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Beretta model 57

Chuck — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 14:22:24 +0000

Gordie K., a friend of gun lab, was nice enough to send me some pictures of a Beretta model 57 that he made in semi auto only. This is one of my to do projects and I am excited to see someone accomplishing this. Here are a few pictures of his build.

One of the interesting designs of this rifle is that the barrel extension is held in only by brazing it is place. There are on pins or steps in the receiver.

The barrel extension still attached to the right side of the receiver.

The inside of the left side of the receiver showing the brazing material.

The barrel threads and barrel extension threads are an acme type thread instead of a normal type of thread.

The internal shape on the receiver is well thought out design for machining.

Update on the VG1-5 project

Chuck — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 08:00:41 +0000

We have been working on the fire control group and once again have made a few changes for more reliable operation and safety. We continue to have issues with the disconnector operating properly. There were issues with the hammer spring improperly contacting the disconnector. An additional problem came about with insufficient spring pressure to hold it in it’s proper position.

This is the old style of disconnector compared to the new style.

The old version of the fire control group. There was a great deal of problem to get the disconnector to work properly.

The part as laser cut

Solid models of the fixture.

fixture for machining the disconnector.

After the first machining operation

The finished part with cut outs for the hammer spring and

From start to finish now to de-bur and heat treat.

This is the fire control group with the problems worked out.

AR-10 handguard

Chuck — Tue, 17 May 2016 08:00:57 +0000

Eric, a friend of Gun Lab, let me borrow his AR-10 hand guards collection to photograph and measure up.

The first set of pictures is of a very early hand guard that has not been completed. The information I obtain from this single piece is worth volumes in trying to determine how and what material they were made from. This hand guard has none of the hole drilled into it and has neither of the end caps installed.

Looking at the front end of the hand guard you can see the thickness of the sheet metal liner and the density of the foam and fiberglass outer housing.

Here you can see the seam on the hand guard when it was put together.

This view of the rear of the hand guard you can see the forming of the sheet metal for the gas tube as well as a good view of the type of foam material used.

He sent the end caps as well. This allow for a detailed examination of both pieces. Drawings were made of both of them.

The front end cap, front view.

The front end cap, rear view.

The type of material has not been accurately determined yet, still working on it.

The rear end cap has a great deal more detail to it.

The second hand guard that Eric sent is an unused Sudanese type. You can easily see the hole pattern on the hand guard.

This close up shows the fit up of the rear end cap and the grove and hole alignment.

You can see the difference between an early and the later rear end cap.

A good view of the gas tube slot in the rear hand guard.

A close up of the front end cap.

This Sudanese hand guard is from a friends parts kit.

The rear end cap design was changed between the first model and the Sudanese model

The grove for the gas tube has been increased in depth as well.

The hand guards and stock are easily damaged

Because of the damage and I now need U.S. 922r parts for my build everything on the front hand guards has been drawn up and as in the case of the rear end cap has been test run on the machines.

I started on a set of molds to make new ones in the future. Unfortunately, the first set that I made did not work correctly. A second set has been designed and programed and when time allows will be made. Projects are based upon time and if parts are available for me to complete the project.

I have to give special thanks to Eric for letting me borrow these rare components.

Just one last look of all of the hand guards in a single picture.

PTR44 locking shoulder damage

Chuck — Thu, 05 May 2016 08:00:26 +0000

Pete, a friend of gun lab, Sent me some pictures of a rifle that has come into his shop for repair. When he tool it apart and check out all the components he notice the condition of the locking shoulder. In the following pictures you can see the damage that has occurred to the PTR-44 locking shoulder.

It is hard to determine if the position of the bolt was not properly lock it up. It looks to be to high. This could have been a problem with the parts as they were made, out of speck, or it could be a problem that has occurred over time and usage.

Pete ran a file over the locking shoulder and it did not scratch it, a sign that it is hard. It could be improper material and or heat treat of the material.

Just be warned and check out your own weapons to verify the condition.

Building the semi auto MP-44 part 4

Chuck — Tue, 03 May 2016 08:00:19 +0000

This post deals with just one of the small stampings that goes into making a MP-44. he part being make for this post is the sheet metal reinforcement for the back of the magazine well. This simple part closes the rear of the magazine well, strengthens the rear of the magazine well, addes extra support for the magazine catch area and provides a guide for the magazine.

This is what the part looked like after being removed from a torch cut receiver. There is not much there that is useful, however with a little work a new part can be made.

The first step is to measure out the part and then design a female stamping die that will meet the contours of the part.

Once verified it is time to move onto the next part

In this case the next part is the male die. As this process is being accomplished a number of stampings are done.Generally nothing happens correctly the first time.

Now the die is added to. The complexity of the die either requires a cnc machine to make it or a fabricated die has to be made. Due to the lack of cnc yhe die was pieced together to form the required shape.

