Joined
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32 Posts
Or, A study mental illness called “I think I can make it myself”
Back in '77 I had moved to Minneapolis from Wisconsin, to work in machine shops, having just shut down my cycle shop due to business tanking after the local large defense plant closed. It seemed our military no longer needed 4" & 6" artillery projectiles, and with that loss to the economy, 10 of the 13 local cycle/snowmobile shops closed, including mine.
Anyway, my future wife and I had just went to the opening of Star Wars, and coming home found that my van had been broken into, and tools were gone. Thankfully my 2 flat track bikes were still there.
Called the police to report it, but before they showed up a pickup, and a car parked on either side of my van, and the guys went strait for it, most likely to grab the bikes. They seen me coming, and fled, but not before I got one of the license numbers. Gave it to the police, they ran it, and wrote down the address were the car was registered at. Then they said "Here is their address in case you want to do something about it".
I thought, woe, I'm not in Wisconsin any more...
That started my long love affair with firearms. Shot some competition while there.
Got tired of the Twin Cities, moved back to Wisconsin, went to work in one of the last remaining cycle shops,
and went back to school, getting an associate's degree in fluid power, and got my first FFL to supplement my income.
Don't have very many pictures of my builds from back then, but with the coming of digital cameras, I stated to document anything outside of the normal firearm work.
Then I moved to Texas in '84, and received my 2nd FFL. I was up to my eye balls in GOOD gun shows, life was good.
Still wasn't doing much as far as customs, because just about every spare minute was taken up with building engines for my son's kart racing, and traveling to events. just bought a lot of tired guns, rebuilt them, and sold at shows.
My wife was with SAPD, which was handy since I could get a serial number check on every thing I picked up.
We lost my wife in '93, and lost the office job I had for 9 years designing industrial hydraulic systems.
So went back to what I knew best, fixing s#it that other's couldn't, doing industrial plant maintenance, which was OK since I hated the damn shirt & tie stuff anyway. About that time, I did something stupid, sold my M1A to catch up on bills.
Gave up my FFL when the ATF started to set up dealers at shows by providing fake IDs to criminal types just to entrap good people.
Then came 2008, and I didn't have a large caliber battle rifle.
Never had an AR before, so I picked up an Armalite AR-10.
After a few trips to the range, I hated the damn thing. Hated the carry handle, hated the the charge handle design, and it wasn't very accurate, so it sat in the safe, being ignored for may years.
Then the chinese sent us the bug, and the electronics plant I worked at was shut down for a month or two.
That damn AR-10 kept looking at me, so one day I said screw it, and went after what I didn't like about it.
Already posted a thread about it's transformation here: Idle hands do the devil's work
Then I got a hankering to have another PCC, only in 45 acp. Had Marlin Camp-9s, and Rugger .44 mags.
Didn't want a blow-back, so bought a Macon Armory DI upper. It ran good enough, but had some serious issues.
Like the his proprietary mags had to be pounded on a hard surface while loading using his ill fitting mag loader,
a huge amount of gas in your face when firing, and the damn Sampson free float tube (that I had a folding front sight on) constantly moving around, not to mention the weird way to attach accessories to it.
First went after the free float tube, and machined a front cap that kept it from moving around.
![Bicycle part Wood Rim Metal Bicycle drivetrain part]()
This at least kept the front sight from moving around. Didn't do anything about the issue with mounting stuff on it, but it was a start.
The gas problem was due to the gas port being just a hair off of the case mouth.
I asked him if he ever thought of trying a piston, he said he had tried, but never could get it to work.
I then called Adams Arms, one of the aftermarket piston conversions for the AR.
Forget who I talked with, but he said they couldn't do it due to the differences between a rifle round pressure, and that of the .45 acp, 60,000 vs. 20,000. I understand science, especially numbers, since years in fluid power, and even more years making things with engines go faster.
You want your car to go faster, get a larger engine.
You want to lift more weight with a hydraulic system, put a larger bore cylinder on it.
The Adams design lent it's self to doing this, since the cylinder is part of the operating rod, and the piston stays put on the gas block.
So I picked up an older used Adams kit, with their light weight bolt carrier.
Went to break the Macon upper down, and figured I would kill 3 birds with one stone by getting rid of the Sampson odd-ball tube, and his ****ty mags, and bought a CNC lower that uses M3 Grease Gun mags.
Went to take the barrel off, that idiot only used cheap lithium grease on the barrel nut, and way over tightened it to get the gas tube slot to line up. No shims, no lapping the upper a little, just keep cranking on that mother.
I had to go to a 1/2" breaker bar, with a cheater tube on the end of it, and the result was the threads snapping off the upper. It had to be over 150 ft/lbs when it snapped. Of course he denied everything, including the mag issue.
