GunLab (KnownHost) » FG-42

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.

Changes to Gun Lab

Chuck — Sat, 23 Aug 2014 17:51:20 +0000

I have decided to make a few changes to the way gun lab works. I personally can watch machining videos and look at solid models and guns all day. I guess that is because it is what I enjoy. I mean I take my vacations to go to factories to watch things being made Plastic factories, pottery factories, machine shops, museums to look at weapons and my wife goes along with me. However, I understand that most people want to see other things as well. So here are a list of the changes that I would like to make to the site.

Weekend followup Monday

Monday will be for an update of what went on during the weekend. A basic run down of everything that happen in or around the shop. This is to give an idea of everything that has to go on to keep things running.

Shop Tuesday

Tuesday will be for showing the part that has been made. The solid model that was worked on or the program that was written. Anything that went into making the parts that we make.

Random info Wednesday

Wednesday will be for information that we have come across that would help. Where we buy material, people and companies who have helped us, new products, videos that we find dealing with gun or parts making. I want to do a segment on people that are in the industry. Anything that I feel like taking about. Classes that we are taking, talking about the shop equipment that we have and use. Talking about firearms that we are interested in making in the future, general discussions on manufacturing or weapons, interviews when possible.

Book review Thursday.

There a large number of books in the reference library here at gun lab. Machining books, gun books, manufacturing books, information that is helpful in every aspect of what we do. I want to do a basic run down of the book and where to obtain it. In some cases a sales commission is give if you buy the book through our link. All money from this will be donated to the wounded warrior project. Having served in the military and coming from a family of military people I feel strongly toward this cause. I hope that you do too.

Video Friday

This will be the day that I post videos of the parts or equipment that we have made.

Guess this part Saturday

I have a 40′ container of misc parts. Saturday will be for taking pictures of parts so you can test your knowledge of small arms.

Answer Sunday

This will be the follow up day that answers Saturday’s question.

I want to add a library to the site dealing with information pertaining to gun lab.

Please feel free to comment about the changes and any recommendations that you have. We are looking to involve our viewers to improve gun lab to become the best site possible.

FG-42 first model rear sight button

Chuck — Fri, 22 Aug 2014 19:15:09 +0000

This post is about making the rear sight button for the FG-42 first model. To give you an idea of the complexity of this part I am adding a picture from “Death From Above” . This is a component break down of the parts for the first model FG-42 rear sight.

There is also a picture of it installed on the rifle.

The important information on these pictures is the angle of the button that holds it together and the design of the sight post. This post is about the lathe operation for part A 26. This is the button that holds the entire sight together. If you compare this sight with a later model Fg-42 you will notice the differences in the angle and the thickness of the part. The internals however are inter changeable.

With the part we are making in this post we are dealing with the button that holds it together.

This picture will give you a slightly different view.

Now that we have finished the lathe op for this part we will start designing the tools and fixture necessary to complete the mill operations.

Video on finishing machining the FG-42 rear sight base

Chuck — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 16:25:03 +0000

In the last video concerning the FG-42 rear sight base we showed you the lathe work required to complete the first op. This video will show you the rest of the work required to complete the rear sight base on the machining center.

Again just a reminder of the part we are making is solid model form.

In this video we will take it from a turned part.

To a final part ready for assembly.

So Lets start.

The total milling time for this part is 10 minutes. Hope you enjoyed the video.

Machining the FG-42 bi-pod leg female stamping die

Chuck — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 02:35:07 +0000

This post is about machining the stamping die for the bi-pod leg on a first model FG-42. This will be the third stamping die out of a set of 5 dies. It is also one of the more complex of the dies in the set. I will start with the solid model that was drawn up in solid works after being scanned.

Here are a few pictures of an original bi-pod leg

Here are a few still pictures of the female die.

To give you an idea of the time required to do this die it took a week of design time to take the 3-d scans and convert them into usable solid models. It took another day to write the master cam program. The total time to set up the machine and run the die 5 hours. The material cost was $ 65.00. Tooling cost was $120.00.

We are working on the matching male die and will have a post about that soon. Hope you enjoyed the video and understand the time required to complete a project

FG-42 rear sight base machining video

Chuck — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 13:17:42 +0000

I posted the still pictures a little while back on making this part. Here is the lathe video on machining the first op.

Just as a quick refresher on the part being made, this is the solid model of the part.

After the first op, which is the lathe op, this is what the part looks like.

I hope you enjoyed the video.

FG-42 first model rear sight

Chuck — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 17:50:03 +0000

We have been working on the rear sight for the FG-42 first model. The first picture that is a solid model of the entire sight assembly.

The next picture is a picture of the component parts.

The part we are currently working on is the base of the sight.

So now that you have seen the solid model it is now time to show you what the actual machined parts look like and the process that it takes to do it. The first step is to run it on the lathe.

After that there is 5 ops to complete the part.

so now back to step one on the lathe.

Not only is it turned but also drilled the the proper size on the inside.

The next step(op 2) is to cut the flats on the side of the base.

Then op 3 cuts the notches on the other end.

another picture from a slightly different angle.

With op 4 we cut the grove that allows the sight to slide up and down.

Another view.Then the pivot hole is drilled and a slight bevel is cut into one side.

A better shot of the bevel.

The last and final op is to cut the bevel on the opposite side.

This is the first set to be cut.

