Reach M6G Build

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Whoof, last couple weeks have been busy and tiring. I got into the shop last night but was just plain not feeling it. Instead of trying to do any serious work, I just measured out a bunch of the smaller pieces and did some sanding here and there.

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I now have the magazine bottom, rear under side bits and the main rear sight block marked and ready to cut, drill and rout. I also started on the little piece that goes on top of the slide where the overbarrel meets it (not shown). I think I may try to prime the underbarrel over the holiday weekend to really see where it needs to be cleaned up and what the Filler Primer will take care of. There are a number of tight places that don't meet my Standard Of Perfectionism, but that the primer might just deal with. :)

Have a nice long weekend everyone...
 
Hey all, just wanted to let you know I'm still alive... have been derailed last couple of weeks by many things. I'll be back on it soon, no worries.
 
Woo, finally got a little shop time! Only an hour, but I got a lot of little things done.

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So, all the major bits are cut out now, and also many of the minor ones. I got the mag base to shape, a couple of rear side pieces that go behind the grips, the sight block pieces. Routing and shaping on the mag base and sight block comes next. Then I have to review the whole thing for the small details because it's been so long I've forgotten all the small stuff. Also, I have to decide how I'm going to carve the grip. Since I'm calling this my "personal" sidearm, I think I'll be carving it custom for my hand shape.

Thanks for sticking with me! :)
 
Woo, finally got a little shop time! Only an hour, but I got a lot of little things done.

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So, all the major bits are cut out now, and also many of the minor ones. I got the mag base to shape, a couple of rear side pieces that go behind the grips, the sight block pieces. Routing and shaping on the mag base and sight block comes next. Then I have to review the whole thing for the small details because it's been so long I've forgotten all the small stuff. Also, I have to decide how I'm going to carve the grip. Since I'm calling this my "personal" sidearm, I think I'll be carving it custom for my hand shape.

Thanks for sticking with me! :)
Looking great so far! You're almost there!
 
This is the one I've been working on
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Looking good Kaulin! Did you pick up Bill Doran's (@chinbeard) Foamsmithing books? :)

Actually no, one of my friends works at a 3D modeling/molding place nearby and they made a few molds of them so he grabbed two and we have been making them. I actually painted the first one today.
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That actually is the exact same gun


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Mwahahaha, I have 4 more to sand and paint. They actually aren't foam, they are Tc-890 plastic that we poured into a mold. But I put the finished one up against the not so finished ones lol. But I would definitely love to see how yours is coming, it looks like I might need to step up my game.


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Yay, update! Here's progress made over the last week in little chunks of shop time... I cut out, carved, routed and sanded the mag base block. Tricky work! I did it very very slowly and carefully. Figured out a Dremel routing trick - if you have a big vise with flat-topped jaws, you can put a piece in it oriented with the desired cut depth parallel to the vise jaws, and use the plunge guard attachment to slide along the jaws to keep perfect depth. You can see the big rout on the bottom's base is not parallel to ANY surface of the block, that's how I did it.

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Finally, carving the handgrips! I marked these out with pen and then messed with various ways of carving them out. Finally settled on using the Dremel with a sanding drum bit, which works really well on the MDF. Not finished yet, but I got a good chunk of it done. I think I should get a "V"-router bit for the Dremel, tho. Would have helped a lot.

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So many little things to do from here out. I hope to get to work on the rear sight tonight.
 
I did get to work on the sight last night! Here's how it went... First I cut a central slot with a razor saw, then enlarged it with a hacksaw and then this file.

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Next, here's the router trick I mentioned in last post. You can see I've got the block in the vise with top parallel to the jaws, and with the collar adapter on the Dremel I support it on the vise jaws to very carefully rout into this small part. Very very slow and careful, and make sure you've got your safety glasses on. I did this to widen out the V shape cutout.

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Then I cut the angled edges by hand with the razor saw, then filed and sanded them to a more final shape.

