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What have you made?

Im... Unsure. I have several parts made in SLS so far, and its certainly the superior material, but it does get pricey. Once this hurricane moves on I will fill the drum with ammo and go stress test it. If the epoxy fails Ill need to redesign it to use bolts, and if the PETG fails then I will need to get it done in SLS. But for now itll stay as PETG.


After having an epoxy joint fail on one my prints (admittedly it was cheap unbranded stuff), and some unreliable self-tapping holes, I've just ordered a bunch of M3 heat-set nuts to test out for future projects from Aliexpress. There's someone on eBay (UK) who happens to make a setting tool for these that fit my particular soldering Iron. 

View attachment 78127

 
After having an epoxy joint fail on one my prints (admittedly it was cheap unbranded stuff), and some unreliable self-tapping holes, I've just ordered a bunch of M3 heat-set nuts to test out for future projects from Aliexpress. There's someone on eBay (UK) who happens to make a setting tool for these that fit my particular soldering Iron. 


Yea Im hoping my high strength stuff and a rough surface will hold. Ill probably just use standard nuts as bolts as space is limited enough as-is. Trying to sink those in will be difficult.

 
So for those that dont know im an armoursmith/ blacksmith and ive decided to take on a gun project using these skills. Specifically the ultimax 100 mk 5 because I love the ultimax but Id also like to be able to use my regular m4 mags and that version has a magwell.  Made a mockup so far. A v3 gearbox sits about perfect in this but on the real one the upper and lower recievers are welded together. If I did this Id never be able to get the gearbox out.

Im probably gonna try to make it in a way that means the rear end cap can come off and the recievers can come apart. One of the main reasons I chose this gun is because its basically just 90 degree boxes for most of the reciever. Ill probably just be brazing on other pieces of metal for all those details on the side of it. Evetything else will be hammered out of 2-3mm steel. I will probably also be getting a friend to 3d print some of the brackets and internal parts for the barrel and hop. Should be a fun project. 

GDATP_IAR_15.jpg


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Almost criminal your not making an AK74 mate. Looking forward to seeing the progress, thanks for posting. 

 
Almost criminal your not making an AK74 mate. Looking forward to seeing the progress, thanks for posting. 
I have no doubt I could forge out an ak reciever but It would be somewhat pointless as I already have both lct and e&l aks. No one makes an ultimax though and I had a hankering for a 556 lmg that wasnt a saw and took regular mags. 

 
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I have no doubt I could forge out an ak reciever but It would be somewhat pointless as I already have both lct and e&l aks. No one makes an ultimax though and I had a hankering for a 556 lmg that wasnt a saw and took regular mags. 
I want to try a similar project to make a Negev. My skills and tools definitely aren't up to par to tackle something that big just yet though. 

 
I want to try a similar project to make a Negev. My skills and tools definitely aren't up to par to tackle something that big just yet though. 
Well I do commissions for metalwork so we will have to see how the ultimax goes =D

 
A few more pics of my 417 Drum adapter. It is designed for the A&K SR-25 drums as they are plentiful this side of the pond, dont break the bank, are sized for 308 (the main reason I chose a SR-25 drum over something smaller like the Angel Custom drums, which are sized for 5.56), and have some nice features including a sound-based auto-wind, button-wind, and switch-wind. As it seems all my drum adapter designs end up being, it is split into 4 parts for printing - left and right inner halves, an outer shell, and the base. 

Inner Right showing the internal passageways for loading BBs, the feed tube, and the sound sensor slot and wiring tube:

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Right and left inner halves put together:

View attachment 78502

The outer shell:

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The base - printed inverse to this, of course:

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The four parts assembled (Isometric):

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The four parts assembled (top):

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The four parts assembled (back):

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The cut-away internal shot of all four parts assembled:

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Several test prints later, and a few changes were made. The screw hole has been enlarged for the bolt to pass clean through the base, and halfway into the shell. This makes it flush inside the assembly and actually serves as a pin between all 4 parts. I have also decreased the outer sides of the Inner parts by .02" all around (.5mm), as it would require a pneumatic press to actually get the two inner halves into the shell. Just the cm or so I shoved them together to test the fitment took a hammer to remove. So far I have 2 of the latest bases done, a possible "production" print of the shell done (I have three options to print it:

First, I can do it with the top horizontal, and support material as a wedge. This is what I did for the shell I have printed. It worked, but did have some errors along the base and had to be sanded flat. Testing with the inner parts after theyre done will determine if this is a problem. Its also the longest print - at 80% speed it takes a whopping 14 hours:

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Second is to print it with no supports at the bottom, leaving the top as a slant. This has the plus of ensuring a flat base, but gives a layered top:

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Third is to print on its side. This is the fastest method at only 8 hours and change at 100% (approx 12 hours at 80%), but does use the most material and cost the most. To be fair its about 3 Euros per shell vs the 2.70 Euros or so if printed in either vertical orientation, so not exactly an important difference. Cleaning all that support material out is gonna be a PITA though, and itll leave the face-down side a different texture due to my textured print bed. 

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), and I am working on printing the two inner halves now. Heres what it looks like mostly assembled, still missing the two inner halves: 

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Reciever mark 1 unfortunately started developing some pretty bad cracks so I decided to ditch it, switch steels and try again. Second one went much more smoothly. Given that I get all my steel as spares and offcuts from a factory I dont necesarrily know what im working with until I start so these things happen.  Needs a lot of smoothing out but the sides are level, the angles are mostly 90 degrees and Its all looking pretty good. Lower shoud be a lot easier as its 1 straight box. 

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The VFC SCAR-H selector plate is trash, as is any nylon or other platic ones you can buy, if you use the lever on the right (because you're left handed), the teeth on it get stripped crazy easily.

So I found an .stl file of it on thingverse, got it printed in aluminium - it wasn't shaped properly - learned to mod the file myself enough, got it printed again in aluminium (shit is expensive, talking like, £35 for a selector plate).

Anyway, here it is.

I can post the modded file if anyone wants it.

View attachment 78707

Edit: actually just uploaded it anyway incase anyone comes across this in the future; 

https://atomicrhino.net/upload/airsoft/scarh/VFC_selector_plate_mk_17.stl.zip

X4XBI8I.jpg


Top plate is the stock one, bottom is a nylon printed one I bought from a shop. Teeth broke before the gun even left the house.

 
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The VFC SCAR-H selector plate is trash, as is any nylon or other platic ones you can buy, if you use the lever on the right (because you're left handed), the teeth on it get stripped crazy easily.

So I found an .stl file of it on thingverse, got it printed in aluminium - it wasn't shaped properly - learned to mod the file myself enough, got it printed again in aluminium (shit is expensive, talking like, £35 for a selector plate).

Anyway, here it is.

I can post the modded file if anyone wants it.

View attachment 78707

Edit: actually just uploaded it anyway incase anyone comes across this in the future; 

https://atomicrhino.net/upload/airsoft/scarh/VFC_selector_plate_mk_17.stl.zip



Top plate is the stock one, bottom is a nylon printed one I bought from a shop. Teeth broke before the gun even left the house.
I'll grab that as I spotted the selector plate as a weak point on mine. Saves me modelling it up myself. I eliminated the ambi selector as it never worked anyway. 

 
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