GunLab

Sunday answer 11-30

It is the hand crank cam for a single barrel Gardner Gun. And you are correct. It is a British gun in 303.

A view of the crank cam.

A view of the complete weapon.

We here at Gun Lab are working hard to try and complete the first of the VG1-5 rifles in time for the SAR show. To tell you the truth it has been a challenge. The last week has been spent putting together the rifles and testing for fit and operation. We would find one small problem and fix that only to find that it now causes two more problems that need fixing. Once these are worked out they then cause 4 more problems. An example of this is the fire control group. Once assembled in the receiver with the bolt, upper and gas piston the dis-connector would not operate correctly. It was ground down to make thinner this then showed a problem with the trigger spring. We corrected that but then found out the trigger set to high by .040″ and needed to be lowered by the amount which means the the primary and secondary sear needed to be lowered but not by the same amount. This then forced the dis-connector to be the wrong shape and it needed to be re-machined to fit in and operate correctly. Hopefully we will have everything sorted out by Sunday evening.

Fit up is good on the upper receiver, top cover and rear barrel support. Next will be the gas piston.

Other projects that were completed today was the welding up and laying out the parkerizing set up. here is a quick picture of that area.

This first picture is of the tank layout on an old rack that I had. This next picture is after the burner set was welded on it.

More work to do tomorrow.

No post today

Got home late last night and leaving early today. I will try and post tonight.

MP-44 repair sections

Today’s post is from a friend of the site that wanted a semi-auto MP-44 and did not want to deal with the capital out lay necessary to buy one of the few that came in. His answer to the problem was to make a repair section and then put in the necessary parts and changes required by ATF to make it a legal semi auto rifle.

From this:

To this:

With this:

This is picture heavy post showing his method of making the necessary parts. The pictures tell the story from flat to finish project.

I know it is not every step but you can learn a great deal studying the pictures. I am always interested in seeing how someone makes something. This is great. Thanks for sharing with the rest of us.

Weekend Update 11-24

Well as usual it has been a busy weekend around Gun Lab. More parts have been made for the VG1-5, coming soon in a post. The big project was the water system. The pressure pump took a crap. It just turn the pump room into a swamp and need to be fixed in a bad way.

What a mess. This is how it looked after 5 hours of working on it. Of course the dimensions changed on the pump so everything had to be re-plumbed. This time with unions.

The next projected finished was to finish enclosing the dust collector addition. It is now water tight and all I need to do is the electrical hook ups for the air compressor and dust collector.

The dust collector is now in the room.The exciting news is where we are at with the fluting machine. Stile a few components to make but we are getting there.

This is the start of bolting it together.

A little farther along.

Finally attached to the side of the forging press.

It is getting there.

The final project completed was my new gun rack. It is now up and loaded in the reference library.

One busy weekend.

Sunday Answer 11-23

As everyone guessed and even sent me an address for their web page it is an auto indexing tool to stamp sequential serial numbers. Such as is on the AR-18 or Bushmaster weapons.

example shown here.

What is it Saturday 11-22

This is not actually a gun part but used in making guns. This is going to be a hard one, good luck.

Part One of the Bushmaster Pistol

In this video I had the opportunity to chat with John D about his collection of Bushmaster pistols. This is part one of the multi part review of this interesting weapon.

Here are a few still pictures of this interesting first model sheet metal stamped upper pistol.

Close up of parts of the pistol.

Stay tune for the next video.

Making the VG1-5 cocking handle

In the following pictures of original VG1-5 one of the items that you will notice is that all the cocking handles look different and that they have been through some rough times.

So this is the cocking handle that we developed. The first thing that you will notice is the steel is just a little thicker. We are hoping to prevent the serious bending issue that we have seen in the original rifles. We are trying to keep it as the same basic shape of the original and it will be riveted as well.