GunLab (KnownHost) » random info Wednesday

Just a quick update on the VG1-5 project 5-2-15

Chuck — Sat, 02 May 2015 14:20:58 +0000

All the firing pins for the VG1-5, the Star pistol and the M1930 Sauer have been sent to heat treat. The buffer pins are there as well. The spot welder have been wired up and the coolant system will be finished this weekend. The first rifle was sent a while ago to Greg who took it to the first testing facility for ATFE approval. The second one will be out when the parts come back from heat treat. We will be spot welding the receivers together soon and all the material for the bolts is here and going on the lathe for the first op in the near future.

My work load has dropped of a little which helps and I hope to be back making regular posts soon.

This weekend is full of mandatory maintenance projects to get the shop back in order.

That is all for now.

Wednesday update

Chuck — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 08:00:28 +0000

Not much today on a road trip will post tonight.

Randon Info Wednesday 9-24

Chuck — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 04:32:14 +0000

Today’s post is going to be a little short as I am just beat. We finished the rest of the Japanese type 99 stamping die that we have been working on. The next thing is to finish the first die and get it set up. That will not effect this die in the least. This die will be assembled this week with the springs and pies for correct alignment. So here are the pictures of the rest of the machined components.

These are pictures of the top plate base

These are rest of the assembly of top and bottom plates

I will have the complete assembly finished by this weekend to shop you how it goes together. until next time.

Wednesday More designing on the fluting press

Chuck — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 08:00:15 +0000

We have finished what I think is the last of the designing work on the chamber fluting press. Next week after the die is off the HAAS machine we will start machining the individual components. So here is the final design.

We added a guide rod to insure that the tool head will not move. We also now use 4 pins instead of three for the lower plate. This was necessary to add the slot for the guide rod. It will be exciting to complete this project and have it mounted and finishing the barrels.

Randon info Wednesday

Chuck — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 08:00:01 +0000

I am sorry but this going to be a short post. I have not had the time to complete the other post that I wanted to do. I have a digital photography class on Tuesday night and it ran longer then expected. The good news is that one of the other students takes gun pictures professionally as is willing to help me upgrade my pictures. This is exciting as it improves the quality of the photographs for this site. Chuck

I hope to improve my pictures from this to something better.

Radom info Wednesday, 9-3

Chuck — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 08:04:38 +0000

We finished the new knurling tool this last weekend and this is a post about the new tool. I have been using the Shars knurling tool for a while and was continuing to have problems with it so it was time for a change.

The pivot pins are very loose which causes the tool to move when you don’t want it to and not move when you need it to. It was also hard to apply pressure the knurling heads with out using a pair of pliers. So a total redesign was necessary. This process was not with out a few problems. The first being that the computer crashed just after we did the design and had written the cam program. This caused a problem as we noticed a few items that needed a small dimensional change, but with out the original program that was all but impossible to accomplish. It was also difficult to machine the vise jaws with out the original drawings to match correctly with the parts that we had made.

The was to make these parts would have been to machine the one side then put them in the new vise jaws and machine the other side to the proper shape and face cut the extra material off. Again with out the drawings I could not write a program to do this so we just face milled the other side off instead with out milling the actual shape in first. This lead to an interesting final pass.

By the time we got to the final pass it was like cutting sheet metal that was a good 3/4 of an inch away from the vise. It worked but not a recommended practice.

Now that the two halves were made.

This one is a close up of the ends.

And one more put together.

We needed to make the clamping screw. The first method was to silver braze and pin the screw to the pivoting block. That did not work so well.

Not enough solder and the side walls to thin. So the next attempt was to add a great deal more silver solder.

It also pulled out with the first attempt at using it. So the final method of attaching was tig welding.

It not works like a champ and makes a very nice knurled on the VG1-5 front barrel support. The video on that will be coming up soon. Hope you enjoyed this update. Looking to hear you comments and ideas.

Random Info Wednesday

Chuck — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 23:19:24 +0000

To proceed with the building of the VG1-5 we needed to design and build a barrel chamber fluting machine. With the number of barrels that we need to make to complete the project I needed something that is accurate constantly, has repeatable, is semi automatic in operation and can be used for other rifle projects. This has lead to a variety of different concepts and we are now starting a solid model of the machine. Some of the problems that we have had to work through are how to accurately press in the flutes for the proper depths consistently, how to hold the barrel accurately and in alignment with the fluting tool, and how to hold the barrel so I can flute and remove the tool with out pulling the barrel out of the fixture. We have solved a few of the problems and still have more to deal with. This is the solid model that I have developed so far. the first set of pictures shows the base assembly using a 6″ lathe chuck.

This next photo shows the basic assembly.

Still working on the control method. I would like to put control switches in as well as a DRO. I will be working on that design this weekend. Your comments, ideas and opions are welcome.