Well i have had this idea for some time now and have even bought the material for this project. I have wanted to try making the gun body from a solid piece of Aluminum rather than welding one up. My thought on this were that it would be better to put together doing it this way. So i am finally starting this project and will see where i end up with this idea. So as i make progress i will be adding to this with updates and keep everyone informed.
are you going to billet it from that block???
Ok so i have never done much of the posting here so i am sure this is going to be a learning process for me. I started to cut the outer profiles on the gun box and this is what i have done so far.
ya , is that a solid block?? Great idea, nice and sturdy without any joints but damn shame to mill more than half that aluminum away…
yes it is solid and yes most of it is going to cut away and end up in the chip barrel. But it should be nice and strong in the end.
gotta say thats looking bang on so far! I’ll be watching this build closely.
Great idea and super job so far!
What kind of wall thickness do you think you’ll be going for…1/8” ….1/4”?
GREAT job so far! Any plans to offer these for sale down the road?
At the moment the walls are going to a 1/4 inch thick . and the reason for this would be so i can drill and tap for the cover plate. As far as offering these that would depend on how they go and if people would want them i guess. This is one of those parts that takes a lot of time to make. But since i make do these myself it’s just the time issue for me. Plus a $25.00 piece of Aluminum to start from.
Oh well shit it was only 25 bucks??? Waste away. Not bad. I thought aluminum was more expensive than that?
the material cost is not the bad part it’s the amount of time it takes to machine it away. Material costs are always changing so that could change in the future. it just depends on where market is at the time you start a project as to what the cost is going to be.
So are you milling out the inside by hand? Like via bridgeport or similar or is it CNC driven?
this is all being done on a manual machine so yes it takes a while to cut. these are very deep pockets and they are not real easy to machine out. so it does take some time.it aslo requires and extra long end mill to cut them. the one that i am using costs around $75.00 So this is not a cheap part to make even when you do it yourself.
Good luck on this man, can’t wait to see it finished. Looks hot so far!
That’s gonna be mighty pretty. Good work so far!
will it be heavy? I know aluminum is light, but not lighter than resin. Oh hey, Alkaline is up here in PA too. Jason makes metal gun parts too (at least you used to) can you cut a chunk out of the core and mill them into other smaller parts like knobs? Waste not want not : )
Well Brad i think you would be better off just to get the right size material for what you are making.
It’s not going to be to heavy as far as i can tell so far.But it should be able to take a beating for a really long time.
And yes i still make parts i have a bunch sitting around the shop and Exoray has a buch of them too in his tread in the for sale section.We have been work together for a while now.
That is looking pretty darn kick ass. I would totally be interested if you decided to make and sell em. I dont think I have seen a full finished metal gun come to light yet I know a few are attempting at the moment, but I can’t wait to check out your finished product.
I’ve seen one…
Actually, I see the start of a second one as well.
Wow, that’s quite a lot of work, most expensive gun box yet 
And yes, I think aluminum is lighter than resin. I work around resin parts everyday and they are heavier than they look like they should be.
I have seen a few Aluminum gun boxes but they were all welded. i have never seen one done this way so this is why i thought i would give it a try.Something new and something different.