[twoblink]

A CAD designer here in Taiwan took blueprints of guns, put then in CAD, hooked it up to a CAM machine, and CNC'ed out a few of them. He even tested them, and made modifications..

He produced a total of 15, and sold them for $1500USD each.. before he got arrested..

Wasn't too difficult, since specs and exploded diagrams of almost any/every gun is available..

Impressive.. Nope, don't have a link to the article, in the chinese newspaper..

[Matt G]

Blueprinted guns, eh?

I'd be interested to see how they shoot, if the manufacturing machinery was to spec.

--M.

[Tamara]

Hmmm...

Gotta wonder about the veracity of the newspaper article, but then I'm the skeptical type.

Which guns? Obviously none with stamped parts or really complex injection-molded grips. I reckon you probably could wind the springs yourself with a little bit of trial and error and a small amount of knowhow...

[Chris Rhines]

Not familar with this story, but on the subject...

From Guy Lautard's The Machinist's Bedside Reader, vol 1, page 116,

"...Joe was a grinding room supervisor for one of the biggest lumber outfits in Western Canada. He calls himself a "grinder man." Joe was not a trained machinist, although he was able to ask questions of such wizards when he needed help. He had no milling machine. He did have a wood lathe, for which he rigged a crude sort of compound rest. For the most part he worked with files, while the rough work he did with hacksaws and by grinding. He worked entirely without working drawings - a cutaway, sectional, or exploded view of some rifle mechanism was all he'd go by, and from that he'd make a full sized working rifle of that type.

...

And what did he make?

A Remington Rolling Block rifle in caliber .45-70. A Farquharson rifle. A .44cal Remington Revolving Carbine. A .22cal single action pistol. A 9mm Luger, fully functional except that, lacking provision of a magazine well and magazine, it was not a repeater. A single barrel version of the Remington .41 rimfire O/U Derringer - and at least a dozen other weapons.

...

He had bored, reamed, and rifled his own barrels..."

This is why I say that gun control is pointless. Milling machine control worries me more, but I also have this article about a small turret lathe built during WWII in a Japanese prison camp...

- Chris

[El Tejon]

Depends on the design but even El Tejon could make a PPS or STEN.

[old geezer voice activate] I remember a group of 8th graders near Dee-TROIT were busted making machine pistols in shop class in the '70s.

[DMK]

I reckon you probably could wind the springs yourself with a little bit of trial and error and a small amount of knowhow... Or it wouldn't be difficult to outsource. The spring maker wouldn't even need to know the spring's purpose.

There is a guy on the FAL Files who took original FN specs and had a stateside spring maker make a really nice stainless steel spring kit for the FAL. He sells them in the marketplace for a decent price and gets high marks in the reviews. I bought two sets from him and used one when I built my Imbel. The kit replaces every spring in the gun.

In this country, I don't even think the guy in Taiwan would be doing anything illegal as long as it was NFA/AWB compliant and he wasn't selling them.

Was he arrested over there for selling or manufacturing?

[Kharn]

DMK:
In the US, it'd be perfectly legal if he didnt sell them, and obeyed the NFA & all the other "evil" gun bans.

Kharn

[Keith]

Those guys along the Pakistan/Afghan border copy all kinds of guns using only the simplest of measuring tools to get the specs.

Keith

[son of a gun]

^^Peshawar Pakistan^^^^

[Mark Tyson]

You know, I'll bet if enough hobbyists/tinkerers in the US decided to ignore the laws and start building whatever firearms they wanted in their workshops, the government couldn't do a sweet thing about it. We've got a lot more machine tools, machinists and raw materials readily available here than in Pakistan. Of course it would require the end user to have a great deal of faith in the talent of the manufacturer.

[Keith]

I read a fairly extensive article a few years ago about Paki/Afghan guns - the ones from Pakistan are better known, but only because for many years few people have gone into the regions of Afghanistan where guns are made.

Anyway, according to the article (which I think was in Soldier of Fortune) the only real issue was the quality of the metal. Some of these guns are made with fairly soft metal that would not be acceptable on the open market. The writer bought a couple of handguns, and was able to test fire a number of rifles. I recall that a Tokarev copy he shot was wholly unreliable, but several AK's worked just fine.
I found it surprising, but they also make copies of old British weapons like Martini-Henry's. These aren't for sale to western collectors, but to tribesman who style themselves as real riflemen and favor these old single shots - go figure! Cooper would love these guys!

Keith

[4v50 Gary]

Joe the mechanic? ;) Perhaps Joe should make a Thompson that won't accept a drum or stick magazine. Single shot, pull bolt back, drop in bullet, squeeze trigger to let the bolt fly and bang! You're empty.

[Radagast]

Check out http://www.roderuscustom.tzo.com/ for how to build your own.

Ken

[Bill Hook]

Those guys along the Pakistan/Afghan border copy all kinds of guns using only the simplest of measuring tools to get the specs.

I have a Mak slide they did - not too good. Hope it fits whatever frames they make b/c it needs a good bit of work to fit my Mak. I was going to use it for a carry sight package from Mak.com, but not after finding out what junk it was.

[444]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=39034

[twoblink]

I don't know Tamara,

from the little Browning blowback 25ACP that I saw at Oleg's, it's fairly straight forward.

The article did say he "test fired and then made a few modifications"...

I doubt anything complex, but the police confirmed that it fires bullets..

[Don Gwinn]

Just offhand, I can't think of anything made of stamped metal or injection-molded plastic that you couldn't make out of forged, cut, milled or machined steel or aluminum. What's so fantastic about stampings? :confused: