserts, so I bought a very substantial (and pricey) B&J sight slide retainer bracket, along with their additional slide stabilizer clamp, and special pusher insert fitted tips that will not damage the gun dovetail nor the old or new sight bits. Despite the Kimber's reluctance, it's original sights did come out, both front and rear.
But... on this XD(M)? Absolutely NO GO! I must have had at least 120+ lb of thread pressure torqued on the front sight and still.... no-budgeroo! Nope. I tried dry-icing the slide, pushing from both sides, slightly heating it with a butane torch, "Kroiling" it overnight (a special penetrating oil...), and even lightly tapping it with that ancient brass drift just to pre-loosen it.
All to no avail. The first special tip that came with the new tool broke off with a near-22LR rifle-like report ("Pow! Incoming! Everyone duck!"), so the manufacturer replaced that free. Great guys out there in Philly!
Then, with an all-new tip and new very specially-fitted sight pusher insert, I tried it all again. I added the available special hold-down stabilizing clamp, designed to prevent things from getting out of alignment. Still, when max pressure was applied, that replaced tip looked like it was about to bend and snap as well. No Go. I could not physically apply any more torque with my hand on that Allen-head wrench!
Simply No Frickin' Go!
How does Springfield put these puppies in? With some old mega-hydraulic tool from an old nuclear reactor site? Applying 8000 lb of focused force on that tiny little front sight dovetail?
I'm baffled. And I'm out about $300, and the customer is pissed of, but not at me.
Springfield just casually says "Just send it in! We'll drop it in for about $100, plus the parts!"
Yeah well....
YrHmblSrvnt: A very frustrated rifleman! [And to boot, we prob'ly get to see Barama -Baby get re-elected tonight! Yikes!]
Anyone else got any secret sight-fitting techniques involving special sheep's kidney-squeezings oil or a magic crooked smirking smile that will set these reluctant sights free?
Not sure this would work or it is even a good idea.....
If i were the one who wanted this site and the gun was mine, and if I had the tooling you have and I tried what you did, and failed as you have so far .....
But i was determined. I would buy a jewelers saw and cut that old ft site dovetail to near the slide and then see if it would push out and brake that dove tailed site into 2 pieces too.
Something has to give at that point... Once the little bugger is out who cares and you can do what ever you need to do to install the new site base.
I use #02 blades but for that you might want a # 2. I have never measured these blades, so i am not sure what the #2 measures at and or the # 02 but I know the # 05 is hair like.
It takes a feel to run these blades too, and passing a blade into a candle stub can help. These are very brittle and good ones are straw yellow, made to cut silver and gold really but will do stainless if you go easy and maybe use oil. In SS it will seem like a long time working by hand, and to tell the truth it will be, but it can be done.
I think the ft base you have is carbon steel anyway, so this ss bit is to just get you the idea.
If you have any driver for a thin whizz wheel you could use that to cut as deep as you dare then switch to the hand saw for the last bit if need be.
Tell the owner of course this will ruin for forever his ft site first.
If it works that is if you try it i would be all ears...
Junk all the crap sight pushers out and get a heavy duty MGW made just for XDs and XDms.
It's made for XD's not XD/M's or the XD Tactical series, it will work on the XD Tactical rear sight, and may work on the XD/M with some shimming for the taper on the slide to prevent tilting, but I've heard mixed reports about it working on XD/M's and Tacticals front sight.
Some people have had success using the MGW pusher on the XD/M (or Tactical) others have wound up sending their slides back to Springfield for repair and/or cosmetics. I use a Meprolight USIT with custom made support blocks for the front sight of the XD/M and XD Tactical, and custom made support blocks for the rear sight of the XD/M and a different one for the XD and XD Tactical. Without these support blocks the slide can tilt (since the XD has step sides, and the XD/M is tapered) which results in either the pusher slipping off, snapping, or both since you need to use much more force to try to move a tilted dovetail (since the pusher isn't just pushing it along the dovetail, but into the top of the dovetail too, not to mention possibly gouging your dovetail too.
Problem is that the sights are installed with a hydraulic press, which means that they can be in there WAY tight, as far as I know they have the tightest fitting dovetails of any current commercial production, maybe the tightest ever. Even with the Meprolight I still have needed an extender bar once or twice to get the front sight removed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac_Muz
Not sure this would work or it is even a good idea.....
