GunLab

Apology for lack of posts

Sorry about the lack of posting. Once again the work load in my company has taken over my life. Most days this last week were 12 to 14 hours in length and one 16 hour day. I will get back on it this weekend.

VG1-5 slings

We are coming to a close on this project. The end is near and it is time to do some of the final touches prior to shipping out. This is not to say everything is done, far from it. All the parts are made, the fire control group works, most of the small bugs are worked out. The test gun has been sent for the first series of tests and write up. This is the next item on the list of things to do. The sling. The original one were what ever the Germans had. They were run through a ring on the front attachment and nailed to the butt stock. These are pictures of the three different types of materials and colors that I have access to.

Number 1:

Number 2

Number 3

All three together.

I am letting all of you decide. Which material and color. I could also use an idea on how to attach the sling to the butt stock. I don’t feel that nailing is a real good solution but I want it as close to the original as possible.

Thanks for your help.

3-25-15

Sorry no post for today. Worked and got home at 10.45 pm and have to leave at 5am tomorrow. Going to bed. I will try and post tomorrow.

Welcome to the Library

A while back I read a post at one blogs that I go to everyday and he was chatting about his library. So I thought I would go into a little more detail about Gun Labs reference library. This last weekend in the update I showed a picture of the new file cabinets that I got for storing documentation. I thought I would post a few picture of the complete library. Keep in mind that not only do I study about guns but I have number of different interests as well. I enjoy metal working, wood working, metal casting and forging, alternative energy, and jewelery making. Kind of an odd grouping, but not really. The truth is that I like to work with my hands and make things. So here goes the library pictures. I really need one big building for my library but it is not in the works just yet.

These are the two book cases in the living room and where I keep the books that I go to every day.

behind my chair.

In the gun room.

Current project that my wife is working on for me.

In the clean room. These are machining and die making books.

Catalogs and manuals

In one of the storage rooms. Most of these are all gun magazines

In the second storage room.

In the well room.

In my office.

At my desk

An up coming post I am working on.

More boxes to go through.

By the bed on current projects.

In addition to this I have 3 2 terabit hard drives that are almost full of gun stuff.

The current library is approximately 3500 hundred books and magazines. I really want a dedicated library building.

It is hard to believe that I called the visiting nurses association to come pick up 7 car loads of books a few years ago.

Weekend up date 3-23-15

Busy weekend. A number of small and large projects were completed this weekend so lets get to the list.

The first was completing the painting in the fab shop. This is what it looked like.

And this is how it looks now.

I hope to work on the last of the lighting next weekend.

The wall in the wood shop was sanded and another coat of mud put on. This is the before we even started it picture.

Then after we took out the window and framed it in.

This is how it looks now.

We moved some equipment around in the wood shop it allow easier access and use.

I need to build a dust cabinet around the cnc router and I wanted the access to be where I can install and remove fixtures and parts.

I finished the radial arm saw table.

My wife started on the new library/document room.

Cabinet of manuals

Files of data collected over 35 years.

We also got the cnc router up and running. The parameters had been changed and it took most of Saturday getting it to work properly. Here is a quick video of it cutting air.

The other project that was worked on was the photographic stand for rifles and pistols. The first version I was using a lazy susan to allow me to move it.

However there was to much movement so the final version is just bolted to the board.

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What is it Saturday 3-21-15

Friday Video 3-20-15

I had to work late last night and I am back at it early today. Here is a video put out by the British Government on the making of the Sterling Sub machine gun.

Cut Away rifle SA-80

I do love looking and photographing cut away weapons. The amount of information that is gathered in a good cut away is amazing. I hope you enjoy this one.

When I was taking the pictures I was focusing on a particular part. That is the reason for so many that look the same.

New tool for the wood shop

A while back a gent passed away and his wife was left with a cnc router. A friend of mine had loaned him the money for the router so the wife let him take the router as payement. Long story short he had no use for the router and a little trading went on and now this sets in my wood shop.

The table is 3’x5′ which is a perfect size for my little wood shop. All is not perfect though.As you can see there is no dust collector cabinet. This is something that has to be fixed as this little machine will put out more saw dust then I can clean in a week. The next problem is the support stand. It was not part of the original machine but something that was added later and poorly done as well. To give you an idea this is the cross support.

It was an aluminum extrusion for a window or door that was cut away to kind of fit and then screwed on to the base leg.

The aluminum leg would be fine if they were accurately marked and machines to fit the frame, but they were not. In addition they are not adjustable to allow proper leveling.

The good news is that it comes with a lot of tooling and tie downs and has mach3. I have had the opportunity to run this machine and it works great. The only machine improvement that I am going to make is raise the z axis to all the use of a 4th axis.

A few more pictures of the new toy.

I am hoping that this will be a great time saver for the stocks we have to make on the VG1-5 and 05 rifles as well as pattern making for the metal casting I need to do. For those of you that will ask, yes I could have used one of the cnc mills or machining centers to cut wood and I have. The problem with that is the oil that covers the machine tools is not good for the wood parts and the saw dust is not good for the coolant systems.

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