sorted by: new top controversial old
8
So many projects, so little time (forum.guncadindex.com)
 

So I’m back to machining, if you haven’t seen the suppressor post. Life and other emergency projects got in the way.

The slide fits and racks well. I fucked up a cut so there’s quite a bit of a gap. I need to machine some reference faces and then flip the part to finish it.

I’m not focused on surface finish right now, only proving that a desktop machine is fully capable of making a standard pistol slide that functions, without even having to use all the almost-vapor ware features of the kickstarter machines everyone is drooling over these days. I would way rather have a machine that can upgrade its own rigidity and power than be locked into an ecosystem a la bambu. These are the ender 3s of home gamer CNC’s. In my opinion, we don’t have the Vorons of the hobby CNC space yet, and the open source side is not developed enough yet to warrant the community’s investment into the closed ecosystem bambu analogues.

I want to do one more rigidity upgrade, then I’ll design a fully DIY pistol using only a desktop machine and small heat treat oven that is optimized around the few limitations of these machines (chamber faces tend to have sharp corners with no radius, etc). It’ll be 9mm.

I also have a design to test for DIY 9mm shells and bullets. Just need the time.

I still have a LOT more planned. Fully diy duty quality pistols and rifles are my end game.

Guncad Digest Issue #33: Urutau Mk2, 9x23 Stark, FTN6.1, Magazine-Fed Lever Action AR in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
homemade smokeless powder tutorial in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
[–] 2 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

IANAL, but individual states, counties, etc can have varying laws prohibiting simple possession of explosives. I am not sure how a a prohibited item being used only as a precursor to a non-prohibited item works legally, do your own research and make your own decisions.

I notice in your acid mixture you do not call out if your percentages are by weight or volume.

I would also separate out the synthesis of nitroglycerin and probably call out quite a few more safety considerations. How much can/should be made in one batch? How do you keep it from thermal runaway? What to do for thermal runaway? PPE?

Do you have loading/velocity/particle size data to show why you arrived at 0.162g? Grain surface area is a huge factor in burn rate and should be controlled in some manner.

I’ve always been curious why microcrystalline cellulose (your average hard supplement pill binder) hasn’t been used.

Not trying to be overly critical, this is very important, but also very dangerous to encourage others to do without a very thorough exposition.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • context
    • ORCBOLG Open Beta in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    7
    Update: still here, just making upgrades before I take a different approach (www.youtube.com)
     

    I was waiting to hear back from Anolex to see if they would sponsor a video for adding ballscrews but it doesn’t look like that will happen.

    Work has been crazy as well, but after I have this part finished for my Z axis to get rid of some printed spacers I am going to have another go at making the LCP slide.

    Made a little YouTube channel in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    Made a little YouTube channel in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    [–] [S] 3 points 7 months ago

    Hah! Fortunately my goal is to find the bare minimum configuration for effectively machining steel at home to tolerances acceptable for FOSSCAD stuff. Which I think this is pretty much it, $600 CNC, $50 in aluminum plate, and whatever the cost of a 1.5kw spindle and vfd is currently.

    Previously everyone would tell you that you need a $3-5k machine for steel and to not even consider the desktop stuff.

    You still need a couple hundred for calipers, dial indicator, square, and vise, but you’re still at or under $1k.

    Lead screws are probably not going to cut it long term, but anolex has a ball screw upgrade that’s less than $200 for all axes.

    Nema 17s may not cut it long term either, but you can get cheap 23s and drivers for ~$100 too.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • context
    • 5
    Lcp slide: enough teasing, some real cutting. 3 hour roughing op (forum.guncadindex.com)
     

    Look at those straw colored chips. Beauty.

    Could definitely benefit my tool life to have some coolant though.

    14000 rpm 300mm/min .2mm step over 8mm max depth of cut

    Predrilled hole to avoid helical ramping (I hate helical ramping)

    Got footage of the whole op, will post up on Odysee when I can work through the three hours of footage down to a reasonable screen time.

    LCP slide: machining the clearance for barrel tilt in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    Sketchy setups are my favorite in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    [–] [S] 1 point 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

    I looked briefly at Glock slides a while back, 17-4 stainless appears to be a common choice. As long as you can drill the firing pin hole straight (a challenge but not impossible) I don’t see why not.

