Thanks for dropping by! I’m Ian, and I’ll be your host here at GunLab. If you’re reading this, I will presume that you’re interested in things like:
- Firearms design
- Fabrication and manufacturing
- Metallurgy
- Real-world engineering problems
- Interviews with folks in the gunmaking business
That’s what we are going to be talking about here. We have a shop equipped with most of the tools necessary to produce firearms literally from raw materials, from grinding wheels to CNC machining centers. I hope you’ll join me as we explore firearms technology from concept through proof testing.
Who am I, anyway?
I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology, but never used it professionally. I bounced from one job to another, ending up as a sales manager in a moderately large manufacturing company. My real passion is firearms, though, and I have left professional employment to learn how to build guns. I am currently taking classes to learn manual machining skills, and those will be followed by CNC programming and operations classes. Through the GunLab blog, you can follow along as I start from pretty much ground zero in fabrication skills and progress towards my ultimate goal of building some really neat guns (if you want to see the sort of things I’m particularly interested in, you can check out my other blog, Forgotten Weapons). This will be a journey of at least a couple years, and I know it’ll be a great time!
Format and content
We will be using video primarily, and I anticipate posts twice per week. Why video? Because that is the best medium for explaining and demonstrating machine tool use. There will be times when we use written posts as well, of course, when the subject matter requires it.
Who is our target audience?
We hope this blog will appeal to both amateur and profession gunsmiths and manufacturers. If you’re a home shop person looking to learn more about gunmaking, this is definitely for you. If you own or work in a firearms manufacturing business, large or small, this should be right up your alley. We will be visiting and interviewing folks like you whenever we have the chance. If you’re a student of design and engineering, there will be a lot here for you. If you are a big fan of TV shows like Sons of Guns or American Guns, you might be interested – but we’re going to be doing the real work, with no stupid drama.
We’re up and running
I started classes a couple weeks ago, and I’ve finished the book prerequisites, so I’m out in the shop making chips. Are you ready to join me on this path? Pull up a seat and hang on!
Ian -
Good luck on the machining course. Check stainless firearms parts with a magnet before you fab up replacements. Most stainless firearms parts are AISI Type 400 series, which are magnetic. European stainless gas system parts are usually Sil 1, a magnetic engine valve steel with 9% chromium and 3% silicon. The Type 300 nonmagnetic stainless steels usually ‘gall’ in gas system applications.
Scrap stainless steel rifle barrels are usually a good source of AISI Type 416 stainless raw material for parts like the G.41(W) piston. Diesel engine intake valves are still made from Sil 1, and a good cheap source of this alloy. In both cases, these materials are prehardened, so no heat treatment is necessary.
Ian,
Fantastic job with Gun Lab! Great idea and look forward to more projects on here. Can you tell us what gunsmith/machining school you are going to?
Da Bishop
Ian,
Thank you for sharing this journey with the rest of us. I want to sign up for the same course at our local community collage, but have not had time yet. I am not in a position to go full time.
How many courses are you taking at one time and how many hours a day do they require?
Please sign me up for the new blog!
Thank you,
Steve
Congrats on starting the new endeavor! Also have to give you kudoes on dumping the job for something you truly love… guns!
Godspeed and good luck to ya’.
I am very interested in learning the basics of machining also for gun making, but alas I have no background like you.
Could you do a post on where someone without the technical background could start learning about it. Schools, books etc?
Also, where is the RSS link to this site’s feed? Thanks
I’m still putting some of the site infrastructure in place, including the RSS feed and the subscription list. They should be ready soon.
How do we sign up to subscribe to the Gun-Lab blog? I don’t see a subscription tab?
Dean
Huuurrraaayyy !!!!!!!!
Congratulations. I am please to learn about your new adventure. I will be following that blog very closely.
Excellent! Video format will definitely help with the machine work. Good luck!
Are you going to be making that Dror? Now that’s a classic….
