Welcome to Johns Custom 1911 Bushing Tool
A little history about the Johns 1911 Bushing tool
Sometime in the very early 2000’s I became very interested in learning to build competition and custom Colt 1911 semiautomatic pistols. I started working on 1911’s in my garage and then found that I required more information to build a really first class 1911. I then purchased a video from the American Gunsmith Institute (AGI) and found that I could build a very nice gun by watching the video and then performing the techniques on my build gun. As good as the video was, I still had questions that I needed someone of great knowledge to answer. It was around this same time that a friend of mine introduced me to a very good gun builder who by extreme chance just happened to be the master gunsmith who did the 1911 video I purchased from AGI. His name is Gene Shuey and he has been a long-time master gun builder and shooting competitor. I got to know this master gunsmith a little better and asked him a lot of questions. I also expressed my interest in working in his shop and learning from one of the master gunsmiths in my area. He asked me if I had ever built a 1911 before? I said that I had been working on my first gun build at that time. He asked me to show it to him, so I went out to the car and brought it in. Gene looked at the entire 1911 and then took it completely apart. After he reassembled it, he said that it was very nicely done for a first gun build. I told him that I had used his video on 1911 gun building to do it. He was very pleased to hear that and offered a number of minor things to do to my gun to make it even better. I happily accepted his offer to help and show me several things that I needed help on. This led to my being allowed to work in his shop on a part time basis for the last twenty years.
It was after working in the shop for some time that I noticed there was a need for a better 1911 bushing tool for gunsmiths and home users. This came about after seeing Gene launch many a 1911 spring plug across the shop or into the rafters. Of course, when the spring plug gets launched some distance away, it is very hard to find and a replacement is necessary. So, after seeing this happen several times, I said “Gene, would you like me to make you a tool to remove the spring plug and not allow the plug to fly across the shop? He sort of looked at me with a look that said “oh sure, you really have an answer for this….. I then replied to Gene that I did have the answer and would you like me to go to the mill and make one? He gave me another look and said “sure, why not….go ahead. So, I went and got some bar stock metal and went to work on the milling machine. By the next morning, I had a fully functional prototype tool and placed it on Gene’s workbench. He looked over his shoulder at it and did not really say anything. I was then away from the shop for several days and upon my return Gene gave me a big smile and said that I would not be getting this tool back. He said it works great and he has not lost another spring plug since he started using it. This made me very happy as when I left the shop a few days earlier, I thought he would not even try it. It was at this point, that the tool was born and I made about six more prototypes with improvements to finish the final tool configuration.
Later, I had a very good local CNC machinist make up a batch of parts to create about two hundred of the new tools. I then had to get them color anodized and laser scribed for the lettering. After this was completed, I put each tool together by hand and then started to sell some by word of mouth. It wasn’t long before all the tools were sold out and I needed to get another batch machined and completed. I then had another batch of tools machined and sold them on my website for a few years via word of mouth. I soon ran out of tools and found that many people were asking me about them and wanted to purchase them. My local CNC machinist had retired and it was hard to find a good machinist to manufacture the parts in a timely manner. So, I had many people who wanted them, but no way to produce them in a timely manner. It was about this time that my son talked to me about my tools and asked what all the problems were with getting them produced. I explained the situation to him and he said, “no problem dad, I will take care of this. He did take care of the manufacturing issues and the tool is now back and available for sale once again.
I know this is a bit of a long story, but some people like to know where a product comes from and how it came about. It was originally made to help a good friend and he felt it would be nice for everyone to have one and be able to safely remove the 1911 spring plug.
Oh, where did I get the idea for this tool? I can’t exactly say, but I have been designing things in my mind all my life and building things to help people and help in the mechanical and electronic world we live in today. It just comes to me naturally.
Best regards,
Jeffrey Johns