Sorry Mike, I guess I could, but you know I like my machined metal stuff... cheers!
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Interest The Expanse - MCRN pistol - machined aluminium conversion kit
- Thread starter eethan
- Start date
The barrels look much better in real metal than they do painted, at least in my experience.
Interesting that they opted not to attach it using the accessory rail. I'm guessing it's just glued in place?
Yes, I don't know... I'll have to figure it out
Thank you, very low interest on this, but I'm going to start slowly on it next week when I receive my aluminium order.
I'll be working on my jedi training remote boxes and this, so it will take a little while, but this is happening.
Thank you to those that signed up, much appreciated.
Cheers
I'll be working on my jedi training remote boxes and this, so it will take a little while, but this is happening.
Thank you to those that signed up, much appreciated.
Cheers
I'm certainly looking forward to it... The low general interest certainly doesn't apply to me at least! 
I only have a link in Europe. Maybe someone else can help you in the US.
double post apparently.
I was unable to locate one in the US. Also the HK maker was sold out, IIRC... I was able to find them from a retailer in Canada, but their site said they would not ship outside of their country. Still, if you know someone there who can receive it and send it along to you, that should be doable. I ended up ordering mine from Safara Softair in Italy, which worked out fine other than being a bit pricey.
Thanks for the progress photo! It will be fun to see these in-process so I can appreciate the work I don't have to do myself! I'm thinking that drilling a 16mm hole in these would be an "interesting" challenge with my cheap little drill press!Hi there,
here is some progress for this project, I cut an additional 2 pieces after receiving my aluminium order yesterday, and i drilled all 8 pieces with that dreaded 16mm diameter hole, 12cm deep. that's a good difficult step done already
Yeah, I turned this every direction when prototyping. My mill would have made quick job of this but is too low for the needed length, the drill press I don't trust for this, so I had to do it on the lathe, but it takes a lot of time. It is mostly done now, need to do the other side but the hardest part is doneThanks for the progress photo! It will be fun to see these in-process so I can appreciate the work I don't have to do myself! I'm thinking that drilling a 16mm hole in these would be an "interesting" challenge with my cheap little drill press!
Hello there, sorry for the slow progress, still trying to finish the main project before this.
I am stuck for a few days waiting for an aluminium order, so, this week end and until Monday afternoon, I'm going to be working on this and move forward as much as possible.
Last time, I cut the parts and drilled the big 16mm holes in the back, yesterday evening and today, I was able to drill the front holes and surface the top and bottom of the parts.
5 V1s and 3 V2s
cheers
I am stuck for a few days waiting for an aluminium order, so, this week end and until Monday afternoon, I'm going to be working on this and move forward as much as possible.
Last time, I cut the parts and drilled the big 16mm holes in the back, yesterday evening and today, I was able to drill the front holes and surface the top and bottom of the parts.
5 V1s and 3 V2s
cheers
Thanks for the update! Looking forward to more pictures as things progress.
This morning, I surfaced the sides of the blocks to the proper width, making sure as well that the holes in the front and back where centered, correcting if needed by removing more or less material on each side.
Then, I spent basically the whole afternoon trying to figure out how to get a nice, clean, brushed surface on the sides to reproduce what we see on the references for the larger bottom rail of the part. The rest of the part has machined marks, but this bottom area has a nice brushed look.
The worst being the V2 gun as that brushed finish is on the whole front area as well:
So, by default, I'm using a fly cutter to get a clean flat surface. This is what I used to put the blocks to size, and although the machining is pretty clean looking, it gives large circular machining marks that we don't see on the screen-used props.
I'm not exactly 100% sure how they achieved that look on the sides of the machined parts.
The raw aluminium blocks are extruded and they have straight lines a bit like this, (you can see the look on the above photo on the side of the block) but it's still much less clean looking and the raw block have oxidizing and scratches, so that doesn't work.
I tried sanding the surface with a power sander but it was way too scratched. I have a piece of 600 grit sandpaper on a flat piece of marble, but even wiping the sandpaper every 2 or so swipes, the aluminium powder clogs up or I don't know exactly what happens, but when you are almost happy with your surface, all of a sudden you get a huge scratch on it.... so annoying!
