now, just what in the hell am i up to .... no. 3 .... final hint ....

i suppose this ought to "give it away."

i am doing a feasibility study of building an ar-15 out of wood laminate, using materials which are almost universally available, and not using much by way of sophisticated machinery or machine tools to do so.  oh, i have having some steel cut as the outside cladding for the main receiver, and may have some holes drilled by a machine shop, but that's just because i got lazy.

i have pretty much figured out the patterns & measurements for the holes housing pins and the like, but as i want this version of things to work, i want to make sure the holes are drilled properly.   in a pinch, i could do it with a good drill press, but, i don't have a good drill press at my disposal.  maybe i'll find and use one, but, for now, i'll go with having a machine shop nearby do that.

i believe the whole thing is revealed in the following picture.--

caption:  when the steel cladding is epoxied in place, then i will have the "bottom" of the receiver to work with.   i will use a mortising bit to drill the recess in the wood laminate to insert the handle, and also to drill the recess for the magazine well.

at that point, i will reveal the ultimate goal of the project, which no one has come close to figuring out, even though several prominent clues have been hinted at previously.

it's been great fun.

john jay @ 12.11.2013

Related articles

now, just what in the hell am i up to .... the "industrial machine" needed to manufacture your own stuff ....

Where Can I Find A Great Drill Press?

Finally drilling the holes in!

Internship at LMTG

now, just what in the hell am i up to ....

Comments

[JTwig]

Please, please, record the test fire when you have it complete! I really want to see this work, but if it doesn't I really want to see that also.

[john jay]

jtwig:

laughing.

nothing like a train wreck is gonna happen, and very little to be preserved in the interests of posterity.

reasons why?

the lower receiver in an ar-15 is not a "stressed" part, and by that i mean, that none of the forces of firing a cartridge are borne by the lower receiver.

the only thing the lower receiver does is house the firing mechanism and provide a place for the cartridge mechanism.

the stresses of firing are entirely borne by a steel barrel extension which has the locking lugs built into it, and by the steel bolt whose lugs reside abutted in front of the locking lugs when the gun is in battery.

and, to bear the relatively minor, very minor forces of recoil, my wood/steel laminate has way more strength than will ever be needed. way more.

keep in mind, that by weight, good wood is stronger than steel. where steel has it over wood is in hardness, and in strength in dimension.

you could build a skyscraper from wood (witness railroad tressels built from wood beams that has lasted for decades), but, i am afraid you wouldn't have a whole lot of room left over for anything else.

john jay

[john jay]

p.s. jtwig:

as far as hardness goes, i wouldn't want to spend eternity sanding the end grain of iron wood, either. end grain is pretty tough stuff.

i grew up when a lot of equipment still used wooden blocks as bearing surfaces for steel parts, and it took a whole lot of wood. it wasn't pine, but, aptly named "hard wood."

tough stuff.

[john jay]

p.s.s. jtwig:

"... a whole lot of work."