Our friend Axel was here a while back and in one of our many conversations I mention that what was needed was a small 32 acp pistol that could be built with a minimum of tools, something like a WW2 German volkspistolen. Also being a fan of Impro guns, https://homemadeguns.wordpress.com/, I knew that it was a doable task. So leaving with nothing more then a magazine Axel was tasked with designing and making a non-firing prototype pistol with nothing more then the tools he had on hand. Those tools being a cheap table top drill press, a disk grinder, a dremel tool, a cheap tig and mig welder, a vise and a variety on hand tools. I want everyone to understand that this project was done as a non-firing prototype pistol only thus keeping with in the laws of his country.
This is what the final product ended up looking like.
This is his story. He wanted to come up with a Volkspistolen that was simpler then existing ones and adaptable to a variety of calibers.
Starting with a piece of steel pipe he cut the basic opening in the slide with a disk grinder.
His milling operation was completed using a drill press. With this set up he finished cutting the opening of the slide to the proper size.
This set up was also used to open up the ejection port. Hand fitting is the word of the day when making a pistol like this.
This is his press set up to form the bends necessary for the rear barrel support.
Using a drill of the correct size he was able to press the upper portion of the rear barrel support
Then using his tig and mig welder he welded to the lower block which would later become the completed lower barrel support and feed ramp.
After a number of hours of filing and clean up work.
The piece of material shaped to be a dummy barrel support.
The complete rear support after a great deal of filing and fit up.
A basic concept of the pistol design.
The making of the bolt for the slide. Again a piece of steel was fitted to the slide to start the making of the bolt. The bottom of the bolt was flatten with a die grinder and the grove cut into the bottom was done with a dremel tool.
After all the work is completed this is what you have.
Next the bolt face is made.
You can see how well the cartridge sets into the bolt face.
More hand fitting and it is set into the slide.
Test it against the barrel and rear support for proper fit up.
The next step was to weld the rear of the slide on. This fixture insured proper alignment prior to welding.
With the bolt welded it was time to hand fit the extractor.
A picture of the extractor and spring.
Part 2 dealing with the frame and parts of the fire control mechanism will be tomorrow.
Dang.
Any chance we can get a drawing of that once it’s finished up?
fascinating
lovely little thing. it’s just a blowback right? could it be scaled up to 380 with some weight? also you should crosspost this on WG heh
And we think we cannot do without our Bridgeports and lathes!
Pete
will there be schematics / dimensions posted of this build / the original volkspistolen?
eventually yes.
Did anyone get around to finding plans for this little beauty? Amazing ingenuity.
Dear Chuck,
awesome work and very nice documentation and pics! Thank You for that!
Are there allready plans/schematics existing to buy?
… I just ask, since the last guy asking the same qustion did so 3 months ago.
Thanks and kind regards!
Walther
Are there any plans going to be uploaded ? this is an amazing project and it has been a while since anyone has asked for drawings…
This is probably a lost cause but are those plans coming along?
So no schematics I guess?
Excuse. I’m very new to gun making but I want to build my own volksspistole for .25acp, can you offer any advice?