L1A1Rocker
10-29-2010, 05:23 PM
Obligatory disclaimer: Do not start your own silencer project without first obtaining the ATF Form 1 approval back in hand plus any state paperwork that may be required in your state. Silencers a legal in 30 some odd states - please stay legal.
OK, now on to another problem that I had been trying to figure out how to deal with. Can you guess the problem here?
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0435.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0436.jpg
I had picked up this gun show special for $50.00 for this project. Now please understand I am a real NOOB when it comes to ARs but I knew that a rifle length free float handguard by Midwest Industries for $50.00 was not to be left on the table so I snatched it up. Well, actually to be totally honest I did call Remey and ask him if it was a good buy.
Now it was time to make the thing work. My first thought was to just cut out the stuff that was in the way, sand it down and hit it with some aluma black. Well, after a little more thought on it I realized I could just make a new trim ring myself, from scratch, from leftover tubing on the Mauser build.
First step was to turn down the O.D. to the same spec as the trim ring I was going to replace.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0444.jpg
The next step was to turn out the inside diameter to clear the 1.625 tube. I gave 25 thousandths clearance between the tube and trim ring.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0445.jpg
And almost done.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0446.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0447.jpg
Drilling and taping the trim ring was a very long process. I noticed that the factory trim ring would only fit in one way. I would have thought that it would have fit in any way but no. Soooo, I marked the position of the trim ring and drilled and taped the first hole. Then I screwed it into place with that one screw and marked, drilled and taped the second hole. Then I screwed into place the two screws before doing the third hole, and the same for the forth.
And the end result.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0449.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0450.jpg
Now on the the dreaded gas system. I had considered drilling a hole threw the endcap and pushing the gas tube all the way threw. I dropped that idea after realizing that the tube was way too tough to do that with - I was dealing with some extreme curves IMO.
So I decided I'd have to cut the tube and come at the endcap from both directions. I drilled a single hole straight through the endcap a few thousandths undersized and sand the tube as needed to get it firmly placed into the endcap.
Going from the gas block into the endcap was not too difficult. Just a couple of small bends and a bit of hand sanding and it was ready. Of course the tube was pinned into the gas block so I just slid the assembly down into the endcap. I used a brass punch and small hammer to drive the assembly in until my gas block was lined up on the barrel (about 3/8ths of an inch). Then I set the three set screws on the gas block.
Coming in from the receiver side was much more difficult. As I showed in a previous post I had to do a bit of grinding on the barrel for clearance. I and to really do a lot of bending on the tube to get it in the correct shape for this. Anyhow, I was able to get it shaped correctly but was only able to get the tube driven into the endcap about 1/4 inch or so. Had I used much more force I would be risking deforming the tube. This section of the tube I decided to secure into the endcap using a set screw. I did use a lot of "puky" on the threads so that they would seal up tight and not leak any gas.
Sorry I did not take but one pic of this finished - and it's blurry. Anyhow here it is.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0438.jpg
Now it was time to get the tube pinned in place. I've had some difficulty trying to drill threw an off center round so I decided to farm this out to a buddy. (I also have no experience welding aluminum) Anyhow, he did a great job and even touched up the sand blasting for me.
The next step was paint. I did nothing special with this. I used plain ol B-B-Q paint and stuck it in the oven for a while.
Ta Da!
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0451.jpg
OK, now it was time to shoot. It worked! But it seemed a bit loud to me. The ejection was extremely positive and the bolt locked back on the last shot. After doing a little checking I found that the bolt may be opening a bit soon. I needed to add weight to the bolt carrier group and get an extra power recoil spring.
Brownells sells an "extra heavy" buffer for about 65 dollars - ouch. They also have a carrier weight system for another 65 dollars - double ouch. Back out to the shop I went.
I decided to make a buffer from the left over stainless steel from my Ruger 22-45 project.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0452.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0454.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0460.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0461.jpg
I hollowed it out and filled it with led shot. I also chopped off about 1/4 inch from the original bumper to get more space for the shot.
The original buffer weighed only 3 oz.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0459.jpg
The "extra heavy" buffer Brownells sells is 5.4 oz. This one came out to 5.5 oz.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0462.jpg
Next was a carrier weight. I did not have any tungsten to do this and had run out of stainless steel. So this weight had to be made with what was left over - plain carbon steel.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0463.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0465.jpg
This weight only came in at 2 and 7/8ths oz.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0470.jpg
What I found most interesting about the carrier weight was that the one I made could be slipped into the carrier by just pivoting open the AR. The Brownells weight had to have both pins pulled and the rifle in two parts in order to install their weight.
The added weight made a difference, I still have an extra power recoil spring on order - maybe with it I can pull one of the weights. The ejection is still very powerful with the brass being ejected out to about 8 feet or so. The bolt does lock up on the last shot.
I'm also planning on going to a different powder that has a slightly lower burn rate. I'm currently using 5744 but it is too bulky for this small of a case. I'm going to go with 1680 as soon as I can get some.
So here is a short vid. It is not near as quiet as the Mauser but hey, it IS a semi auto afterall. The sound of the action closing and the bullet hitting the steel target 50 feet away seem to be louder than the shot to me.
