It's time for a lone needed update. I got seriously side tracked!
I finally got around to machining the receiver tube. I am not a machinist but I can make some chips with the mini mill. Mine is a Harbor Freight 3:1 machine. Lathe, Mill and Drill press. It does really well if you know it's limits. I can't make fast deep cuts. Slow and steady wins the race.
First things first. make sure the Vise is square on the table. My cheaters way is to use a 1-2-3 block. I put it between the lathe chuck mounting plate and the edge of the vice. I double check it with the dial indicator and it's GTG.
The handiest thing I have on the mill is the DRO. OMG does it make life easy. It's probably worthy of a thread in it's self but I will keep it short. It's a set of Igaging scales interfaced to a MSP430 Micro processor development board. The MSP430 is hooked to a Blutooth transmitter and it send the measurements to my Adroid device. In this case it's my Note III. I have a 9 inch tablet I should be using but I was to lazy to calibrate it. Anyway. Here is the DRO:
It's in a sealed plastic box. And yep. I wired it. I am a geek!
The display:
I drill holes in the corners to mark things just in case the template falls off and it usually does at some point. Then basically play connect the dot's. I write down the measurements on the DRO when I am in the corners of the cuts. It makes it easy to repeat the cuts. I cut in about 5-10 thousands at a time until I am threw the metal. Any faster and things don't work out so well.
OK. the cuts are made. Here are a few pics of the tube with the template off. BTW, Wet the thing down with WD40 and let it soak for a bit and the template comes off easy:
Here's a few pics of the test fit of the mag well and the trigger guard assembly.
I need to weld on the hand guard and install the barrel. I am going to make the barrel removable. So I have some drilling and tapping to do on the trunnions. Then do the finish coat.
Hopefully it will be a shooter by the end of the week. Weather is going to be the key. I have to weld out side. More to come and sorry about the slow update!
I finally got around to machining the receiver tube. I am not a machinist but I can make some chips with the mini mill. Mine is a Harbor Freight 3:1 machine. Lathe, Mill and Drill press. It does really well if you know it's limits. I can't make fast deep cuts. Slow and steady wins the race.
First things first. make sure the Vise is square on the table. My cheaters way is to use a 1-2-3 block. I put it between the lathe chuck mounting plate and the edge of the vice. I double check it with the dial indicator and it's GTG.
The handiest thing I have on the mill is the DRO. OMG does it make life easy. It's probably worthy of a thread in it's self but I will keep it short. It's a set of Igaging scales interfaced to a MSP430 Micro processor development board. The MSP430 is hooked to a Blutooth transmitter and it send the measurements to my Adroid device. In this case it's my Note III. I have a 9 inch tablet I should be using but I was to lazy to calibrate it. Anyway. Here is the DRO:
It's in a sealed plastic box. And yep. I wired it. I am a geek!
The display:
I drill holes in the corners to mark things just in case the template falls off and it usually does at some point. Then basically play connect the dot's. I write down the measurements on the DRO when I am in the corners of the cuts. It makes it easy to repeat the cuts. I cut in about 5-10 thousands at a time until I am threw the metal. Any faster and things don't work out so well.
OK. the cuts are made. Here are a few pics of the tube with the template off. BTW, Wet the thing down with WD40 and let it soak for a bit and the template comes off easy:
Here's a few pics of the test fit of the mag well and the trigger guard assembly.
I need to weld on the hand guard and install the barrel. I am going to make the barrel removable. So I have some drilling and tapping to do on the trunnions. Then do the finish coat.
Hopefully it will be a shooter by the end of the week. Weather is going to be the key. I have to weld out side. More to come and sorry about the slow update!