GunLab (KnownHost) » Die making

Building the semi auto MP-44 part 5

Chuck — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 08:00:34 +0000

This is another update on Pete’s project of making a semi auto MP-44.

In this post Pete goes over making the replacement pieces for the lower receiver area.

As with everything in the making of this rifle there is a great deal of trial and error.

It is interesting to see the tooling that Pete make to do the work necessary to complete the task.

There is a great deal of hand fitting and filing in this project.

It is looking better and better.

Pete is a master metal smith. I am impressed with the quality of the work that he has done on this project.

Building the semi auto MP-44 part 4

Chuck — Tue, 03 May 2016 08:00:19 +0000

This post deals with just one of the small stampings that goes into making a MP-44. he part being make for this post is the sheet metal reinforcement for the back of the magazine well. This simple part closes the rear of the magazine well, strengthens the rear of the magazine well, addes extra support for the magazine catch area and provides a guide for the magazine.

This is what the part looked like after being removed from a torch cut receiver. There is not much there that is useful, however with a little work a new part can be made.

The first step is to measure out the part and then design a female stamping die that will meet the contours of the part.

Once verified it is time to move onto the next part

In this case the next part is the male die. As this process is being accomplished a number of stampings are done.Generally nothing happens correctly the first time.

Now the die is added to. The complexity of the die either requires a cnc machine to make it or a fabricated die has to be made. Due to the lack of cnc yhe die was pieced together to form the required shape.

After the stamping dies are completed then it is time to work out through trial and error the proper shape of the blank.

Not comes the moment of truth. If everything works properly then a good part will be made.

It took a great deal of work to design and make the press tools that were necessary to make just one simple part.

Building an MP-44 semi part 2

Chuck — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 08:00:35 +0000

This is the second in a series of post of Pete, a friend of gun lab, building his semi-auto MP-44. From our previous post you could see the absolutely dismal condition of the cut up receiver pieces that Pete had to work with.

You can see from these pictures that there was no back section. So the only answer for Pete was to design the tooling and make a new rear section. This is that post.

In this photo you can see the style of the female die with the cuts for the ribs to be pressed in.

As with all stamping work to obtain the best possible product you must have a flat that is the same and you must have a method of properly locating that flat.

This male stamping die is much more complicated to make then most people think. All this tooling was made on a manual vertical mill.

With any press tool you have to have guide and alignment pins to obtain a quality product.

Pete does all his pressing on a simple shop press.

To fabricate the rear pieces it take multiply set up’s.

Some real nice tooling to make his rear section.

This is not a simple process to make the rear sections.

You can see for this final photo the quality of work that Pete produces.

If anyone is interested in a replacement section drop me a comment and I will forward it to Pete. He has a few of these left.

AR-180b upper receiver

Chuck — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 08:00:41 +0000

Here At Gun Lab we actually have a number of projects going on. While we are waiting for our heat treating to come back for the VG1-5 and AR-180b parts we started on the AR-180B upper receiver. This receiver is design to fit on the Nodak-Spud lower as well as the AR-180B lower and the original AR-180.

The project was started July 20th when a friend sent me a original flat for the AR-180. That evening I sat down and started the solid model drawing for the upper receiver. It was not a priority project here and was put on the back burner until the projects on the mill were completed. However, by July 30th I had completed the solid model and had completed the first set of basic modelling for the stamping die.

This first picture is of an original AR-18 flat that has had ribs pressed in.

This picture shows what it would look like after the next stamping. The basic shape is cut out.

The next step that was performed was to bend the bottom tabs.

The next step was then to punch out the ejector port and cocking handle opening.

With the advent of technology we have made a few changes to the process in which this part will be made.

In looking at an original AR-180b upper you can see a few of the manufacturing changes. Looking at these pictures and at the actual part you can see that a laser cutter was used versus stamping them out. The cost difference is huge.

What we have done is drawn up the receiver then changed it into a flat design then had that laser cut out of the proper material and thickness of sheet metal

Next we started working on the stamping design.

Once the basic design is completed we start working on each component of the design and changing the parts and assembly as we go along. Finally we come up with a working model.

Then every part and component is accurately located and attached.

Down to the pins and screws.

Once this is done we start making each of the individual pieces. Starting with the basic stock.

To the final products.

The next step and post will be the assembly then off to testing.

This is were we stand now on 8-17 and starting from 7-20. Less then 30 days from concept through design and modeling to programming and machining.

Not bad.

Gun Lab update

Chuck — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 02:15:58 +0000

This is an answer to a friends question about a particular project.

It is good to always keep checking with me. Things can get a little hectic around here. This is the status of the projects here.

1) the MP-44 trunnions test pieces have been completed and sent to the buyer. A few changes need to be made and we are correcting the drawings now.A post coming up about that next.

2) I hope to have the parts to fix the wire edm in this week and have it back up and getting it operational, this is for the mag wells on the AR-10.

3) we are finishing the tooling for the VG1-5 project so spot welding can go on in mass next week. While on the subject of the VG1-5 a new trigger guard stamping die has to be made, to look more like the original one. Still waiting for the heat treated parts to come back. The parkerizing set up is ready to start parking parts.

