Decided to take this project on a week ago but have been wanting to build one for a while. Found a good deal on a complete slide and it was go time for the project.
Some S&W slides can be adapted to work on a Glock frame. Back in the day, Glock sued S&W for patent violation and won. After doing this project, I can see why. Found a complete and used S&W SD40VE slide for less than $100 including shipping but you can use an OE Glock barrel and if you use an OE Glock barrel you can use a G23 RSA. If you use the S&W barrel, you need to use their RSA as it is ever so slightly different. Here is what it looked like when receiving. Knocked off the dirt, lint, and gun powder residue as it looked pretty bad but cleaned up well with some Dawn, hot water, and a toothbrush. This project took less than two hours including disassembly, cleaning, figuring out how everything works, and taking pictures with a slide that now functions on a Glock frame. I could do this in less than an hour after doing this one and I'd rate this as way easier to do than a 76% frame and certainly much quicker.
Had to remove much of the metal so it will go on the slide and enable the trigger to reset. The trigger reset needs to be approximately 3.98 mm from the slide rail.
I used a rotary tool with flex shaft and a metal cutting wheel to remove the bulk of material. I drew a line where to remove the material, so it would end up being 3.98mm from the rail wall to ensure there was a good reset and to give clearance for the trigger housing to slide past. It cut fast so it's important not to go too deep as you will enter the firing pin channel. Once the bulk of the stainless was removed via the cutting wheel, I switched to a small carbide cutting bit to round the edges and remove material from each side of the trigger reset so it was a smooth transition and so the trigger would reset when it went by the trigger reset hump. The ones on Glock slides are long, but this is enough for it to work.
These are the places you have to remove material. The area near the breach face will keep the slide from cycling all the way back on a Glock frame so it had to be removed for proper function and the cutting wheel made quick work of this spot of metal.
After using the cutting wheel and the carbide bit, I went back in and flattened out any high sports with a small file. Again, you do not want to go too deep with the cutting wheel as it will go into the FP channel. The slide will now go on the Glock frame smoothly and will have a strong trigger reset.
For the internals, you can use a Glock Gen 5 firing pin and it fits perfectly. You can also use a Glock FP spacer. I recycled the existing FP spacer and will go back in and change it to a Glock FP spacer the next time I'm in the gun. Did the pencil test and it launched it a few feet. The gun locks open with an empty mag, strong trigger rest, and seems to function perfectly. Next stop is the range for testing but I'm confident with all the tests I did that it will function as intended.
Finished product on a Gen 6 Glock frame. The permanent home for this slide is a PSA Dagger S frame as the Gen 6 frame is running a Gen 3 17L slide now and has a GPT I adapted for the Gen 6 as there is no GPT currently available for the Gen 6 frames. Maybe I'll do that write up soon.
Some S&W slides can be adapted to work on a Glock frame. Back in the day, Glock sued S&W for patent violation and won. After doing this project, I can see why. Found a complete and used S&W SD40VE slide for less than $100 including shipping but you can use an OE Glock barrel and if you use an OE Glock barrel you can use a G23 RSA. If you use the S&W barrel, you need to use their RSA as it is ever so slightly different. Here is what it looked like when receiving. Knocked off the dirt, lint, and gun powder residue as it looked pretty bad but cleaned up well with some Dawn, hot water, and a toothbrush. This project took less than two hours including disassembly, cleaning, figuring out how everything works, and taking pictures with a slide that now functions on a Glock frame. I could do this in less than an hour after doing this one and I'd rate this as way easier to do than a 76% frame and certainly much quicker.
Had to remove much of the metal so it will go on the slide and enable the trigger to reset. The trigger reset needs to be approximately 3.98 mm from the slide rail.
I used a rotary tool with flex shaft and a metal cutting wheel to remove the bulk of material. I drew a line where to remove the material, so it would end up being 3.98mm from the rail wall to ensure there was a good reset and to give clearance for the trigger housing to slide past. It cut fast so it's important not to go too deep as you will enter the firing pin channel. Once the bulk of the stainless was removed via the cutting wheel, I switched to a small carbide cutting bit to round the edges and remove material from each side of the trigger reset so it was a smooth transition and so the trigger would reset when it went by the trigger reset hump. The ones on Glock slides are long, but this is enough for it to work.
These are the places you have to remove material. The area near the breach face will keep the slide from cycling all the way back on a Glock frame so it had to be removed for proper function and the cutting wheel made quick work of this spot of metal.
After using the cutting wheel and the carbide bit, I went back in and flattened out any high sports with a small file. Again, you do not want to go too deep with the cutting wheel as it will go into the FP channel. The slide will now go on the Glock frame smoothly and will have a strong trigger reset.
For the internals, you can use a Glock Gen 5 firing pin and it fits perfectly. You can also use a Glock FP spacer. I recycled the existing FP spacer and will go back in and change it to a Glock FP spacer the next time I'm in the gun. Did the pencil test and it launched it a few feet. The gun locks open with an empty mag, strong trigger rest, and seems to function perfectly. Next stop is the range for testing but I'm confident with all the tests I did that it will function as intended.
Finished product on a Gen 6 Glock frame. The permanent home for this slide is a PSA Dagger S frame as the Gen 6 frame is running a Gen 3 17L slide now and has a GPT I adapted for the Gen 6 as there is no GPT currently available for the Gen 6 frames. Maybe I'll do that write up soon.
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