GunLab (KnownHost) » de-buring

VG1-5 update Machining the lower receiver

Chuck — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 08:00:15 +0000

This post will go through the steps necessary to machine one of the lower receiver. I was going to do a video, but there was not much to see with the coolant on.

If you remember the last post on the lower receiver we had finished welding it up and it looked like this.

Now comes the part where we remove everything that is not part of the rifle.

First a couple of pictures of the fixture that was made to do machining. You can see that this fixture will support and clamp in the receiver securely.

What we are going to do is clamp a receiver into the fixture.

The first step is to install a center support for the receiver.

The it is clamped into the fixture.

We do this to mark it so the excess can be plasma cut off prior to machining.

You can see the magic marker on the sheet metal where it was plasma cut. You can also see the 3 holes that were drilled to allow clamping the front and rear clamping blocks

Now it is back into the fixture for machining.

After a slow and careful machining op, sheet metal has a tendency to grab the end mill and come out of the fixture. We are finished with this phase.

A couple of close up pictures of the receiver after machining but still in the fixture.

This is how it looks coming out of the fixture and prior to de-buring.

This how they look after the initial de-buring.

After the receiver is cleaned up a final machining operation is conducted on the manual milling machine to clean up the inner area of the receiver.

With this operation we have gone from rough weld up to a finished machined part ready for the next operation.

Update on the VG1-5, upper receiver

Chuck — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 08:00:53 +0000

We have been working on the VG1-5 at a steady pace to try and finish this project. This last week has been spent on the upper receiver. The lathe work has been completed on the upper and now we have started on the operations that have to take place in the machining center. This video shows the actual machining that we did a master cam simulation on earlier.

This first picture is of the set up we used to machine the upper receiverThe stop to position the part correctly and the rear clamping device.

The front clamping device

This next set of pictures is of the final op’s completed on the receiver.

The cut out for the guide block. It still needs to be de-bured.

The large hole for riveting the front sight on.

The small hole for the front sight

The completed machining op on the upper.

Working our way through the upper receivers.

All the machining on the upper receivers will be completed this week. Moving ahead.

AR-180B parts update

Chuck — Tue, 25 Aug 2015 13:36:58 +0000

With the parts coming back from the heat treating company on Friday it was time to get busy getting them finished.

This is how they look after heat treating. This is the safety.

And this is the bolt hold open.

The first step was to run them through the tumbler to remove the majority of the scaling.

After the tumbler they are then bead blasted to clean them for parkerizing.

This is how they look after finishing.

You will notice the different colors. They were parkerized at the same time with the same solution. The reason for the differences is the material , 1018 vs 4130, and the heat treating performed on the parts.

We are working on the spring bending die today and hope to have the parts set up for sale this weekend.

OP 7 completed on the MP-44 trunnions

Chuck — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 08:00:11 +0000

Op 7 has been completed. This is a major mill stone on making the MP-44 trunnions. The rest of the machining will be done on the manual mill. It will be easier on the manual mill then making the number of fixtures and tooling that would be required on the cnc machining center.

This is op 7. You can see the original next to one of ours. The manual phase will add the chamfer to the groves.

You can see that the trunnions are dimensional correct

A close up of the trunnions.

A picture of all 6 trunnions completed and de-burred.

Parts cleaning

Chuck — Mon, 27 Jul 2015 08:00:59 +0000

This last weekend was a busy one, like most weekends here. On the list of projects that had to be completed was get the parts ready for heat treating. This meant bead blasting all the parts going to heat treat. Not a weekend of fun and frolic. Thousands of parts needed to be cleaned and prepped. The though of cleaning them one at a time did not make for a project that I wanted to do. I have been looking at rotating parts bins for my bead blaster but have not had much luck. I knew a simple solution had to be out there, This is a video I saw on the net that I felt would be a long term solution, but for now something quick and simple.

So I made a manually operated rotating tumbler for the bead blaster. Here is a quick video of it and using it.

The first attempt was a 3lb plastic coffee can and just rolling it around.

I needed something that was a little easier to use and could hold a few more parts. So I made one out of a 1 gallon bucket and some old castors.

This is what the rusty bolts looked like starting.

And at the end after a couple of minutes.

Not a perfect solution, but a workable one. When I have some spare time I will make a motorized one with a spray nozzle that does not have to be held.

The weekend update for 6-21-15

Chuck — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 13:30:49 +0000

Most of last weekend we have chatted about. The time spent messing about with the CNC router and the wire edm has been covered. This was the rest of the weekend.

I was able to get the vibrating tumbler up and running. Load after load was run through. With the stones still sharp and new I was able to process hundreds of parts and get them completely de-burred.

The next project that was started a few weeks ago is the new trench for the comm lines to the shop. This one took a slight set back. I really lost my spunk for hand digging any more trench and now that it was determined that the conduit under the house was toast I needed to go a different route. A friend on mine owns a trencher and offered to use it to cut a new trench. Great idea but still problems to deal with. To begin with my other business is a utility locating business. So all the utilities were marked out in advance. Power,water and the new line we had just put in. The trencher was brought down after I went to work and off he went at it. My wife call just after he took out 10 feet of the new line and was heading for the main power feed to the shop. I got her to stop him before things went really bad. So this is now the new trench and if I had to dig up so much of what we already put in I decided to add an additional 1″ conduit as well.

Still working on burying it and will finish as soon as the next load of sand gets here.

New equipment for the shop, part 2 of the weekend trip

Chuck — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 08:00:21 +0000

We went up and saw a friend that had an older tumbler that he wanted to get ride of and thought of me. At the shop all the de-buring work has been completed by hand, which if you do this type of work, is a long process. This unit is not a really large unit but big enough for the smaller parts that we make.

I have it setting next to a large Dillon unit to show the comparison of size. It should make life a little easier.