GunLab (KnownHost) » shop tuesday

Weekend update part 2 the metal casting area.

Chuck — Thu, 28 May 2015 08:00:59 +0000

Nothing says fun around Gun Lab like a 3 day weekend. And fun we did have. This post is about the new slab for the metal casting area here at Gun Lab. Last weekend we started digging the footers for the new casting area.

I needed a place for my casting furnaces to go.

So Saturday we finished the digging and got the post holes in. We bent re-bar to make the column supports for the gantry I want to put in.

Home made re-bar sopports

This project started with 57 80# bags of concrete. Some here and the rest in the back of the truck.

Once again my little mixer comes into play

Holes are dug and re-bar going in.

Material for the stem wall forms.

Concrete poured and forms going up.

25 more bags for the stem wall. But this will be next Saturday

Fun, fun, fun. that is life at gun lab.

Tuesday shop pictures

Chuck — Tue, 14 Oct 2014 12:43:33 +0000

What a shop to work in. And to think that the people that work in my shop complain about the working conditions.

I just don’t want to hear about the benches not being the right height or that we need a new cnc machine.

Shop Tuesday 10-8 fluting machine

Chuck — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 16:06:29 +0000

We are working on all the components for the barrel fluting machine. This is the Master Cam video for the making of the lower base. This part allows the chuck plate to move in and out. This allows us to load and unload the barrels from the chuck.

This part has now been machined.

I will have a video of the machining process soon.

More Japanese 99 magazine update. 9-30

Chuck — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 08:00:01 +0000

We have finished the second op die for the Japanese 99 magazine right side. The die is complete and the springs and pins added. This is a photo run down of the final die. This is the complete die assembly

Another angle

The bottom portion of the die

Top and bottom side by side

Assembled die from the bottom end

Assembled die from the feed lip view

Chatting about the different components

Pointing out the feed lip area.

We are just drawing up the rest of the first stamping die then it is off to stamping.

Japanese 99 magazine update Shop Tuesday 9-23

Chuck — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 08:00:23 +0000

We have completed some more work on the new stamping dies. We changed the design from a single stamp stamping set up to a multi step process. The first step is to stamp the ribs in the sheet metal then the following die set captures the sheet metal using the ribs as a reference and then bends the side walls.

This is the first set of dies. A little more still needs to be completed to work out the sheet metal stops.

The next set will start the bending of the sides. This is the series of parts required for this die. At this point the die is not complete. We still need to finish the upper and lower attachment plates.

the other side of the bending die.

As they look together.

The back side of the die . The hole are for alignment and springs.

This series of pictures starts to show the die as it would be assembled.

These are the end pieces of the stamping die to form the top and bottom of the magazine.

I hope you enjoyed the update. We are hoping to have this die completed this week. The material just came in on Friday. As always commits are appreciated.

Shop Tuesday 9-16 solid model the MP-44 trunnion

Chuck — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 08:00:04 +0000

A friend of mine dropped me an e-mail wanting to know if I had drawings for the trunnion of a MP-44 and being a fanatic on engineered drawings I said yes. These are the same drawings that are all over the internet and they are wrong. So I decided to set down and make a correct solid model for him. Using the drawings as a starting point then I measured one as well as the parts that attach to them.

This is a solid model that I did last Saturday on the trunnion.

There are differences even between trunnions. Here are pictures of one in the rifle and one that has been removed from a rifle. You can see the differences just in the upper radius where the sheet metal attaches just below the gas tube. The first photo is one in the rifle.

This is a different maker.

Notice the extended lips on the second picture verses the one still in the rifle.

In addition to drawing the part up a friend also did an analysis of the steel in the trunnion.

The specification for this part is C 0.45; P 0.044; S 0.039; Mn 0.62; Si 0.23; Ni 0.08

Hopefully after we finish the 10 projects that are on the mills now we can make a few for him.

As always comments and opinions are appreciated.

Shop Tuesday, Late 9-3-14

Chuck — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 01:04:29 +0000

Sorry for the late update. It has been a little busy and now with school starting again I found myself out of time. The major update for shop Tuesday is the design work that has been accomplished on the barrel fluting machine. I spent most of last Saturday morning and almost all of Monday working of the design. Some major changes have been incorporated. As a brief intro here are the solid models that posted a while back.

AS you can see the vise is bolted to a rotary flat plate. This flat plate then rides in an opening of another steel plate. The complete assembly was then bolted to a large plate and then assembled to the side of my forging press.

The changes that we are currently working on allow the lower assembly to move up and down. This change will allow for a greater range of work possibilities. We also changed the method for holding the chuck to the rotary table. This a basic look at the new design.

You will notice that we design the rotary table portion with 10 degree increments to allow accurate placement of the table in relation to the fluting tool. We also design a simple but effective tool holder. There is still more to do with the design, but I hope to have the design portion done this weekend and then start making it.

Hope you enjoyed the update. Comments and ideas are always welcome.

Shop Tuesday

Chuck — Tue, 26 Aug 2014 12:35:24 +0000

We posted about the female die for the FG-42 first model bi-pod stamping die a while back. Today’s post is about the male stamping die. This first set of pictures is the solid model for the male die.

Once again a few pictures to give you an idea of what the bi-pod should look like.

WE are also trying something new with this post and that is provide a video of the master cam program as it operates.

Here is the video of the master cam program:

I am working on an audio track for the next posts, just did not have any luck on this one.

The total run time to make the die plate is 4 hours. tool costs $210.00, total time for for solid modeling, master cam programing,tool set up is 16 hours. Material costs is $60.oo. Just to make the die the cost was approx $1550.00. dividing this cost over 300 pieces brings the basic cost for this die down to 5.00 per piece for this die. There will probably be 6 sets of dies per bi-pod leg.

Friday hope to have the video of the die being made. Stay tuned and comments and suggestions are always welcome.