GunLab (KnownHost) » Magazine manfacturing

Beretta AR-70 magazine modifications

Chuck — Tue, 31 May 2016 08:00:55 +0000

A couple of years ago I bought a Beretta AR-70 rifle for the reference collection. This was before the availability of replacement magazines for the rifle. Because of the total lack of spare magazines in this country people came up with ingenious ideas to modify existing magazines to allow them to shoot there rifles. I find it interesting to see how they did the modification. You never know about the future and what it holds for available magazines.

For those of you that may not know what an AR-70 rifle is, here are a couple of pictures of the weapon.

When I bought my rifle it came with a modified AR-15 magazine. So this is my first example of magazine modification.

What was done was to weld a piece of aluminum to the front and side of the magazine. Then they attached a locking notch on the rear of the magazine. The strip that was weld on the front allowed for positioning the magazine in the front of the magazine well for proper feeding. This was had fitted after it was welded on.

A couple of close up pictures of the conversion. You will notice that the side spacer was welded on one side one. Even doing this the magazine worked correctly.

You can also see that no magazine stops are present on the side of the magazine.

Later I was able to obtain original rifle magazines. This is what an original AR-70 magazine looks like.

This close up shows the magazine stops and what the magazine latch block looks like.

A close up review of this magazine shows four components for the magazine body. The right and left sides of the body, the wrap around upper support assembly with the feed lips incorporated into it as well as the stops that are pressed in. The final part that was added was the magazine latch block of the rear of the magazine.

Pete, a friend of Gun Lab, sent this AR-15 magazine modification. This is a very nicely done conversion. It allows the magazine, with a bit of work, to be converted back to its original design. What was done with this magazine was to make a sheet metal housing to fit around the original AR-15 magazine to allow it to fit and operate in an AR-70 magazine housing.

You can see in this picture that the housing was hand fitted to the rifle.

You will notice that with the fitted housing that the front of the sheet metal has been machined away to allow proper fit into the rifle as well as allowing for proper lock up in the front of the magazine well.

Here are a couple of pictures showing all the magazines together for a better overall understanding.

As with all magazines that had been modified for use there is a certain amount of hand fitting that goes with the project.

Older gun making video part2

Chuck — Fri, 28 Aug 2015 13:31:07 +0000

Today’s post is another of the video’s out there dealing with making the weapons of war in the U.S. This video deals with making the BAR and it.s magazine.

What is interesting is the pressing dies and method used to make the BAR magazine. I find the fixture design to answer question that I have on how to fixture something.

Enjoy the video

Video on making the FAL by DSA

Chuck — Fri, 15 May 2015 08:00:41 +0000

There are some real good segments in the video. One showing the stamping of magazines.

Gun Lab update

Chuck — Wed, 13 May 2015 08:00:50 +0000

Not a big post for today, just an update on the projects we are working on.

First and most important is the VG1-5 project. I received a call this afternoon late that the firing pins can be picked up from the heat treating firm. With this last piece we can send the second rifle to the ATFE for final testing. The second item on the VG project is that all the receiver flats are in the spot welding room and as soon as we modify the spot welders they will be on the line to finish. That will be this week.

The drawings for the MP-44 trunnions are solid modeled and material is ordered so we can finish that project.

The Japanese type 96 and 99 magazines have taken a step back. The first two stamping dies did not work as planed and we needed to send the magazines back. They are still on the drawing board as I need them for my own guns.

The AR-16 is still being solid modeled. We are getting closer but still more time is needed to finish this project. I only work on it when I have spare time and we know how that goes.

A member of our family here at Gun Lab located me an isolation transformer and with that I hope to get the wire edm powered up.

We have been doing a reverse engineering project on a German WW2 machine gun which is coming along nicely and I hope to have drawings in the near future and a solid model shortly after that. This project has been a real ball buster, but with the use of the schools cmm we are getting close now.

I am currently work on a few write ups for the site. Part 2 of the Winchester self loaders should be dome this week, a friend , O.H., is sending me some interesting photo’s and scan’s on a few weapons to post and the third installment on the Bushmaster pistol is in final editing.

This should answer all the questions that have shown up in my in basket. If there are any other question please feel free to drop me a line.

I do need help with a project though. I need manuals for the wire EDM. I am concerned that the batteries have died in the controller and I am going to have to reset the parameters. This machine came with no manuals at all. Here are a few pictures of the panels and model numbers.

Xerox copies are fine. I just need to learn about the parameters and set up of this machine. Thanks everyone for helping.

With nothing else going on I am going to hit the rack, tomorrow is another fun filled day for me.

Magazine manufacturing

Chuck — Tue, 05 May 2015 08:00:20 +0000

In this post we are going to look at making a magazine. In this case a 22lr pistol magazine. This magazine was stamped out on a progressive stamping die. In a machine that would look like this.

Not for the home shop.

So lets take a look at the steps that would be required to make a magazine. Starting from a role of steel metal to the final product. The sheet steel is removed from its coil and fed into the stamping machine. The process start with the initial cut and a pilot hole or holes that serves as a locator hole for following steps in the process.

This is the stamping strip from start to finish. So lets take a closer look at the individual steps.

First step. Initial cut of the magazine and two pilot hole for locating the sheet metal for the next step.

Second step. In this step you can see that the second hole is removed as the top of the magazine is finished cut.

Third step. This starts the initial bends

Fourth step. Now we are in the pressing of the ribs of the magazine.

Fifth step. Another bend step.

Sixth step. This is a bend step for the bottom of the magazine

Seventh step. Here you can see that the slot has been punched in for the follower button.

Eight step. The folding over of the magazine

Ninth step

Tenth step. The magazine stamping is separated from the strip and being set up for welding

Eleventh step. At this point the magazine is machined welded.

Twelfth step. The tab are now cut off and for all practical purposes the magazine body is complete

All that is required after this to verify fit and do your quality control inspection