To give you an idea of the time and money necessary to complete this one small part. The time to solid model this part from the 3-D scans was a couple of hours,time to write the lathe and mill programs and set up the machines was approximately 8 hours. Material cost was 60.00. Run time on the lathe is 5 minutes per piece and run time on the mill is 10 minutes for a total run time on this part at 100 hours. Tooling costs is 200.00. This makes a cost to make this one small part approximately 25.00 each.

I will have a video on making this part in the next week. Thanks for staying tuned in.

updates on the projects

Chuck — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 05:01:47 +0000

Most of my friends know that I am a little different. Generally when I call or e-mail them to let them know what is going on at gun lab there first comment is always why don’t you just work on one project until you complete it. There is a real good reason that I do not work that way. The first being that when you hit a road block for what ever reason then everything comes to a complete halt. I generally work on 8 to 10 projects at a time.
Some are shop projects that need to be completed to allow me to continue on. Examples of this are painting the shop,

designing and building a new piece of equipment, or doing maintenance that is required. These projects are always in the background and demanding time and money. Something that there is always a shortage of here. The current shop projects are painting and hanging lights for the fab (pressing room) shop.

I am designing a hydraulic barrel fluting machine. The lights just take time to convert a number of 277 lights to 110 and then hang them. The fluting machine is something else. This machine needs to be able to flute to an accurate depth consistently then rotate and do it all again. The hydraulic system also needs to be operational in both directions. This project is taking a little time but needs to be completed to finish the VG1-5 project. The other tooling project that we just finished is the fixture for doing the last of the machining on the upper receiver for the VG1-5.

Some are design or concept projects. These are projects that I would like to make in the future. Generally, it is a great deal of solid modeling. There is some photo shop trickery work done as well. These are the type of projects that take a great deal of time but not much money. Generally the time spent working on these are in the evening or when it is to hot in the shop. Some of these are the lower receiver for the Sudanese contract AR-10. This solid model is now 95% complete and will be finished by this next week.

We are also working on FG-42 first model parts. The rear sight has been gone through and the programs have been written to start making them. The tooling just came in for those parts and they will be on the lathe and mill as soon as material is in.

The major projects are the weapons projects. The VG1-5 is the first and almost complete. We are down to finishing the small parts with only the Barrel and wood work left for major items. However, the small parts in some cases take more time then the larger parts. Ways to hold them have to be designed, tooling has to be made, solid models have to be done and programs have to be written. Everything has to be tested against the rest of the parts that are designed. Some of the weapons projects have hit a stoppage due to costs of material or re-designing of parts. In addition when the temperature gets excessive the power runs out in the shop. During the down periods while we are waiting for material or tooling or if it is to hot to work in the shop then it is off to design projects.
With the above being said I will give you the current update here at Gun Lab.
The original knurling tool that we were using on the VG1-5 front barrel support is just not doing the job properly. My next door neighbor who wants to learn solid modeling, programing and cnc machining has design a new tool.

The only time I have to work on it with him is Saturday afternoon and Sunday.It has been an interesting project for both of us. In the process of making it the computer crashed and died a painful death. Of course there was no backup made to this file. Generally all information is backed up 4 different ways in this shop for that very reason. But not this time. So 60% of the way through completing this project we had to find away to complete it. Hoping to be finished with it on Saturday.
The VG1-5 project needed some special tooling bought and made. This caused a delay of a little over a week. With the upper receiver fixture completed it will be on the HAAS this week as well. I will be posting a more complete write up on the projects in the days to come.Thanks for stopping by.

The FG-42 butt plate

Chuck — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:23:32 +0000

In this video I show the making of the FG-42 first model butt plate from the making of the dies to the first pressing. This a picture of the before and after of stamping.

http://youtu.be/1Zv2A4J1Od8

I hope you enjoy the video.

This week update.

Chuck — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 15:50:31 +0000

Once again time has gotten away from me. We are in the shop 7 days a week working on the projects and stuff actually gets accomplished. The updates this week will show the good and the bad that we have had in the last couple of weeks.

First will be the really bad and that is stamping the Japanese type 99 magazine. Our biggest mistake was trying to accomplish to much with a single die. It did not work. Instead of pressing the sheet metal it sheared it instead.

So this lead to redesigning the dies and the process that we are going to use. We have gone to a multiply step process. The first set of dies will just stamp the groves, the second set will bend the sides and the third will set the angle and do the base plate edge. this is a picture of the new first set of dies.

I hope to be back at the press with the new dies this week.

Now a completed project that was fun and interesting. We had a UZi that was brought in for repair. It is a dealer sample converted weapon that would just not work. The first thing we needed to do was machine out the bolt to fit properly.

However with this type of boring bar the chatter and movement was just to great. We changed to a stiffer bar and all was good.

With the bolt problem corrected we still had problems. It would fire one time and then run away. The problem was the excessive movement of the pistol grip. The original grip is set for an 8mm pin and the converted weapon uses a 9mm pin. Once we open the hole in the grip and installed a new proper size pin everything worked like a dream.

We are also working on the VG1-5. A great deal of work was accomplished on the upper receiver. The first 5 which are the test rifles are just about completed. we set up the fixture to all us to cut the majority of the upper receiver.

This allowed us to machine the bottom hole and the slot for the guide slot.

All the guide slots have already been machined.

This how they fit on the receiver.

The cocking handle holes have been drilled.

The rear sight dove tail slots have been cut.In addition to this we also finished the FG-42 butt plate stamping die and started stamping them. That will be the next post and I have to get back into the shop and get to work.