On Edit: I went over to my youtube account to host the vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAWoaakDub0
Hope ya'll enjoyed the posts.
OK, now on to another problem that I had been trying to figure out how to deal with. Can you guess the problem here?
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0435.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0436.jpg
I had picked up this gun show special for $50.00 for this project. Now please understand I am a real NOOB when it comes to ARs but I knew that a rifle length free float handguard by Midwest Industries for $50.00 was not to be left on the table so I snatched it up. Well, actually to be totally honest I did call Remey and ask him if it was a good buy.
Now it was time to make the thing work. My first thought was to just cut out the stuff that was in the way, sand it down and hit it with some aluma black. Well, after a little more thought on it I realized I could just make a new trim ring myself, from scratch, from leftover tubing on the Mauser build.
First step was to turn down the O.D. to the same spec as the trim ring I was going to replace.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0444.jpg
The next step was to turn out the inside diameter to clear the 1.625 tube. I gave 25 thousandths clearance between the tube and trim ring.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0445.jpg
And almost done.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0446.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0447.jpg
Drilling and taping the trim ring was a very long process. I noticed that the factory trim ring would only fit in one way. I would have thought that it would have fit in any way but no. Soooo, I marked the position of the trim ring and drilled and taped the first hole. Then I screwed it into place with that one screw and marked, drilled and taped the second hole. Then I screwed into place the two screws before doing the third hole, and the same for the forth.
And the end result.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0449.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0450.jpg
Now on the the dreaded gas system. I had considered drilling a hole threw the endcap and pushing the gas tube all the way threw. I dropped that idea after realizing that the tube was way too tough to do that with - I was dealing with some extreme curves IMO.
So I decided I'd have to cut the tube and come at the endcap from both directions. I drilled a single hole straight through the endcap a few thousandths undersized and sand the tube as needed to get it firmly placed into the endcap.
Going from the gas block into the endcap was not too difficult. Just a couple of small bends and a bit of hand sanding and it was ready. Of course the tube was pinned into the gas block so I just slid the assembly down into the endcap. I used a brass punch and small hammer to drive the assembly in until my gas block was lined up on the barrel (about 3/8ths of an inch). Then I set the three set screws on the gas block.
Coming in from the receiver side was much more difficult. As I showed in a previous post I had to do a bit of grinding on the barrel for clearance. I and to really do a lot of bending on the tube to get it in the correct shape for this. Anyhow, I was able to get it shaped correctly but was only able to get the tube driven into the endcap about 1/4 inch or so. Had I used much more force I would be risking deforming the tube. This section of the tube I decided to secure into the endcap using a set screw. I did use a lot of "puky" on the threads so that they would seal up tight and not leak any gas.
Sorry I did not take but one pic of this finished - and it's blurry. Anyhow here it is.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0438.jpg
Now it was time to get the tube pinned in place. I've had some difficulty trying to drill threw an off center round so I decided to farm this out to a buddy. (I also have no experience welding aluminum) Anyhow, he did a great job and even touched up the sand blasting for me.
The next step was paint. I did nothing special with this. I used plain ol B-B-Q paint and stuck it in the oven for a while.
Ta Da!
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0451.jpg
OK, now it was time to shoot. It worked! But it seemed a bit loud to me. The ejection was extremely positive and the bolt locked back on the last shot. After doing a little checking I found that the bolt may be opening a bit soon. I needed to add weight to the bolt carrier group and get an extra power recoil spring.
Brownells sells an "extra heavy" buffer for about 65 dollars - ouch. They also have a carrier weight system for another 65 dollars - double ouch. Back out to the shop I went.
I decided to make a buffer from the left over stainless steel from my Ruger 22-45 project.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0452.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0454.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0460.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0461.jpg
I hollowed it out and filled it with led shot. I also chopped off about 1/4 inch from the original bumper to get more space for the shot.
The original buffer weighed only 3 oz.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0459.jpg
The "extra heavy" buffer Brownells sells is 5.4 oz. This one came out to 5.5 oz.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0462.jpg
Next was a carrier weight. I did not have any tungsten to do this and had run out of stainless steel. So this weight had to be made with what was left over - plain carbon steel.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0463.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0465.jpg
This weight only came in at 2 and 7/8ths oz.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j154/L1A1Rocker/300%20Fireball%20project/HPIM0470.jpg
What I found most interesting about the carrier weight was that the one I made could be slipped into the carrier by just pivoting open the AR. The Brownells weight had to have both pins pulled and the rifle in two parts in order to install their weight.
The added weight made a difference, I still have an extra power recoil spring on order - maybe with it I can pull one of the weights. The ejection is still very powerful with the brass being ejected out to about 8 feet or so. The bolt does lock up on the last shot.
I'm also planning on going to a different powder that has a slightly lower burn rate. I'm currently using 5744 but it is too bulky for this small of a case. I'm going to go with 1680 as soon as I can get some.
So here is a short vid. It is not near as quiet as the Mauser but hey, it IS a semi auto afterall. The sound of the action closing and the bullet hitting the steel target 50 feet away seem to be louder than the shot to me.
On Edit: I went over to my youtube account to host the vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAWoaakDub0
Hope ya'll enjoyed the posts.