Now for some pictures showing close ups of the work performed.

A side view of the lower receiver

A top view of the receiver

The rear stock supports is first spot welded in place. However, due to [...]]]> The welding on the lower receiver is now complete. This is the video on that update.

Now for some pictures showing close ups of the work performed.

A side view of the lower receiver

A top view of the receiver

The rear stock supports is first spot welded in place. However, due to the thickness of the number of steel pieces we also tig welded the supports on.

The magazine housing is spot welded and tig welded to the proper angle.

Now the next item to complete is a little grinding on some of the welds.

The project is getting closer. I will be setting up the parkerizing tanks soon to finish the lowers.

Here is a video of the [...]]]> With the receiver tig welded together and the rear barrel supports completed it is now time to attach the two together. Using an alignment fixture we are able to proper align the rear barrel support with the body of the receiver and the running track of the upper receiver.

Here is a video of the process of welding the rear barrel support to the lower receiver.

Here are a couple of views of the assembly and it is placed in the receiver to be welded.

A couple of views of the fixture.

And a few close ups.

It not about just designing the weapon and all of its individual parts but you also have to write the programs to make the parts and design and make the machining and welding fixtures to get it to go together correctly every time.

This is how the project looks now when we finished welding all the guides on.

Now all the cocking handles [...]]]> We have finished welding all the cocking handles on the upper receiver/slide. The next step is to finish the bolts and fit them to the upper receiver. Then the bolts go off the heat treat.

This is how the project looks now when we finished welding all the guides on.

Now all the cocking handles are attached.

And a close up.

On to the next operation.

Here are a few pictures of the receiver as it stands today.

With out the cocking handle.

And with the cocking handle installed.

All the uppers will have the [...]]]> This post is a run down of all the work that has been performed on the VG1-5 upper receiver to date.

Here are a few pictures of the receiver as it stands today.

With out the cocking handle.

And with the cocking handle installed.

All the uppers will have the cocking handles will be installed this weekend.

And mating it with the housing that we stamped earlier we end up with the final product.

This is the video of that process.

Here are a couple of close up pictures of [...]]]> This post deals with welding the rear upper housing together. We start with the finished pressing of the cap.

And mating it with the housing that we stamped earlier we end up with the final product.

This is the video of that process.

Here are a couple of close up pictures of the welded top cover.

All the top covers ready for the next step.

To start all of the rifles came with a [...]]]> A rifle that I have been interested in for quite some time is the EM-2. It is one of those rare rifles that you read about but generally don’t have a chance to see, examine or shoot. I have had the opportunity to do all three.

To start all of the rifles came with a fitted wooden box holding the rifle and it’s accessories.

You will notice that it comes with 6 magazines,bayonet,sling,grenade launcher, cleaning kit and winter trigger,which is missing from this box. It just looks like the center piece for a gun collection.

So lets chat about this set up.

First thing is that the rifle is a bull pup design and was initially made in .280 and later made in what was to become the NATO standard, 7.62×51.Here is a picture of the two of them together.

This rifle that was are looking at is the NATO standard version.

One of the first things you notice is the wood veneer on the rifle receiver where you rest you cheek. With the machining and wood veneer it looks more like a custom built sporting rifle then a military contract rifle.

The next item that really sticks out is the low power scope that comes attached to the rifle.

Another component that sticks out is the beautifully made hand guard.

Now to leave the art portion of this weapon to the more practical. The grenade launching sights are built in and the front sight automatically cuts of the gas system.

And the rear sight is built is as well.

The safety is in a well design location, in front of the trigger guard.

The cartridge deflector is machined into the receiver.

The machining on this rifle is something to admire.

Here is a video for papa Joe of me shooting the EM-2. Enjoy papa Joe you could have come with me.

Stay tune for the next part of the EM-2 saga.

The pivot pins are very loose which causes the tool to [...]]]> We finished the new knurling tool this last weekend and this is a post about the new tool. I have been using the Shars knurling tool for a while and was continuing to have problems with it so it was time for a change.

The pivot pins are very loose which causes the tool to move when you don’t want it to and not move when you need it to. It was also hard to apply pressure the knurling heads with out using a pair of pliers. So a total redesign was necessary. This process was not with out a few problems. The first being that the computer crashed just after we did the design and had written the cam program. This caused a problem as we noticed a few items that needed a small dimensional change, but with out the original program that was all but impossible to accomplish. It was also difficult to machine the vise jaws with out the original drawings to match correctly with the parts that we had made.

The was to make these parts would have been to machine the one side then put them in the new vise jaws and machine the other side to the proper shape and face cut the extra material off. Again with out the drawings I could not write a program to do this so we just face milled the other side off instead with out milling the actual shape in first. This lead to an interesting final pass.

By the time we got to the final pass it was like cutting sheet metal that was a good 3/4 of an inch away from the vise. It worked but not a recommended practice.

Now that the two halves were made.

This one is a close up of the ends.

And one more put together.

We needed to make the clamping screw. The first method was to silver braze and pin the screw to the pivoting block. That did not work so well.

Not enough solder and the side walls to thin. So the next attempt was to add a great deal more silver solder.

It also pulled out with the first attempt at using it. So the final method of attaching was tig welding.

It not works like a champ and makes a very nice knurled on the VG1-5 front barrel support. The video on that will be coming up soon. Hope you enjoyed this update. Looking to hear you comments and ideas.