I know this sounds insane, but the front dovetail sight on my 1911 has moved under recoil.

Before I give it away for weeks to have it reinstalled, or otherwise professionally corrected, I was considering putting a dab or two of crazy glue on the contact between the sight and the slide.

My assumption is that if I ruin the sight, oh well, I need another one anyway, and I can't see how the glue would ruin the steel slide, so I should be okay to try it, right?

Is this stupid?

Thanks
JZ

I'd prefer blue Loctite, which is made for that kind of problem.

Bye
Jack

yeah, locktite is more commonly used to hold sights. superglue will dry very brittle and likely won't hold up to the forces of the slide cycling for very long.

Cyano-acrylates have very low shear strength. One impact, and your sight is going to leave you. Nothing much to staking it...you can also remove the sight, stipple the bottom of the dovetail with a punch, and reinstall the sight. This is probably the simplest solution.

A few years ago I did use CA (cyanoacrylate, or Super Glue) to install a small aluminum plate with an aperture hole onto the backside of my Marlin 1894 semi-buckhorn sight to turn it into an aperture site. Worked quite well (used if for Cowboy Action Shooting). I did knock it off a few times along the way, but it was easily reattached.

Since the dovetail slot runs perpendicular to the direction of slide motion, and you probably have a reasonably close fit, you could probably get away with using CA to hold your sight. I would use the thicker, gap-filling variety (available at hobby stores) or Loctite. As mentioned above, however, a good knock on the site will probably break it free (although it will hold pretty well if your gap is minimal).

Cyano-acrylate glue would be fine as an emergency fix on the range or for a hunter in the field. It does not have great shelf life at room temperature so anyone keeping it in stock routinely should refrigerate it. It is soluble in acetone and MEK - I'd bet most gun solvents would loosen it pretty fast. It will hydrolyze and fall apart in the presence of moisture. Shear strength is as poor as has already been stated. I've been messing with this stuff off and on since 1966 when the only material was Eastman 910.

Proper way to tighten a dovetail is to remove the insert ( sight ) and tap on the empty slot fingers ( on the slide's top ) to bend them down a bit. It only takes a microscopic bit of bending, so tap lightly, try reinserting, then tap a bit harder if it didn't tighten.

Once it's tight enough, tap the sight into place with a brass punch, not steel, to avoid expanding the base so it won't go into the slot ever again.

Great info guys, thanks

Great info guys, thanks

I really dislike beating on a dovetail's edges to tighten it up.
I try to follow a simple rule: work on the cheap part.


Now older Colt 1911-types do not have a dovetail front sight. It's a swaged on affair, there is no easy home cure for tightening a loose one. I have made a re-swage tool, but that's not something most people would be able to do with home-tools.

So if yours is one of the non-dovetailed ones, i might try the crazy-glue trick...or the Stud-n-Bearing Red Locktite. It probably won't hold forever, it's going to toss that sight sooner or leater...but you'll need to get it off, and the tenion hole cleared, before you can have a new one swaged on anyway.

(BTW...to add to the complxity, there were two differnt sized tenions...so you'll need to know the year the SLIDE was made...which in a Frankenstien built-up Colt dowsn't have to be the same as when the serialnumbered frame was made.)

Y'all are just using the junk super glue. Little FYI, most every super glue you get is less than 25ppm of actual glue, the rest is solvent (that includeds the well known name brand gel that they are happy to charge you $80 an ounce for).

EZ Fix 120 is what I used in my business for the last 8 years or 9 years (manufacturing & mining equipment) It has a concentration of 120ppm, double what the top end german formula has. The higher concentration makes it highly resistent to most solvents, acetone will cut it but it takes a long soaking time but oils, common bore cleaners, even mineral oils won't touch it. I've used it on a lot of sights including shotgun beads that were stripped out, only one has ever gotten knocked off but it took a hit hard enough to deform the brass.

mark@fire-iron.biz