If i were the one who wanted this site and the gun was mine, and if I had the tooling you have and I tried what you did, and failed as you have so far .....
But i was determined. I would buy a jewelers saw and cut that old ft site dovetail to near the slide and then see if it would push out and brake that dove tailed site into 2 pieces too.
Something has to give at that point... Once the little bugger is out who cares and you can do what ever you need to do to install the new site base.
I use #02 blades but for that you might want a # 2. I have never measured these blades, so i am not sure what the #2 measures at and or the # 02 but I know the # 05 is hair like.
Yep this is not uncommon, good professional gunsmiths can do this without marking the slide, bad smiths can leave some nasty cuts in the bottom of the dovetail if they're not paying attention, or are just being bad smiths. Although some of the tools I've heard used include band saws, dremels, circular saws, etc. not just Jewelers Saws.
Power tools have a place but not every place is for power tools. I might scribe a line above the real cut to line and run a dremel cutter for this, and then run a file by hand or run a hand saw.
Cutting the site base 98% thru should let it break. That should not make a mark on the slide.
One of my pet peeves is not using screw drivers made for gun screws... You can mess up a screw head in no time with just any old other screw driver.
Power tools have a place but not every place is for power tools. I might scribe a line above the real cut to line and run a dremel cutter for this, and then run a file by hand or run a hand saw.
Cutting the site base 98% thru should let it break. That should not make a mark on the slide.
One of my pet peeves is not using screw drivers made for gun screws... You can mess up a screw head in no time with just any old other screw driver.
It's made for XD's not XD/M's or the XD Tactical series, it will work on the XD Tactical rear sight, and may work on the XD/M with some shimming for the taper on the slide to prevent tilting, but I've heard mixed reports about it working on XD/M's and Tacticals front sight.
Some people have had success using the MGW pusher on the XD/M (or Tactical) others have wound up sending their slides back to Springfield for repair and/or cosmetics. I use a Meprolight USIT with custom made support blocks for the front sight of the XD/M and XD Tactical, and custom made support blocks for the rear sight of the XD/M and a different one for the XD and XD Tactical. Without these support blocks the slide can tilt (since the XD has step sides, and the XD/M is tapered) which results in either the pusher slipping off, snapping, or both since you need to use much more force to try to move a tilted dovetail (since the pusher isn't just pushing it along the dovetail, but into the top of the dovetail too, not to mention possibly gouging your dovetail too.
Problem is that the sights are installed with a hydraulic press, which means that they can be in there WAY tight, as far as I know they have the tightest fitting dovetails of any current commercial production, maybe the tightest ever. Even with the Meprolight I still have needed an extender bar once or twice to get the front sight removed.
Yep this is not uncommon, good professional gunsmiths can do this without marking the slide, bad smiths can leave some nasty cuts in the bottom of the dovetail if they're not paying attention, or are just being bad smiths. Although some of the tools I've heard used include band saws, dremels, circular saws, etc. not just Jewelers Saws.
I own MGW sight pushers for GLOCK, S&W M&P, Sig Sauer, HK USP. I have nothing but good things to say about them. They actually work because they are sturdy and not rinky dinky and cheaply made like many others.
I have a 20 ton hydraulic press out in my shop if need be too. I use it for automotive press jobs (u-joints and such) as well as building AK kits.
I own MGW sight pushers for GLOCK, S&W M&P, Sig Sauer, HK USP. I have nothing but good things to say about them. They actually work because they are sturdy and not rinky dinky and cheaply made like many others.
I have a 20 ton hydraulic press out in my shop if need be too. I use it for automotive press jobs (u-joints and such) as well as building AK kits.
You don't have any argument from me about any of the points you've mentioned, I was just pointing out that the MGW pusher is designed for the XD, and the OP stated he was working on the XD/M.
Given the differences in the slide profiles, it's important enough to point out that they are uniquely different, and that there's no guarantee that the MGW XD Sight Pusher will function as expected for either of the XD/M sights (Although in fairness the rear sight dovetail on the XD/M isn't at all as difficult as the front sight) or XD Tactical front sights.
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