GunLab

Gun Show update

Took Sunday off to relax and enjoy life. One of the thinks we did was go to a local gun show. Keep in mind that I generally go to only one show a year and that is the SAR show in December so I have not been to a local show in a number of years.

This is the result of my time at the show.

First is OMG the price to get in. 8.00 to park and 16.00 per person to get in the gate.That is a total of 40.00 to walk in.

Second, as I walk through the two buildings and two big tents I noted the following items.

Beef jerky in a multi table event. There were 5 tables selling it. jewelry, posters, gun cases, hats, knives and tee shirts took up another large portion of the tables. If you were looking for AR-15 stuff that was over half of the actual gun tables. There was 3 large areas selling ammo. The rest of the show was of really over priced toys. There was actually a guy selling a 22 cal mp44 clone for 200.00 over retail at the stores. I saw a number of tables selling really expensive old Saturday night specials. When did this type of pistols become worth 4 to 6 hundred dollars. I looked at 6 different tables selling 22 and 32 rim fire Remington rolling block rifles and the cheapest one was 600.00. It was also relic status.

I left the show a little disenchanted. I did get a firing pin for an AR, a set of cheap fold down sights also for an AR, 5 flat springs and a box of 25acp.

Really don’t see a reason to go back for another local show.

German video on making the H&K rifle

I happen to enjoy watching weapons being made. This video was put out by the German Government showing some of the steps necessary to make the H&K G3 battle rifle.

Sundays Post

I have a ton of projects to work on in the shop. Everything is behind schedule. I worked over 80 hours last week in my primary business and am exhausted. So today I am not doing anything work related. Gun show, movie and diner with my wife. Have a great day everyone.

Another great post from rifleshooter

I don’t know how many people follow rifleshooter, http://rifleshooter.com/, but he has another great gunsmithing post up. This one discusses rebarreling the Winchester model 70 rifle. He does a great job going through the steps he took to rebarrel the rifle. As always with his posts he not only shows you the steps and chats about what he has accomplished but his picture taking skill is very good. He also lets you know where he got his tools and materials. Take the time to stop by and see his work. This post can be found here.

http://rifleshooter.com/2016/02/rebarreling-a-winchester-model-70/

I really want my pictures to look that good.

Machining the new ejector for the VG1-5

We have had a few problems with the ejector on the VG1-5. The initial design was for a sheet metal type of ejector. The first ones were made in general purpose sheet steel. They bent with in a few rounds being fired. The second ones were also general purpose sheet steel that were case hardened. These lasted for a few hundred rounds then they also bent. The third model was 4130 sheet steel that was hardened through out. This lead to welding problems and we would have had to do a total redesign to allow for riveting. The solution was to machine a thicker piece of 1018 and case hardened just the end of it. This allowed use to weld it with out grinding it down and still allowed the ejector to take the shock that was necessary to eject the cartridge.

This is the master cam simulation of the machining process.

This video is the actual process of machining the ejector.

This is what the final machined ejector looks like.

Prior to welding in it will have to be heat treated. The initial one that has been make in installed has fire a number of rounds with no signs of bending.

Ermawerke Carbine

During the last days of WW2 the Germans made a variety of weapons for the Volkssturm. The Ermawerke is one that has been in a number of books but no one has ever touched one. This is the general write up of that weapon.

John , a friend of gun lab, just sent us an information package of a limited made reproduction being produced.

Right side view

Left side view

A couple of close up pictures of the safety and trigger guard.

Close up of the markings.

Weekend update 2-14-16

Not much fun stuff this weekend. Work was accomplished in the machine shop by adding even more new led lights.

New lights were installed over the HAAS and Sharps machining centers.

Installed one over the cnc lathe.

Went back and re-mudded the ceiling where we put the lights earlier.

I spent time working on the dust collector system for the wood shop.

The dust collector building was built a while back. This weekend was the first opportunity I had to get it all set up.

When I built the wood shop I put in a underground dust collector system. It has been a time coming to get it all hooked up, but now it works.

My crt tube for the wire edm came back I got it in stalled and all hooked up.

I powered it up and tested it that it worked properly.

I really want to thank the guys at McWilliams, http://www.mcwilliamsedm.com/index.html, for all there help and quick service. Great guys that really know customer service.

The only fun project that I started on was a new ammo/feed strip box for my Hotchkiss protatve light machinegun.

I needed the wood shop to build what I wanted for the box. Unfortunately, by the time everything else was completed it was late and I was exhausted. My project for next weekend. I did manage to get a few more posts written and a couple of videos for posts, but more on that this week.

Weekend update part 2

A number of other project were also worked on this last weekend.

The major one was the kitchen. All the tile for the counter top has been laid down. The next is the back splash.

We also finished welding in the cross bolts on the VG1-5 lower receivers and started Tig welding the stock supports.

A look ate the lower receiver. It is now time to fit up the fire control box.

We wanted to add extra security to the stock supports. It was felt that with the amount of material that was just spot welded it would be a good idea.

All the cross pins are now welded

Looking at the Stevens Little Krag rifle

The little Krag rifle made by Stevens gun company is a 22 caliber boys rifle. The Krag name was chosen because the Spanish American war was still in the recent memory of most Americans. It is a simply design single shot rifle that came out in March of 1904. The rifle came with a standard 20″ round barrel and oil walnut stock. For a short time there was a scope that was available, it however was dropped after being made for only one year. By 191o the rifle has run it’s course and was discontinued.

Close up of the receiver in the stock.

Out of the stock.

The barrel is a slip fit that is held in with a screw on the bottom of the receiver with a screw.

As you can see from the pictures this is a very basic receiver.

Even the trigger and extractor are of a very simple design.

The bolt as well is very simple in design and function. The bolt handle is what keeps the action closed when the rifle is fired.

There is an interesting design with this rifle. It is the design of the extractor. It is a spring loaded design. Here are a few pictures of the spring and extractor set up.

As you extract the cartridge out of the chamber the extractor springs forward to all another cartridge to be fed into the rifle.

This is a video of its operation.

Quite often I am e-mailed about I am interested in making my own rifle but I don’t have the experience or the tools. This rifle can be made with a very little experience and tooling. There is no or minimal heat treating involved with this design and steel selection could be basic scrap steel.

Weekend update 2-8-16 part 1

A great deal was accomplished this weekend. First is a couple of pictures that Mac,a friend of gun lab, sent me about some new lighting he put into his little shop. The before and after shots.

The increase in available lighting was amazing. Then he told me the price of the lighting fixtures, $36.00 I could not pass it up.

My machine shop has a few dark spots in it and I am always changing out ballasts and bulbs in the lights.

There are a number of lights that need to be changed out.

You can see the dark spot over the surface grinder and bead blaster.

The first light changed out over the milling machine

Added one the surface grinder area.

Removed all the old lights.

New sheet rock and first coat of mud. Could not connect the plug in as the mud was still wet.

The new light over the manual lathe

With a life span of 50,000 hours I should not have to worry about new lights for 25 years. As the older ones go out I will be changing them to the new lights as well.

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