Customers frequently ask for stake-in front sights with a gold bead installed. There is a problem in making up a stake-in front site with the gold bead already installed, and then sending it out to a customer to be staked in.
To stake a 1911 front sight tenon into the slide’s mortise, you will be riveting (staking) the end of the tenon visible from inside the slide with a hammer and staking tool – a specially shaped punch-like tool, while the slide is held in such a manner that the top of the sight blade is supported solidly against a steel “anvil” while the riveting (staking) is taking place.
During the staking process, the impact that is placed on the end of the tenon is transmitted through the site and arrested by the top of the site blade being held tightly against your “anvil”, while you are performing the riveting operation.
The gold bead is held in the sight blade by a hole measuring .082” x about .250” deep. So there is a hollow space running almost the length of the sight blade. Each hammer blow transmits through the front side blade would also be transmitted through the hole for the gold bead, the gold bead, and the epoxy that is dried in the joint between the gold bead and the hole.
So, the first thing that can go wrong is the epoxy joint can be damaged, allowing the gold bead to work its way out. The second thing that could go wrong is that since you have a softer metal filling the hole that is roughly 3/4 of the width of the site blade, leaving fairly thin walls in the blade, the impact of these hammer blows can cause the top of the site to deform and mushroom.
The way to avoid this is for the site installer to also be the gold bead installer. When I used to perform this service, I would drill the hole for the gold bead in the blade and then I use a tight fitting steel gauge pin to fill the hole. I install the sight blade and rivet (stake) the tenon and extract the gauge pin, then let the Loctite in the tenon joint cure.
A day later, I will mix up the epoxy, coat the inside of the hole with a needle to transfer the epoxy into the hole and then once adequate coating of epoxy has been affected, I install the gold bead and let the epoxy cure 24 hours.
The next day, I set the slide up in my milling machine and drill, a 1 mm diameter hole vertically from the top of the site blade through the gold bead and into the bottom of the site blade. Once the hole is drilled, I apply a little Loctite in the hole and drive in a 1 mm roll pin. This secures the gold bead both with epoxy and the pin.
