It's not a big deal to install Bomars with just bench grinder, files, Dremel, dial caliper,magic marker.I've done so several times. First the top rear of the slide has to be lowered, far enough to let the bottom of the dovetail on the sight just "clear" the firing pin channel, altho cutting into said channel doesn't really do any harm. You want the front sight to be high enough to be seen quickly, but low enough to work in a holster. You also want the rear sight installed at a height that pretty gives you a fair range of movement in the vertical plain, but in truth nearly all of that will be in RAISING the rear sight, given the propensity of slow, heavy slugs to "fall off" rather quickly, due to gravity.
Use the caliper to measure both from the rear of the slide, and from the bottom, to get the top plane at 90 degree angles. Best check to make sure that the rear of the slide IS at a 90 degree angle to the sides of the slide, first, of course. Such is not always the case, to the tune of .020" or more. Do not QUITE take the top plane down "low enough" As you drift in the sight, being VERY careful to notice that it's LEVEL with the slide, you can always use the layout blue and file to remove abit more metal from top plane of the slide, under the body of the sight. Light will shine thru a VERY small gap, and it is the mark of the hack job.
Don't QUITE take the cut of the top plane far enough forward. It's hard to judge this properly, by "eyeball", and an unsightly gap will require both Tig Welding and refinishing the slide. You can always move the "line" of the top plane forward a bit, as you drift in the sight from the side, and you see that you need to do so.
Next, cut a "square" channel where the top of the sight's dovetail will go, and leave it not quite wide enough at the top, and cut it pretty close to square, as a vertical milling machine would cut it Leave it about .020" too narrow, and about .020" to shallow, too. Use the Dremel and 2-3 cutoff disks(on the mandrel at once,one shatters too easily, wear your goggles.Dont let the Dremel burn your clothing, wear an apron. Dont let it catch long hair, either.
to make this cut. Use the caliper to check this channel's squareness, with both the rear and bottom of the slide(both sides, now.)
This is now where it can get dicey. I suggest that you rest overnight at this point, or at least, several hours. You need pretty fair light, nice solid bench and vise, and a lot of patience. the finalizing of the dovetail cut will take at least an hour, maybe 2-3 for a beginner, being adquately careful. Put either 2 of the 36pc to the container cuttoff wheels on the mandrel,or one of the 20 pc to the container "heavy duty" cut off wheels on the mandrel. Stay away from both the top and bottom corners of the square cut, and start making the 60 degree angle cut for the sight's dove tail. I suggest that you get one side very close to fitting, then use magic marker or Dyekem layout blue to show you what's what. Grind one side of a 3 cornered file "safe' on the bench grinder. Use a wire brush to keep the filings out of the file teeth.
If you aint got a speed control for your Dremel, best get one, it about doubles the utility of the Dremel for smithing, lets you do many things quickly and easily,where you'd otherwise have to take 10x as long to do something with a file. The mark of the master is knowing when and where to "hog off' metal, and when and where to proceed slowly, taking frequent breaks, THINKING about what you've done and intend to do. MEASURE AND CHECK OFTEN, before a bad cut gets too far out of hand to correct.
When you are finalizing the bottom corners of the dovetail,you need to use ONE of the thin type of cutoff wheel, and then the file. do NOT make yourself do much filing at ALL. It's way too tiring and frustrating, tending to make you careless as you get fatiqued. Instead,turn down the speed on the Dremel more, use the caliper and layout blue to CHECK more. This is especially true as you almost finalize the drifting of the sight fully into the slide.
When you can "start" the sight dovetail into the slide cut about full width and height on one side,MEASURE the top and bottom of the rear of the dovetail slot, Both of the slot itself and the distances from the bottom and rearof the slide, and RECORD that measurement, and start again on the other side. KEEP measuring carefully and frequently as you remove enough metal to let the other end of the sight's dovetail to start it to full depth in the this "other" (second) side of the slide. Do NOT trust either your memory about the numbers, OR your "eye" to get this correct. MEASURE, CHECK the numbers. This is where you can easily end up with the sight being crooked in the slide, either front to back, or top to bottom.
If the caliper shows all is well, now you can begin removing metal in the center of the dovetail. It's best to measure the sight's dovetail,(both at the top and bottom)make sure that if ANY taper is present, that you drift the sight into the slide in the appropriate direction, and that you cut the slide accordingly.
Be aware that as you drift the sight in and out of the slide dovetail, using your hunk of nylon rod, that you can easily be distorting the sight, especially the dovetail. The layout blue or magic ink will show you where to remove metal. It's best to smear on a bit of Loctite for the final installation, and to drill and tap the slide for the retaining setscrew. One type of Bomar has you tap the slide for the elevation screw,the other has that screw self contained in the sight.
Round off those sharp corners on the Bomar, so as to spare your hand, ribs, clothing from being gouged-ripped. Be careful to taper these cuts to the front, so there's no glare from them, towards the rear of the gun. If you hot -blue the sight, remember to disassembleit and remove the springs. Hot blue can hurt their temper, and the salts will crud up any small,articulating areas-parts. Sometimes rust will form there, because the salts were not adquately "killed' in the rinse part of the blueing process.