    Shoot me a model though and I’ll take a closer look.

    Edit: already at the desk so I pulled up unseenkiller’s reference files.

    The inward face of the spring guide is milled flat, but you could probably get away with adding some material to the front of the slide and just using a long 110° drill and make it a bit deeper. The hole is very shallow so if you drill the small diameter from the front, your long drill shouldn’t walk if it can follow that hole from the other side. That’s how I’m doing this slide.

    The striker channel you will definitely need at least a drill press with DRO to make sure your depths are good, and you may have to figure out how to compromise to use the chamfered faces your drills will leave rather than the flat faces shown in the reference file. Not sure if that’s a big deal for the design function or not.

    Otherwise, if I can make this LCP slide, I don’t see anything that would hold you back.

    Keep in mind that any 90° internal corners you see at the breech face will have to be hand filed.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • context
    • LCP slide: machining the clearance for barrel tilt in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    LCP slide: machining the clearance for barrel tilt in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    [–] [S] 2 points 7 months ago*

    Full slide yes, I want a Holosun on a mouse gun that sits not retardedly high lol and we’ll see if a slide comp makes it a little less snappy.

    I did some test cuts with a t slot cutter the right size for the rail slots, as long as I drill the firing pin hole properly and it doesn’t warp when milling out the main pocket for the barrel, we’re good to go. I have a kiln I can use for heat treat, 17-4 heat treat is not complicated.

    Not the whole gun, though, and no blueprints, just measuring and an understanding of tolerances

    After this I am building a machine that is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.

    And then I will make a fully DIY 9mm pistol because we really need one. Originally it was going to be a remix I made of the musgres, but it used welding or hard soldering and I’m not sure that’s the way to go if you can just mill rails super easy now.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • context
    • 11
    LCP slide: machining the clearance for barrel tilt (forum.guncadindex.com)
     

    Still can’t get over how much this machine fucks. Running a test cut for this op at what I thought were probably too conservative of feeds and speeds. I stopped it when it seemed like it was too quiet, UGS said 20 hours to complete. Nope. 20 minutes, and I had already cut quite a bit.

    Unfortunately… Im an idiot and I fucked up my spring guide hole on the drill press (thin drill wandered quite a bit off centerline at depth). I’ll continue machining this one as I think I can fix it and use it for fitment test, and there will probably be more lessons learned along the way (MAKE SURE YOUR TABLE IS LOCKED SQUARE and you only drill small diameter holes as deep as you absolutely have to).

    Ordered more material for take 2 just in case.

    Guncad Digest Issue 22: Fully DIY .22LR Bolt Action, Halo AR Update, DIY MANPADS Launcher in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    How do we feel about PETG-GF? in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    How do we feel about PETG-GF? in c/general@forum.guncadindex.com
    11
    Today’s sketchy setup (forum.guncadindex.com)
     

    Drilling and reaming the hole for the barrel. Just a Wen drill press and vevor positioning table, but the table isn’t really necessary just nice to have.

    Not too worried about the hole being super straight as the end of an LCP barrel is belled out, so there is only a very small contact patch in a small location in the slide.

    • Center drilled for a precise location
    • 7mm drill for the pilot hole to depth
    • 11.8mm drill bit for the hole to be slightly undersized
    • 12mm reamer to size the hole. I ran it a couple extra times to hit 12.1mm measured on my stock LCP slide.

    Again I forgot to take good pictures during operation.

    16
    Upgrade: 25x material removal rate (forum.guncadindex.com)
     

    I posted a while back making some small parts in 17-4ph stainless on a $500 desktop CNC.

    The removal rate was slow but acceptable. However, I had some mic6 offcuts laying around for another project, so I used the machine to upgrade itself.

    20mm mic6 side plates, nearly doubled working z height.

    1.5kw vfd spindle replaced the old 300w dc motor.

    In aluminum, my material removal rate is now 25 times what it was stock, and no more chatter. Should speed up my projects quite a bit, and any other upgrades seem moot at this point. Absolutely incredible to hear this thing sing with just a new spindle and some scrap aluminum.

    view more: next ›