Back on line

It is hard to believe that I have been shut down or at least stop posting for over 5 years. Life just got in the way and something needed to be set aside. I will start with what is new here. I finally retired, sort of, I still work for the company that bought me out. However, I work a lot less hours and not have time for the shop and making things.

The first thing I did was to start repairing broken equipment and actually get the shops back in some kind of order, still have more to do in that respect and I don’t think that will ever stop.

The major projects that I am currently working on is first and foremost getting up to speed learning the new solid modeling program that we currently use. In the past I used Solid Works but the cost got to be prohibitive and I have shifted to Fusion 360. I started in earnest about 3 months ago. To allow me to learn Fusion 360 I bought a number of books with engineered drawings and finished every drawing at the same time I checked out ever Fusion site that I found and followed them along on how they did certain tasks then I watched the game show on youtube dealing with a contests between individuals using there preferred solid modeling program. After about 2 months and 800 drawings completed I started working on drawings that I had to make them into solid models. I have to admit that actual engineered drawings are a lot harder then anything in the books or on youtube. However, I was able to start working my way through the drawings then it was onto reverse engineering parts using what ever information I could find and  pictures to trace over. this leads me to where I am at now.

A number of the projects that was worked on previously had to be re-modeled. I started with the AR-10 Sudanese lower receiver. With the drawing complete I was able to program the solid model for manufacture, I did have some help with this. The next post will be about making the lower receiver, spoil alert it turn out perfect for the first 4 ops still a couple of ops to complete. My plan is to make 10 receivers and then go on to the next project.

I still need to finish the drawings on the Portuguese receiver but I will finish this project before I remove all the tooling and start on something new. I have no desire to make any more receivers then a limited supply as I have other things I want to do.

It is good to be back in the shop and having fun. There are still a number of projects around the property that need my attention and money so unfortunately not all my time will be in the shop.