GunLab

VG1-5 Preorder Now Available!

We are now taking reservations for out reproduction VG1-5 rifles! Price is $4000, and they will be ready to ship once ATF gives final approval on the design. The get on the priority list, contact Matt or Greg at Allegheny Arsenal – (814) 362-2642. No payment will be taken until the guns are ready to ship.

Up Date to the 1868-77 Peabody rifle

I received a number of pictures from my friend in North Carolina that I wanted to share with all of you. My buddy was nice enough to take his rifle apart and take pictures of all of the components. It is not often someone will take apart there rifle so you can see the inside workings of it, so Thank you very much.

The first set is of the block and it’s components.

These next pictures are of the receiver with the block installed and removed.

A few more pictures of the rear sight.

The hammer and sear assembly.

The stock.

The butt plate and misc metal parts.

Again thank you for the pictures.

Here are a couple of video’s I took while on my trip through the mid-west. This is John D. Chatting about his Peabody rifle.

Weekend Update 1-25-15

It is 6 P.M. on Sunday and I am done. Most of this weekend has been spent on the VG1-5 project. I finished all the small screws ,200, with the final op. Next will be Parkerizing.

The medium and larger screws are over 1/2 way completed.

All the fire control stamping ,110 of them, have gone through first op.

I pressed all the stock supports, right and left. 110 of each.

I did a little work around the wood shop. The first thing was to complete the electric to the dust collector. I also finished the conduit and buried it on the back side of the shop.

I ordered some clamp racks and when they got here they would not work as the slot was to small. So, I machined a larger slot in them.

My wife finished the ammunition separation and now has everything put away.

That is it for the weekend. Tomorrow is a new and exciting week.

Sunday answer 1-25

What you are looking at is a magazine loader.

My friend brought over his Beretta Model 38a, these are just stock photos to give you an idea what it looks like.

And with it he brought this loader. While I do not think it is Italian, I could be wrong, it works well with the Beretta’s magazines.

However, notice the magazine stop and it is not correct with this loader. The magazine does lock up and can be loaded from this tool. I too am still looking for an answer.

What is it Saturday 1-24-15

The 1867-77 Peabody Rifle

On my trip through the mid-west I had an opportunity to look at a 1867-77 Peabody rifle. The movie will be completed so as well as the one at Forgotten Weapons. Here are some of the still pictures that I took of this beautiful rifle.

The side of the receiver.

A series of pictures of the top of the action and block.

A couple of close up pictures of the rear sight

I kind of lust after this rifle and would love to have one. Then I get an e-mail from a friend in North Carolina showing me the pictures of his newly acquired Peabody rifle.

This is just such a nice looking rifle. Great lines.

A couple of close ups of his rifle.

Another top view.

Here are a few of the barrel. Just look at the over all condition.

Even the muzzle is great. Like it came off the factory floor.

The stock marking

And the rear sight.

I would really like to have one of these.

Just as a quick side not. If anyone knows where a block can be found for one of these rifles please let me know. The weapon is a rim fire rifle and my friend wants a spare bolt to convert it to a center fire rifle.

Another 22 single shot pistol

This post is about another interesting pistol that I had an opportunity to look at while on my trip through the mid-west. This pistol is the S&M single shot pistol, called the SM Sporter 22 lr. It is a single shot pistol with an automatic opening bolt, much like a semi-auto pistol, but it stays open after every shot. This allows the shooter to reload and then using the bolt release to close the bolt. To fire the weapon make sure the safety is off and squeeze the trigger. It has the look and shape of a Ruger semi-auto pistol

A couple of views of the left side of the pistol showing the bolt release lever and the safety

You can see the firing pin on the bottom of the bolt.

Close up of the bolt release lever and safety.

An interesting and simple design. Thanks again to John D. for letting me look and study it.

Weekend update 1-19-15

Well it was another fun weekend around Gun Lab. This was the list I worked out during the week to be completed this weekend.

The 4″ conduit was run around the wood shop as well as the rest of the 2″ and 1″ and we buried it in preparation for the next phase.

And covered.

Sand pile is reduced a little.

Then some maintenance issues were address in the shop. The first was an air leak due to a valve failure.