Anyway, bought another upper from this guy: Total AR15 up in Minnesota. My bolt carrier actually fit better than the no-name upper that came from Macon.
I ran some numbers, and thought that going from the Adams piston size of 5/16" to 1/2" may be enough.
Put a 1/2" sleeve on the Adams gas block, and machined out a new op rod from titanium.
![Wood Office supplies Hardwood Trigger Plywood]()
Close, but no banana...
Wouldn't pull the cases all the way out of the chamber...
Tried cutting the buffer spring, went down so closed pressure was at 6.5 lbs, and it got better, the cases would come out of the chamber, but wouldn't clear the barrel adapter.
So I machined out a 5/8" piston and op rod.
![Wood Metal Nickel Titanium Office supplies]()
The top op rod above is the standard Adams unit.
The groves in the piston form a labyrinth seal, keeps gas leakage to a minimum.
![Office supplies Wood Writing implement Pen Font]()
The Adams cylinder never completely uncovers the piston, so very little gas ever escapes the system.
Also figured the cut spring was causing some issues because when you cut a coil spring, you actually raises the spring rate. The spring pressure went from 6.5 lbs closed, to 15+ lbs at full stroke.
So I took a new Strike Ind. flat wire spring (I use flat wire springs in all my ARs), and instead of shortening it, I put it on a mandrel in the lathe, and used a tool post grinder to reduce the diameter by .035".
Still have 6.5 lbs closed pressure but at full open it's only 10 lbs now.
This system works!
I had to machine clearance for the .700" OD piston in the Magpul MOE-SL hand guard.
![Wood Bumper Automotive exterior Rim Hardwood]()
It uses a custom A5 length 1.25 oz. anti-tilt buffer, in an A5 buffer tube.
(shown in earlier thread: What did you do to your AR today?
Instead of the gas port being nearly at the case mouth, it is now a pistol length gas system.
It will not feed hollow points with big mouths, like Corbon, but everything else it runs great, 185, 240 grain, light loads like PMC or hot +P stuff. Doesn't matter.
Here it was before I added a Smith Tactics side charge handle, or the new A5 castle nut that I just made, also showed the making of the nuts one page later in same thread as above.
![Table Air gun Wood Trigger Shotgun]()
And here is the Smith side charge handle:
![Automotive tire Bicycle tire Crankset Bicycle chain Wheel]()
![Air gun Machine gun Trigger Automotive tire Shotgun]()
The Smith unit works way better than the Devil Dog one I had on the weapon, and cost $30 less.
Any way, this covers the most recent builds.
Up next, a 7.62x39 AR...
Won't be in just one post, I'll put things up as I get them done.
Back in '77 I had moved to Minneapolis from Wisconsin, to work in machine shops, having just shut down my cycle shop due to business tanking after the local large defense plant closed. It seemed our military no longer needed 4" & 6" artillery projectiles, and with that loss to the economy, 10 of the 13 local cycle/snowmobile shops closed, including mine.
Anyway, my future wife and I had just went to the opening of Star Wars, and coming home found that my van had been broken into, and tools were gone. Thankfully my 2 flat track bikes were still there.
Called the police to report it, but before they showed up a pickup, and a car parked on either side of my van, and the guys went strait for it, most likely to grab the bikes. They seen me coming, and fled, but not before I got one of the license numbers. Gave it to the police, they ran it, and wrote down the address were the car was registered at. Then they said "Here is their address in case you want to do something about it".
I thought, woe, I'm not in Wisconsin any more...
That started my long love affair with firearms. Shot some competition while there.
Got tired of the Twin Cities, moved back to Wisconsin, went to work in one of the last remaining cycle shops,
and went back to school, getting an associate's degree in fluid power, and got my first FFL to supplement my income.
Don't have very many pictures of my builds from back then, but with the coming of digital cameras, I stated to document anything outside of the normal firearm work.
Then I moved to Texas in '84, and received my 2nd FFL. I was up to my eye balls in GOOD gun shows, life was good.
Still wasn't doing much as far as customs, because just about every spare minute was taken up with building engines for my son's kart racing, and traveling to events. just bought a lot of tired guns, rebuilt them, and sold at shows.
My wife was with SAPD, which was handy since I could get a serial number check on every thing I picked up.
We lost my wife in '93, and lost the office job I had for 9 years designing industrial hydraulic systems.
So went back to what I knew best, fixing s#it that other's couldn't, doing industrial plant maintenance, which was OK since I hated the damn shirt & tie stuff anyway. About that time, I did something stupid, sold my M1A to catch up on bills.
Gave up my FFL when the ATF started to set up dealers at shows by providing fake IDs to criminal types just to entrap good people.
