GunLab

Weekend update

Most of Saturday morning was spent on another solid model. The actual projects that were accomplished were finishing the knurling tool and get back on the VG1-5 knurling project.

So first on the list is the knurling tool. I have one that I bought form Shars. I just did not like it. It moved to much and made me very nervous when I was using it up close to the chuck on my lathe. It would move when ever it wanted and most of the time not when I wanted it to. So my neighbor and I design one, wrote the programs for the Allen-Bradley and then finished it off this last week.

Here are a few pictures of the build process.

This after the jaw was machined and we put it in the web milling machine to cut off the back side. I have a complete post for later in this week.

Sunday was spent playing with my new Nikon 5300 series camera. I have also started a night class at the local college on digital photography. I did a basic video with a voice over to test its capability.

The rest of the time was spent with working out the design of the chamber fluting machine for the VG1-5 and other barrels.

The design is in it final stages and I will post on this tomorrow.

Sunday Answer

The part from what is it Saturday is: The lever for a lever delayed blow back San Cristobal. This is the basic function of the part. It is design to keep the bolt closed against the barrel until the pressure drops enough to allow safe operation. Here is a series of pictures showing this is operation.

As the rifle is fired the bolt is closed up against the barrel and held there with spring pressure.

You will notice that the tab on the bottom of the lever is pushed down into the receiver.

This is what just the bolt looks like in that condition.

As the round is fired and pressure is placed upon the bolt it tries to move backward. This causes the bolt to try and move backwards. The lever keeps the front of the bolt closed and starts moving the rear of the bolt against spring pressure.

Another picture of the bolt by itself showing what is happening.

Once the bolt is totally open the lever is no longer having any effect and the bolt can now open allowing the cartridge to eject.

This is a picture of the bolt during this phase of operation.

The last picture if with the lever removed form the bolt.

Thanks for coming by and your comments and opinions are appreciated.

What is it Saturday

Once again it is time for what is it Saturday. Enjoy and guess away.

Here are a couple of additional views.

Friday video

Earlier this week we posted about the FG-42 first model bi-pod leg male stamping die. This is a video of us making the die.

This is a picture of the final die.

Hope you enjoyed the video. I appreciate all comments and suggestions to improve the video and the content. Thanks for watching.

Library Thursday

First off you can see that we changed the title for the Thursday post from book review to library. This was done because I wanted to add more then just book reviews. I wanted to add information to the Gun Lab library that I thought would be useful to you.

So this first post is from a friend of mine that wants to remain anonymous. So for this post we just call him Joe. Joe had the opportunity to have every piece of brass test that he had that was attached to a weapon. This included Maxim guns, Nordenfelt weapons, Gardner guns and any thing else he could find. This is that report. I found it interesting and very useful. I hope you do to.

Bronze Composition Analysis document

Random Info Wednesday

To proceed with the building of the VG1-5 we needed to design and build a barrel chamber fluting machine. With the number of barrels that we need to make to complete the project I needed something that is accurate constantly, has repeatable, is semi automatic in operation and can be used for other rifle projects. This has lead to a variety of different concepts and we are now starting a solid model of the machine. Some of the problems that we have had to work through are how to accurately press in the flutes for the proper depths consistently, how to hold the barrel accurately and in alignment with the fluting tool, and how to hold the barrel so I can flute and remove the tool with out pulling the barrel out of the fixture. We have solved a few of the problems and still have more to deal with. This is the solid model that I have developed so far. the first set of pictures shows the base assembly using a 6″ lathe chuck.

This next photo shows the basic assembly.

Still working on the control method. I would like to put control switches in as well as a DRO. I will be working on that design this weekend. Your comments, ideas and opions are welcome.

Shop Tuesday

We posted about the female die for the FG-42 first model bi-pod stamping die a while back. Today’s post is about the male stamping die. This first set of pictures is the solid model for the male die.

Once again a few pictures to give you an idea of what the bi-pod should look like.

WE are also trying something new with this post and that is provide a video of the master cam program as it operates.

Here is the video of the master cam program:

I am working on an audio track for the next posts, just did not have any luck on this one.

The total run time to make the die plate is 4 hours. tool costs $210.00, total time for for solid modeling, master cam programing,tool set up is 16 hours. Material costs is $60.oo. Just to make the die the cost was approx $1550.00. dividing this cost over 300 pieces brings the basic cost for this die down to 5.00 per piece for this die. There will probably be 6 sets of dies per bi-pod leg.

Friday hope to have the video of the die being made. Stay tuned and comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Weekend after action report for 8-24

Another typical weekend here at Gun Lab. As with all weekends a certain amount of maintenance has to be completed. Saturday morning was spent doing some design work in solid works for a new piece of equipment that we are building to make fluted barrel chambers (more on that a little later in the week). I rebuild a friends AR-15. In this case it was a barrel change with new gas block and a very nicely design front hand guard and barrel nut. A write up of those components will be shortly as well. I really like the fit and feel of this equipment. Enough in fact that I am ordering on for myself. After the rebuild I did a test fire of the weapon in my test firing tube. This is a basic testing tube for function and reliability. I made the tube out a section of heavy wall steel pipe then filled it with sand and to reduce the noise level I added a series of small tires in the inlet and then caped it with a rubber end piece. It works well and reduces the noise level so there is no problem with the neighbors.

There is however one small glitch. That is unburnt powder will build up in the tires. This can cause a bit of excitement at about ever 50 or 60 round when all that powder ignites. This is a video that was taken while I was test firing the AR.

I will post this video as soon as possible. The video that was taken was done on a phone and when sent to me was of such low quality that it is not usable. Post was made off a phone video.