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Wilson Combat Hammer Failure

4.8K views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  Grandpas50AE  
#1 · (Edited)
I had to replace my hammer on my Essex Arms 1911 clone. I'd put the old GI hammer up on the milling machine and tried to machine the hammer hooks down to .020" unfortunately the mill had other ideas and by the time I got done the hooks were closer to .015". The gun gurus all say to not cut your hammer hooks lower then .018". And this was unsafe. The thumb safety wasn't working right so I ordered a Wilson Combat Spec Ops 9 trigger off of Ebay. The Spec Ops 9 was the only spur hammer Wilson had in it's line up. All the rest were Commander burr style hammers. I've never had any trouble with spur hammers although several of my 1911's are set up with Commander hammers and a few of them have the beavertail grip safeties too. After I got the new hammer installed I was dry firing it a few days later and a 1/4" piece on the top of the hammer broke off! I was totally amazed at this because Wilson has a most excellent record for good quality control on their products! From my experience as a tool and diemaker this hammer was either not drawn at a hot enough temperature or was taken out of the draw oven too soon. That makes it too hard prone to breakage.
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#2 · (Edited)
Wilson Comes Thru!

However today Wilson came thru and the UPS man brought my replacement hammer. I reassembled my Essex with the new hammer. It went together fine and all the function tests for the hammer, disconnector, grip safety and thumb safety worked well. I've dry fired it some but the real test comes at the range of course. The Spec Ops 9 hammers are now obsolete and on my return merchandise form I requested one of the 780S Retro Commander hammers since I didn't think they had any of the Spec Ops 9 hammers left. I had a Colt stainless Government Model grip safety I'd bobbed for the Commander hammer fitment but now I won't need it.
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#3 · (Edited)
Funny, I had the EXACT same thing happen to me a couple months ago.

I returned the hammer to Wilson and opted for a refund, as I felt I could not trust another one. More than likely I just got a defective one, but now I see I wasn't the only one. Can't believe it's a design flaw - Wilson has an excellent track record.

BTW mine came apart dry firing, never even made it to live fire.
 
#5 ·
Another WC Hammer Failure

Funny, I had the EXACT same thing happen to me a couple months ago. BTW mine came apart dry firing, never even made it to live fire.
Interesting! That's exactly what mine did! I told my wife that they usually run off these hammers in a batch and in which case usually the whole batch is bad [too hard]. I was wondering why Wilson had canceled the Spec Ops 9 hammer model. It was the only spur hammer they had in their lineup. So maybe they had an excessive number of failures with it causing the cancellation? I also realize that the spur hammers aren't too popular nowadays and sales may just have been low. That's the usual reason a model gets canceled.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Colt Parts

Indeed! Colt's been making 1911 parts longer then any other company. They're parts are always top of the line and quite often cheaper then the Wilson Combat or Ed Brown aftermarket parts. You can can buy some of them from Midway USA or Brownells but I've noticed in recent years their availability is erratic. Lots of times they'll be out of stock, no back order unfortunately.
 
#8 ·
Colt is most likely embracing “just in time manufacturing” . Excess parts inventory is considered an avoidable cost today. And just how much of the parts inventory is actually sourced in house any more? Does Colt even have MIM production capability? Mags are out sourced for sure.
Both issues reduce OE parts availability to aftermarket vendors.
Joe
 
#9 · (Edited)
Dry Firing

I know about "the Just in Time Manufacturing". It was invented by the Japanese after World War II but nowadays many Amerikan companies use it too to minimize their inventories and operating costs. But I digress. I've dry fired it over 100 times and my hammer is still intact. So far my only complaint is that the wire EDM cut edges on the top of the hammer were too sharp and they were scratching up my thumb so I took my .250" round medium India stone and broke the sharp corners. We're scheduled to go to the range on Wednesday so I can test fire my Essex since temperatures are suppose to be up to 43 . More to come.
 
#10 ·
Any sharp edge with any roughness can create what is known as stress risers and these points are where cracks start. Once a crack starts failure is pretty much a given. You did a good thing dressing those sharp points. A full perimeter chamfer is also not a bad idea.
Joe
 
#11 ·
Funny you two should mention JIT manufacturing. I was involved in developing a software package in the early 80's that was aimed at the aerospace industry, and the guy who designed that package was a brilliant man. The companies we provided it to needed that JIT approach to help control the HUGE costs of inventorying large and/or expensive parts; just a reality of the business they were in. However, the system we wrote compensated for "spares" and small piece-part inventory by handling those as bulk items for the most part and stocking larger supplies of them. To compare to the gun industry, these parts would be hammers, sears, triggers of various lengths, springs, and pins - typically stocked in 6-month supply quantity with re-order at a given minimum or re-order supply level in order to not run out of them and shut down production or customer "spares" (repair or aftermarket replacement parts). Can you imagine shutting down the production line of F-16s because of running out of bolts and nuts or rivets? Cheap parts shortage impacting delivery of the very expensive end-item? It was a problem that needed solving. Most of our customers were big name aerospace companies, who even after 20 years past the support date of the product were still using it as installed for them; it worked very well.

Sorry for the seemingly off-track discussion, but I think it is relevant when looking at Colt or any of the other manufacturers - minimizing piece parts inventory beyond normal demand levels and impacting the ability to provide them to you customers when needed is IMHO not a prudent strategy for keeping customers, and that strategy can lead to loss of steady business from repeat and loyal customers when they have to look elsewhere for them. Just my observation.
 
#12 · (Edited)
JIT Manufacturing and WC Spec Ops 9 hammer comments

Most interesting commentary on the JIT manufacturing. I knew that Colt had been in financial troubles for many years now and that no one would bail them out because their corporate debt was so great. I've noticed that they've been bringing more and more of their old revolver model back for sale so let's hope they're out of the woods. However I've noticed the prices on their new pistols are very high so they may not be! I had no idea whether or not their financial difficulties were affecting spare parts availability to the public. Back to the thread: The reason why I bought the stainless Wilson spur Spec Ops 9 hammer was because I was running a Colt GI hammer [which I foolishly ruined] and I didn't want to change out my stainless grip safety. Since the Spec Ops 9 was now obsolete on my return merchandise form I specified one of the Commander style hammers as a replacement. I had a Colt stainless Government Model grip safety which I'd relieved for for a Commander hammer. I was surprised when Wilson sent me a replacement Spec Ops 9 hammer.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Range Report

We got to go down to our range at Boston Kentucky today. I fired 57 rounds thru my Essex/Para. Load out on 50 rounds was Remington 230 gr. FMJRN with 8.0 gr. of Accurate #5 and CCI 300 primer. This load seems to hot for this pistol because the slide stop bounced twice and held the slide open before the magazine was empty. The brass was kicking out pretty far too. This has always been my observation on .45 ACP handloads. Upon examining the spent brass the primers looked as though it was a mild load with no sign of primer cratering But I digress again!
I dry fired the pistol about 300 times before going to the range. So I must commend Wilson Combat on a job well done! They made good on their defective hammer and so I'll continue to buy their stuff! This should conclude this post.
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#15 ·
I seriously doubt that Wilson Combat makes their own hammers....so the company that supplied the hammer is at fault....which is most likely why Wilson no longer sells that hammer..... :)

I have used 1911 Wilson combat sears and other items, and they were a good price and good quality....
They make their own hammers; and sears, and triggers, slide stops, thumb safeties, and many of the small parts. They do not make their own pins or springs (think hammer pins and sear pins). I have toured their facility many times.
 
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