Of the various repairs I've made on the 1911 over the years, a significant number dealt with the grips. I know it's hard to imagine having a problem with 1911 grips. After all, there's not much to 'em. They're just slabs of wood or plastic held to the frame by a couple of screws. Well, there's a bit more to it than that.

In designing the 1911, John Browning didn't allow the grip screws to thread directly into the frame. Instead, the grip screws are threaded into thin bushings that are in turn threaded into the frame. These tiny bushings are both a marvel and a machinist's nightmare in the days before computer-controlled lathes.

My guess is that Browning had several reasons for using grip screw bushings on the 1911. The frame under the grips is very thin, only about 0.1 inch thick, which doesn't allow for much in the way of thread depth. By using a larger diameter bushing with a fine thread, Browning was able to get greater support in this thin material.

The thread on the bushing for the frame is extremely fine. It's .2360-60, meaning that it has a diameter of .236 inch with 60 threads per inch. In contrast, the typical scope base screw on a hunting rifle has a 6-48 thread. At 48 threads per inch it's much coarser with 20 percent fewer threads. While the fine thread does offer advantages in terms of holding strength, it's a bit more vulnerable to stripping.

Another reason for using bushings is to help prevent the possibility of the grip screws being run in too far and interfering with the magazine, and the bushings also provide more support or contact area for the grip panels. Rather than just depending on the small diameter of the grip screws, the bushings are much larger in diameter. These bushings furnish significantly more support to prevent the side-to-side or back-and-forth movement of the grips.

One of the most common situations I've encountered is having the bushing detach from the frame. The owner would turn the grip screws out, remove his grips for normal cleaning, and one or more of the bushings would come out of the frame as well.

This is a relatively easy problem to resolve, although it generally necessitates the sacrifice of the bushing. Before getting into details of the repair, let's take a look at just how a bushing is fitted to the frame.

The bushing holes are first drilled and then threaded with a special .2360–60 threads-per-inch tap. As far as I know this odd sized tap is not used for anything else and is unique to the 1911. The only place I know where you can get one is Brownells Inc. (brownells.com, 800-741-0015).

Once the frame has been threaded, the bushings are screwed into place. The top of each bushing is slotted for a screwdriver blade. However, the slot weakens the tiny bushing and they can be damaged easily if you use too much force or don't use the proper tool. Again, Brownells comes to the rescue with a special tip for its Magna-Tip screwdriver that combines a proper sized slotted screwdriver blade with a steel reinforcing sleeve to go around the outside of the bushing.

With this cutaway frame, supplied by Numrich Gun Parts corp., you can easily see how the frame is threaded for the bushing.