Congrats on your new adventure, Ian. I’m looking forward to your usual high quality videos and interesting, professional level narrations. You mentioned not having plug gauges that would accomodate measurements needed in your project. I acquired a set of inexpensive snap gauges (Starett?) that are inserted into the hole to be measured and then a set of compressed spring loaded plungers are released, contacting the sides of the hole. They are then locked in place and the gauge removed and the distance across the locked plungers measured with a micrometer. I am not a machinist but use this technique to measure chamber throat diameters on my revolvers.
Let the adventure begin!
Carpe Deium,
Wil Cushman
San Diego
Hurah for your new blog!
I was wondering if something is possible, have you read L. Neil Smiths ‘Pallus’?
In the story the main charature builds a simple and effective auto pistol from simple
metal plates(frame not barrel) with a tip up barrel ala Beretta.
I don’t have the ‘smith skills to try it but I wonder if in these uncertain times if a
design like this might not have applications.
BTW, I tried contacting EL Neil, but he seems to be a busy man.
Anyways, I look foward to all of your projects and posts.
Thanks!
I have a read a few of L Neil Smith’s works, but not Pallas. I have never quite understood the idea of building very simple crude arms for doomsday scenarios, though. If you are concerned, just buy a good gun or five today. It would be way, way cheaper to buy a couple nice used Glock 19s than to buy the tools and build the fixtures to make a substandard garage gun. Case in point, the Liberator. The US gov made millions of them for next to nothing, but tooling up to make a few hundred brings the price up to $600 for today’s repros. It’s cheaper to buy a $500 gun than to build a $5 gun.
The tooling was actually pretty simple to make, and the original offering price was to be much much lower. I had planned on buying one before they hit the market, but decided that other things were more pressing.
Looks like an interesting site and some fun ideas.
So how much $ for a VG-1 clone in .30 carbine or .30-30?
(Yes, it be a pretty heavy slide, I know… )
A financial debacle several years ago with a semiauto FG-42 taught me the important lesson of not offering anything for sale that I don’t actually have in hand.
Oh, I can just imagine. That comment was with tongue firmly in cheek anyway thinking about the 8mm kurz thread over at THR.
I’d rather be able to afford the tools and learn myself. I’ve got a copy of “Mr. Single Shot’s Book of Rifle Plans” by Frank & Mark de Haas. I’d love to be able to build one of his vault locks in 7×57.
Perhaps someday. But in the meantime, this looks like it’ll be fun to read alongside forgotten weapons.
I’ve added you to my blog roll due to interest in what you’re going to write on.
I’ve done a bit of gunsmithing with a micro lathe and micro CNC mill, but no complete guns from billet.
Should be fun. I bought my first lathe 36 years ago. My first mill 35 years ago. Been downhill ever since. My passion is designing and building so I’ll enjoy watching this site. I got into it because I wanted to design guns. Have mostly had to do other things than guns since I like to eat but did design and prototype a .22 conversion kit for the 1911 that uses the original slide and spring. So many ideas, so little time and money. You have a great gig going there.
The natural evolution of our beloved hobby is, after you know how the guns look and shoot like, how they function, eventually how are they fabricated – and it is a really life changeing experience, especially if you learn how to use machines and be precise and handy with that tools. It’s not a simple and cheap process, but it is rewarding eventually, especially when you hold and look at some decently made part or a whole design in the very hands that made it. Also, there are still lot of the secrets of the trade to uncover to many gun enthusiasts, and I hope that will be presented here. My best regards for this project.
You’re going to be finished with training in a couple of years? I’d like to see that. In the real world of commercial business it would take at least ten years before you were qualified to fabricate a complex mechanism from scratch. There’s a lot more than meets the eye. Still, I wish you the best of luck.
I don’t think you can put a time frame on “qualified”. Depends on the individual and at the same time you’re never “finished”. And remember, you can only be trained to do what is already known. Training is a great tool but you can’t “train” innovation and creativity.