4) The cetme receiver has been solid modeled and the stamping dies are currently modeled as well, need to finish up the final oddities.

6) The AR-10 lower receiver has been modeled and half of it has been programmed to machine.; The work on the AR-10 lower will start again as soon as I can get the VG1-5 off of the HAAS machining center, need to change all the tooling out to aluminum cutters.

7) The AR-180b upper receiver stamping dies are 98% complete and hope to have them finished tomorrow. We are still waiting for the parts to come back from heat treat for this as well. Then we will start parkerizing them also.

So far That is about it. I am still working on the cnc router, made a new panel this weekend.

Weekend update and the fun of machining

Chuck — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 08:00:23 +0000

Nothing really exciting to report. I spent the weekend machining large pieces of metal into smaller pieces. We have shipped the test MP-44 trunnions to Pete and while we are waiting for his report back we are filling our time working on making stamping dies. In this case all the pieces are sized and we have started machining the the individual pieces for the AR-180 upper receiver stamping dies. A quick look at the solid model of the stamping dies

This is what it looks like in the making phase. Here are a few pictures of the top and bottom plates being sized up on the Allan Bradley cnc mill. A great deal of the die steel is not heat treated and just basic run of the mill scrap steel. These sections came from torch cut trash steel from different job sites. You can see the type of edge it has and need to be cleaned up and sized.

A close up of the edge. This will take a great deal of work to clean up and make useable.

So Saturday and Sunday I got to do this. A basic program was written to reduce and clean up the edges 0.030″ at a time until they were clean up.

The two bigger pieces were machined. The top and other edges will be cleaned up on the HAAS machining center.

All three of the pieces ready to continue on to the next phase.

The actual heat treated press areas are also machined to size and we have started on the forming portion of the dies.

Making the VG1-5 strengthening plates

Chuck — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 14:52:41 +0000

In this post we are going to take you through the steps necessary to make the strengthening plates for the side of the VG1-5 receiver. In the first couple of rifles that we made we bent the plates on my finger brake.

This was not a plan for doing over 200 of them. The time necessary to measure and mark each one and then eye ball the bends and fit to the receiver would have been enormous. To do this in an efficient manor that insured that they were all the same and would fit correctly a press tool had to be made. This are a couple of solid model pictures to get an idea of what it should look like.

Once design in solid works and programed in mastercam this is what the final product looked like.

And taken apart to show the inside of the press tool.

In this last photo you can see where the laser cut blank set.

This last two photos show the angle that we pressed to. These photo’s were taken after all the pressings have been completed. The press tool was made out of 1018 steel and the wear from pressing 210 pieces was non-existence. If we were going to press thousands upon thousands of them we would have gone to heat treated steel.

Now on to the actual making of parts. This is what we received from the laser cutting people.

The parts were cut and cleaned from them. A slightly better look at them.

Now a quick video of pressing them.

The final part after they were all pressed.

Every one of them exactly the same and ready to install on the receiver. Just for an idea of the time to accomplish this part. It took 2 days to design and build the press tool and about an hour to do the pressings. If we would have stayed with the old procedure it would have taken days to accomplish and the repeatability and accuracy would not have been there.

MP-44 repair sections

Chuck — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 08:00:31 +0000

Today’s post is from a friend of the site that wanted a semi-auto MP-44 and did not want to deal with the capital out lay necessary to buy one of the few that came in. His answer to the problem was to make a repair section and then put in the necessary parts and changes required by ATF to make it a legal semi auto rifle.

From this:

To this:

With this:

This is picture heavy post showing his method of making the necessary parts. The pictures tell the story from flat to finish project.

I know it is not every step but you can learn a great deal studying the pictures. I am always interested in seeing how someone makes something. This is great. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us.

Weekend Update 11-24

Chuck — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 08:00:10 +0000

Well as usual it has been a busy weekend around Gun Lab. More parts have been made for the VG1-5, coming soon in a post. The big project was the water system. The pressure pump took a crap. It just turn the pump room into a swamp and need to be fixed in a bad way.

What a mess. This is how it looked after 5 hours of working on it. Of course the dimensions changed on the pump so everything had to be re-plumbed. This time with unions.

The next projected finished was to finish enclosing the dust collector addition. It is now water tight and all I need to do is the electrical hook ups for the air compressor and dust collector.

The dust collector is now in the room.The exciting news is where we are at with the fluting machine. Stile a few components to make but we are getting there.

This is the start of bolting it together.

A little farther along.

Finally attached to the side of the forging press.

It is getting there.

The final project completed was my new gun rack. It is now up and loaded in the reference library.

One busy weekend.

Making the VG1-5 cocking handle

Chuck — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 08:00:47 +0000

In the following pictures of original VG1-5 one of the items that you will notice is that all the cocking handles look different and that they have been through some rough times.

So this is the cocking handle that we developed. The first thing that you will notice is the steel is just a little thicker. We are hoping to prevent the serious bending issue that we have seen in the original rifles. We are trying to keep it as the same basic shape of the original and it will be riveted as well.

This is the video showing how they are made.

And the close ups of the tooling to accomplish this task.

Some times simple tools are the best.