Anyone know if Glock slides are cast or machined from barstock?
Likely machined.
I’m curious, why do you ask?
Just one of those ill-informed breaktime debates at work. Kind of like Ginger vs Mary Ann.
Which side were you on?
I’m of the opinion that they’re machined, but one of the self-professed Glock experts insists that they’re cast, so who knows?
BTW, I’m on the “Mary Ann” bandwagon.
From TopGlock website.
“The slide is milled from a single block of ordnance-grade steel.”
http://www.topglock.com/Content.aspx?cKey=Glock_Flash
Oh, and Mary-Ann, hands down…
All of the resources I have handy (books mostly, and a few websites) say the slide is milled from bar stock.
Derek
Glock slides are machined by Austrian elves from bar stock that was forged in the fires of Mordor, and treated in the boiling pools on the Plains of Ten’nih-fir. They can only be destroyed in the fires from whence they came.
And since Slater brought it up…
Mary Ann 
Funny that you mention that but…
Has anyone ever seen or heard about a kaboomed G19 or G17?
Ever?
Never seen any of them kaboom myself, however half of the people on the internet have a cousin, that knows a guy, that has seen every Glock shot at his range blow apart.
They’re bad about that…
good point.
I have no value to add to this thread whatsoever…
Mary Ann in a heartbeat.
If you look at the inside/undersides of a Glock slide you can see the marks the milling/CNC machine left. It’s made from bar stock as previously indicated in this thread, it isn’t a casting or MIM part.
Mary Ann smokes dope.
Saw a 34 kB! with factory ammo in 2004. I didn’t witness the actual explosion but was on the range within two minutes to see the effect. Gun clearly fired out of battery, which many of us believe is an integral part of the kB! phenomenon.
As others have said, the Glock slides are milled. However, the grade of steel they use is not always very good. DOE did some metallurgical testing a couple years back. I believe the term “pot metal” was used repeatedly in describing the results. The finish on the slides is hard as woodpecker lips, but the underlying metal itself seems to vary quite a bit from production run to production run.
Brilliant. 
Interesting. What contributes to a out of battery fire? Gunk in the striker channel causing it load a round with the stiker extended?
So sufficiently hardening the surface can make otherwise crappy steel workable for slides? Heck, wonder if other manufacturers do the same thing?
Anything that prevents the slide from closing fully during the recoil cycle. A bad recoil spring, dirty or damaged rails, dirty or damaged chamber, etc.
No. An agency experienced a number of broken slides and that is why the metallurgical study was performed.
OK, gotcha. Haven’t heard about a rash of broken Glock slides in recent times, so presumably this doesn’t happen with any frequency?