One thing I thought they possibly did was to machine the sides against the side of a big end mill, this gives straight lines like this as well, this is what they did here for the top of the part for instance:
However, I tried with two different end mills, and the result is not that clean with my probably smaller milling machine than theirs. So, you get the straight lines but you also get perpendicular marks when the end mill moves forward. Difficult to explain but the result wasn't great either.
Pff! didn't expect to get stuck on this!
In the end, I found a solution that gives a nice result finally! I have the most expensive rectangle block of aluminium ever, It's an aluminium sanding caul that has been surfaced on a perfectly flat marble and that I bought a few years back for guitar making. You sand the frets on the neck of the guitar with that to make sure they are absolutely perfectly level. I use that block a lot. have 3 different grits on 3 of the sides and it's very useful. I replaced one side with a clean 240 grit sheet and this works. It seems finer grain is not necessarily better for aluminium. The 600 grit (from the same brand) was a nightmare and making scratches, here, the 240 doesn't clog up as much and it gives a nice brushed finish
all that text for this, but at least it gives an idea of the afternoon I just spent ahah!
Then, I spent basically the whole afternoon trying to figure out how to get a nice, clean, brushed surface on the sides to reproduce what we see on the references for the larger bottom rail of the part. The rest of the part has machined marks, but this bottom area has a nice brushed look.
The worst being the V2 gun as that brushed finish is on the whole front area as well:
So, by default, I'm using a fly cutter to get a clean flat surface. This is what I used to put the blocks to size, and although the machining is pretty clean looking, it gives large circular machining marks that we don't see on the screen-used props.
I'm not exactly 100% sure how they achieved that look on the sides of the machined parts.
The raw aluminium blocks are extruded and they have straight lines a bit like this, (you can see the look on the above photo on the side of the block) but it's still much less clean looking and the raw block have oxidizing and scratches, so that doesn't work.
I tried sanding the surface with a power sander but it was way too scratched. I have a piece of 600 grit sandpaper on a flat piece of marble, but even wiping the sandpaper every 2 or so swipes, the aluminium powder clogs up or I don't know exactly what happens, but when you are almost happy with your surface, all of a sudden you get a huge scratch on it.... so annoying!
One thing I thought they possibly did was to machine the sides against the side of a big end mill, this gives straight lines like this as well, this is what they did here for the top of the part for instance:
However, I tried with two different end mills, and the result is not that clean with my probably smaller milling machine than theirs. So, you get the straight lines but you also get perpendicular marks when the end mill moves forward. Difficult to explain but the result wasn't great either.
Pff! didn't expect to get stuck on this!
In the end, I found a solution that gives a nice result finally! I have the most expensive rectangle block of aluminium ever, It's an aluminium sanding caul that has been surfaced on a perfectly flat marble and that I bought a few years back for guitar making. You sand the frets on the neck of the guitar with that to make sure they are absolutely perfectly level. I use that block a lot. have 3 different grits on 3 of the sides and it's very useful. I replaced one side with a clean 240 grit sheet and this works. It seems finer grain is not necessarily better for aluminium. The 600 grit (from the same brand) was a nightmare and making scratches, here, the 240 doesn't clog up as much and it gives a nice brushed finish
all that text for this, but at least it gives an idea of the afternoon I just spent ahah!
Wow that was quite the journey, and I for one really appreciate your attention to detail!
You're right that aluminum clogs up sanding medium. I use 600, 800, 1000, 2000+ grit on my belt sanders but that's for steel, not aluminum. I also use a buffing wheel but that's also getting into the mirror surface texture, rather than the brushed look. And a steel wire wheel is very problematic on aluminum... So I'm glad you found d a solution you're happy with. Good thinking outside the box to come up with the guitar fret sander as the solution.
You're right that aluminum clogs up sanding medium. I use 600, 800, 1000, 2000+ grit on my belt sanders but that's for steel, not aluminum. I also use a buffing wheel but that's also getting into the mirror surface texture, rather than the brushed look. And a steel wire wheel is very problematic on aluminum... So I'm glad you found d a solution you're happy with. Good thinking outside the box to come up with the guitar fret sander as the solution.