After the stamping dies are completed then it is time to work out through trial and error the proper shape of the blank.

Not comes the moment of truth. If everything works properly then a good part will be made.

It took a great deal of work to design and make the press tools that were necessary to make just one simple part.

The next step on the MP-44 trunion

Chuck — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 08:00:13 +0000

Not that we have finished running the parts on the machining centers it is time to do the final fit up. Using the 1018 trunions that we made a hole was drilled in it to allow alignment with the button pressed into the receiver. Then the blocks were tested to see if the fit up was correct.

This is how the trunion looks away from the receiver.

As it sets into the receiver

An angle view at the rear of the trunion for proper fit up there.

A look at the front

Another at a slight angle.

Some de-buring still needs to take place and we still have a few cuts to do on the manual mill. If you are interested in any new MP-44 trunions please drop me a note and I will get the request to Pete.

MP-44 Trunion op7 , 8 and 9

Chuck — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 08:00:46 +0000

With these last three operations we will have completed the work on the cnc machining center.

You can see the process of rough machining the bottom of the curve for the trunion. This op also machined the complete magazine well out.

A good side view of the rough machining of the curve.

All the trunions finished with this operation.

The basic set up to complete this op.

This is op 8. All we are doing in this step is to finish cut the curve under the trunion.

OP 9 then goes in and cuts the top of the trunion.

These two pictures shows the top roughed out just prior to the finish pass.

This is how they look after the finish pass.

All the trunions after the finish of op 9

A close up of the trunions.

The next step in the manual mill

Update on the MP-44 trunions op6

Chuck — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 08:00:44 +0000

It has been a while for a MP-44 trunion update. The next couple of posts will get us back up to date with the trunion project.

The new op 5 was to cut a slot and rough magazine opening to allow coolant flow and chip removal and still allow us to high speed machine.

Well it did not work as well as we had hoped. The chip load was so great as it was not removed as fast as it needed to be so we still had problems with the end mill chipping. So back to the drawing board. The answer was to put the trunion on the manual mill and drill the hole much larger but still under size.

With the trunion on the lower left we did just that. What a difference that made. So now with all the trunions drilled with a larger hole we were back on track.

We were able to then finish machine the inside hole to meet specs. with a great finish as well.

A close up of the finish of the inside bore.

The new process worked great. No chattering or broken end mills.

Fixing the 1919A6 barrel

Chuck — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 08:00:52 +0000

This is kind of an after action report on the 1919A6 barrel that was involved in the accident. The last post on the damage to the 1919A4 due to some Turkish ammo showed a barrel that had a case stuck in it that the base was sheared off.

With the cost of everything these days there was no way to not try and get that barrel back into operation.

The first step was to use a broken shell extractor. I have one or two of them

The ones we tried that acted like they might work.They did in small way. I was able to remove the neck and shoulder of the case with them.

With the neck removed I used my chambering reamer to slowly remove the brass case. After about 20 minutes of running the reamer in then cleaning it I was able to remove the remaining part of the brass case.

The barrel is as good as new and ready to be used again.

More on the type 63 Chinese rifle

Chuck — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 08:00:16 +0000

I kind of like the look of the type 63 rifle and a goal is to eventually make a semi-auto ATFE legal one for my self.

It really has a nice look to it.

A couple of close ups.

These last 4 photos were pulled from the internet.

So I have had a quest for the last 15 years or so to obtain type 63 parts. Not the easiest task. This last week I was able to obtain a few more parts for the type 63 Chinese rifle.

My stock as it sets now is:

8 barrels.

Seven complete bolts.

More then enough top covers. Interesting that there were two different upper hand guard designs. I still need to make some more recoil spring brackets.

8 fire control groups

I have enough front hand guard sheet metal pieces as well as gas pistons and locking pins.

Sks bayonets and springs and latch mechanism. The bayonets need to be re-ground and shortened but will work. I am going to cut off the latch mechanism on the sks and weld on a type 63 mechanism.

I have 2 stocks and a stock duplicator. I can make the rest of the stocks I need.

A great little piece of a cut off end of a type 63 barrel. I will have solid models of both of these parts soon.

A close up of the type 63 lock up and the sks lock up on the bayonet lug.

This is a Chinese folding bayonet for the AK-47. This is still available even if it is quite expensive. I will order one this next week to have to use as a pattern.

A view of the gas block,rear sight base and gas system, this one is missing the gas tube. I do have 2 gas tubes to use as patterns.

A close up of the gas block

I am hoping that one of the readers of this happens to know of or own a type 63 and can take me some detailed pictures of the receiver of the rifle, hopefully with some basic measurements. I could also use some pictures of the gas block with measurements. With any luck I will be going to England this summer and have an opportunity to look at one at the pattern room.

This will be a project in the future.