It was removed and capped, I will paint it next weekend.

I needed to move some equipment around to have better flow and a little more room. The first thing was my son’s tool box. It was relocated to the cnc room.

To do this the 1″ belt sander was moved to the fab shop as was it’s parts table. Next the die room was re-organized. This is the way it use to look.

This is how it looks now. The spot welder was moved in and set up to do all the welding on the VG1-5.

Then the Webb, Allan- Bradley, and the Wells-Index machines were set up to run parts, as well as the Haas machining center.The Webb was set up to drill out the cocking handle for the first op.

The set up was just a basic vise with thin parallels and a spring separating them with a vise stop to for proper positioning.

All the handles were then completed and de-bured on the drill press.

The Well-Index was set up to re-tap the cross pins deeper.

We used a 5-C collet closer and a tap-a-matic to finish this job.

They are all completed now.

The Allen -Bradley was set up to ream the buffer pin holes slightly larger to prevent binding.

We made a special fixture for this.

They too are also now completed.

The Haas was set up to complete the screw slots on all the stock and hand guard screws. Unfortunately, I broke the last small end mill before we could complete the project. More have been ordered but have not arrived.

A lot of screws to do.

From here I went to the fly press. A siding needed to be put on it to prevent the chips from flying on the shelves and it need to be re-leveled and have the adjustable levelers re-moved. This is what it use to look like.

After leveling.

And then with the new siding.

Once these tasks were finished I started the first stamping op for the fire control housing.

However, I just ran out of steam and did not finish all of them.

I did manage to move all the exercising out and over to a friends house that wanted it. This also was way to much fun.

Thanks that I had heavy equipment skates and jacks.

Even with that equipment it still a lot of work. This is the first load.

The second load was just a single piece of equipment.

It now cleared out an area to allow me to expand the wood shop.

While this was going on Axel was back and smarter this time so he took over as Arbeitsschuts or better known here as OSHA. He deemed that the stairs to the guest house needed non slip covers.

A better view.

I think it is color codded as per some German guide line.

The upper stairs.

He and my wife worked on the last of the ammo re-organizing as well. This was the start.

And the finish.

In and among all this fun I had a friend bring over his Beretta Model 38A to have me fix it and I did, sorry forgot the pictures. And another friend brought over a 22 rifle that would not cycle. Axel fixed this. Cute little semi-auto.

A close up of it.

I did get a little time in the wood shop. I started on the backing for the radial arm saw.

So all in all not a bad weekend.

Sunday Answer 1-18-15

This is the bolt and bolt carrier for the Cetme model L.

It is part of the kit that I received from Apex gun parts.

https://apexgunparts.com/product_info.php/cPath/51/products_id/5057

I also bought some of there magazines.

It is a interesting looking gun and one that I am looking forward to build in the future.

To this end a start has been made. As always the first step is to design the receiver so we can make stamping dies. A great deal of work has been accomplished toward this goal. Now it is necessary to get the last few measurements that we don’t currently have. So here are the solid models as they currently look.

Still working on the internal block and how to convert to semi-auto only to meet ATFE requirements.

It looks like a fun project and is on the list,but have the finish the VG1-5 first and a solid model project for our friend back east. I am thinking a 3 or 4 die stamping die set.

Part 2 of weekend update 1-12-15

I did not finish the weekend update for last weekend so I thought I would fill you in on everything else that was accomplished. As you know we went out shooting on Saturday and then came home and cleaned the guns that we used. Come Sunday morning Axel made the fatal mistake of asking is there anything he could do to help. This a typical work list that I start on the Monday after the weekend to help plan for the next weekend.

My wife jumped on that right now. We had problems finding ammo from the ammo rack so it was time to reorganize and check everything. Axel, with normal Teutonic efficiency, tackled the job. You can see the kind of disaster we were dealing with.

Every can was removed from the rack and opened then labeled.

Talk about a fun day, WOW.

While they were having way to much fun doing this I decided to take it easy and lounge around by the wood shop. The new conduits needed to be laid for electricity for my wife’s a/c in the office, who would have thought that she did not want to work in a room that was 120 in the heat of the summer. The trench was cleaned out an bedded in sand.