Hello,
I was lucky enough to find a Kadet conversion for my pistols [2 SP01s and a PCR]. Unfortunately, this is the original Kadet kit, with no slide lock. It was supposed to use the factory one, from what I read.
The SP01 slide lock did not extend far enough into the pistol to be pushed up by the mag.
I did a lot of reading, and found two pieces of information that helped me fix this.
I knew I needed a CZ Kadet slide lock, and finally acquired one. However, this is like Goldilocks: it was too long.
So, I took my time and a file, and slowly erased enough material from the tip that it is no longer catching on the red center of the follower, but is still lifted by the side pad. I haven't loaded it with ammo to see if I need to remove a tad more, to allow rounds to slip past- yet. That will follow.
The upshot was that the slide lock NOW will work in the frame on a Kadet Magazine [steel body 10 round red follower- not Kadet II mag or SP01 mag].
I put the slide on and it won't work.
Hmmm.
Re-read the linked thread on tweaking the spring to fix this and then re-examined the design of the slide lock/spring interface.
I decided to approach this issue from the slide lock side rather than the spring.
Instead of weakening the spring and trying not to weaken it too much so that it will still work with centerfire rounds, I decided to modify the through pin of the slide lock.
There is a groove cut in it for that horizontal spring to 'pop' in, which holds it in place but also forces it back level when a slide is removed.
I decided to run a thin round file through it for about 4-5 passes to deepen the cut [and reduce some pressure from the spring], and tested again.
Slide lock still was too stiff with slide on and mag in place.
Removed parts again and did a slight 'radius' of that spring cut on the rear end, so that the spring put less pressure on it when it was pivoted up.
This makes the entire spring 'cut' level for 3/4 of the cut, and then it droops a bit 'down' at the rear, as that is the part that generates pressure when twisted up by the magazine lifter.
I did 2-3 passes with the round file, tested in the frame with slide installed, and got it to work after just a bit of removal of material.
I don't have a camera with me for pictures, but plan on adding them in a day/two, before I cold-blue the modified areas. Pictures belowSo, I now have a slide lock that works with my frame, my Kadet kit and Kadet mags, and hasn't weakened the slide lock's spring pressure for when it is converted back to 9mm.
I simply approached the problem from the opposite side of the equation from the previous link, which helped guide me to a better understanding of the theories of how the materials worked.
Thank you 75Plus!!!!!BTW, I would NOT try this if I were able to use my SP01 slide lock on this mag and have it all working properly.
Since I
had to have a dedicated Kadet slide lock anyway, I decided to only modify
that part.
If I were able to use the SP01 slide lock, I would probably have stuck to 75Plus's technique.
Just an update on what I found to be a cool work around. Don't know if this is a common approach or not. I probably reinvented the wheel for the 12 millionth time, or this technique for the 57th time. But, I can honestly say I haven't read anything about trying it this way before- so I thought I'd share.
Oh, and cycling some rounds through it [safely] showed that it stayed down until last round was fed in, and then locked slide back. As desired.
The images are below:
Here is a top view of the modifications I did, that show how I slightly deepened the slot and you can see that the rear edge is lightly rounded down, for the reasons stated above.
This pic is not the best, but shows how I lightly deepened the slot for the spring, but kept it even/flat at the front end, so that the main spring feel was reduced when rotated up, but not when in the frame and there is no mag installed.
In the following image, you can see how the edge is lightly rounded down on the rear end of the spring slot, to reduce spring tension when the slide stop is rotated up by mag follower.
The following is an image of the modification to the end that catches on the mag follower. While I was at it, I took this one.