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After more very careful routing, sanding and drilling all over, here's the end stage. I'm actually going to use real knurl-edge machine screws where they exist on the piece, because I've got a bunch of perfect ones left over from my Oscillation Overthruster build; I drilled some small holes for placement which I'll enlarge if necessary to add the screws. This block will be glued to the top as shown before I put the screw into the top of it.

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I think this is probably the most finicky detailed bit that I had left to do. I'd originally planned to build this part out of styrene, and I probably should have! Wood isn't really suited to this kind of small detail on a part that would actually be machined from high-quality steel, though this MDF bit worked reasonably well. With styrene I could duplicate it far more precisely, and it might have taken a bit less time. Plus I could make a mold from that and turn this into a quick casting job for all my future M6 builds... so yeah, hindsight, shoulda done that! :)
 
Oops, I worked on this last week but forgot to upload! So here we go. First, I shaped and glued in this little wedge bit that goes in the notch at the back of the overbarrel. It's just a little chunk of MDF sanded to shape. Next, there was a gap on the right side of the tailblock so I filled it with a little pine shim from the many offcuts this project has generated. I'm using Aleen's Tacky Glue PVA for these little things. I added a block that makes the base of the hammer at back of the tailblock.

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Now for the hammer. It's a small block of pine, again from offcuts. I marked it up carefully, sanded the outer shape and then very slowly and carefully filed out the inside cut. So what the hey, lets just glue on the sight! More Tacky Glue, and poof, there it sticks. That's where I left it last week, set up to dry.

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Now on to last night's work. First I glued in a block on the tail to fill the gap. I'll be adding a flat plate to cover the rear-facing part once the back is sanded and trued up. Happily, I found my leftover tiny metric screws from my Overthruster build, and they work perfectly for the screws on the sight. What is that tiny little white bit there? Well, it's a little post that sticks up from that little wedge; it's 1/8" styrene rod. I drilled a little hole in the center and glued in a small length of guitar "E" string with CA glue. It will need some more shaping, and I'm not going to add it to the build until everything is properly sealed, filled, primed and sanded.

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A couple bits of foam double-stick attach the underbarrel to a dowel for spraying with matte clearcoat to seal it. Of course, as soon as I started spraying on the second coat, the lacquer made the doublestick stop working! So I just placed it as shown in the paint booth and kept going. I put 4 light dusting coats on, and I'll let it sit until next week. Lastly, another view of the back after a bit more sanding, and the final pic shows the little block added to the front of the sight. I'll need to add another thin plate to its front, probably basswood, to flush it up with the front of the tailblock.

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Not too much left to go, really! I guess next week I'll lightly sand, then prime the underbarrel with gray, and then I'll finish carving the handgrips to custom-fit my hand. Still gotta figure out how to get nice checkering on the grips. Tune in next week! :)
 
Hey all, life's been complicated as always, and I've had to shift my shop time over to art and music production for a while. Hopefully I can get back to finish this thing before year-end.
 
I think your wood work is amazing and I'm still tuned in to see how this turns out when you get the time

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HIYA! Finally have a few more pics for you! Started painting a little bit, first the underbarrel and magazine base. I'm using the old faithful DupliColor Filler Primer because these things have a lot of dings and wood flaws. 3 coats with sanding in between, and they smoothed out very nicely.
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Also just said eff it and glued on the handgrips. I'll continue shaping them now that they're on the piece and I can hold it in my hand to tweak it.
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I realized I'd forgotten to add a thin plate that goes on the side of the underbarrel, so I printed out its outlines on paper, then cut them out of .015" sheet styrene. Had to cut out a few extras because of that very thin extended piece. Lastly, there it is on the part; I've since added a 4th coat of primer and it looks great.
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Wait, what's that *second* one there? Where did that come from?!

OMG I have 3D printers now... :D MUCH more to come, Spartans!
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Hey hey, got in some more time on this...

Patching in uneven spots with glued-on strips of wood and styrene, then filling other places with green spot putty:
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Glued on the trigger and safety levers!
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Cut the steel barrel tube bit and sprayed it with good ol' Tamiya gunmetal!
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Almost ready for the first full coat of primer. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, thank goodness.

And hey, if you want to see what else I've been up to, check out my Patreon. :)
 
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