Then came 2008, and I didn't have a large caliber battle rifle.
Never had an AR before, so I picked up an Armalite AR-10.
After a few trips to the range, I hated the damn thing. Hated the carry handle, hated the the charge handle design, and it wasn't very accurate, so it sat in the safe, being ignored for may years.
Then the chinese sent us the bug, and the electronics plant I worked at was shut down for a month or two.
That damn AR-10 kept looking at me, so one day I said screw it, and went after what I didn't like about it.
Already posted a thread about it's transformation here: Idle hands do the devil's work
Then I got a hankering to have another PCC, only in 45 acp. Had Marlin Camp-9s, and Rugger .44 mags.
Didn't want a blow-back, so bought a Macon Armory DI upper. It ran good enough, but had some serious issues.
Like the his proprietary mags had to be pounded on a hard surface while loading using his ill fitting mag loader,
a huge amount of gas in your face when firing, and the damn Sampson free float tube (that I had a folding front sight on) constantly moving around, not to mention the weird way to attach accessories to it.
First went after the free float tube, and machined a front cap that kept it from moving around.
This at least kept the front sight from moving around. Didn't do anything about the issue with mounting stuff on it, but it was a start.
The gas problem was due to the gas port being just a hair off of the case mouth.
I asked him if he ever thought of trying a piston, he said he had tried, but never could get it to work.
I then called Adams Arms, one of the aftermarket piston conversions for the AR.
Forget who I talked with, but he said they couldn't do it due to the differences between a rifle round pressure, and that of the .45 acp, 60,000 vs. 20,000. I understand science, especially numbers, since years in fluid power, and even more years making things with engines go faster.
You want your car to go faster, get a larger engine.
You want to lift more weight with a hydraulic system, put a larger bore cylinder on it.
The Adams design lent it's self to doing this, since the cylinder is part of the operating rod, and the piston stays put on the gas block.
So I picked up an older used Adams kit, with their light weight bolt carrier.
Went to break the Macon upper down, and figured I would kill 3 birds with one stone by getting rid of the Sampson odd-ball tube, and his ****ty mags, and bought a CNC lower that uses M3 Grease Gun mags.
Went to take the barrel off, that idiot only used cheap lithium grease on the barrel nut, and way over tightened it to get the gas tube slot to line up. No shims, no lapping the upper a little, just keep cranking on that mother.
I had to go to a 1/2" breaker bar, with a cheater tube on the end of it, and the result was the threads snapping off the upper. It had to be over 150 ft/lbs when it snapped. Of course he denied everything, including the mag issue.
Anyway, bought another upper from this guy: Total AR15 up in Minnesota. My bolt carrier actually fit better than the no-name upper that came from Macon.
I ran some numbers, and thought that going from the Adams piston size of 5/16" to 1/2" may be enough.
Put a 1/2" sleeve on the Adams gas block, and machined out a new op rod from titanium.
Close, but no banana...
Wouldn't pull the cases all the way out of the chamber...
Tried cutting the buffer spring, went down so closed pressure was at 6.5 lbs, and it got better, the cases would come out of the chamber, but wouldn't clear the barrel adapter.
So I machined out a 5/8" piston and op rod.
The top op rod above is the standard Adams unit.
The groves in the piston form a labyrinth seal, keeps gas leakage to a minimum.
The Adams cylinder never completely uncovers the piston, so very little gas ever escapes the system.
Also figured the cut spring was causing some issues because when you cut a coil spring, you actually raises the spring rate. The spring pressure went from 6.5 lbs closed, to 15+ lbs at full stroke.
So I took a new Strike Ind. flat wire spring (I use flat wire springs in all my ARs), and instead of shortening it, I put it on a mandrel in the lathe, and used a tool post grinder to reduce the diameter by .035".
Still have 6.5 lbs closed pressure but at full open it's only 10 lbs now.
This system works!
I had to machine clearance for the .700" OD piston in the Magpul MOE-SL hand guard.
It uses a custom A5 length 1.25 oz. anti-tilt buffer, in an A5 buffer tube.
(shown in earlier thread: What did you do to your AR today?
Instead of the gas port being nearly at the case mouth, it is now a pistol length gas system.
It will not feed hollow points with big mouths, like Corbon, but everything else it runs great, 185, 240 grain, light loads like PMC or hot +P stuff. Doesn't matter.
Here it was before I added a Smith Tactics side charge handle, or the new A5 castle nut that I just made, also showed the making of the nuts one page later in same thread as above.
And here is the Smith side charge handle:
The Smith unit works way better than the Devil Dog one I had on the weapon, and cost $30 less.
Any way, this covers the most recent builds.
Up next, a 7.62x39 AR...
Won't be in just one post, I'll put things up as I get them done.
