Gunsmithing The stock work log jam....SOLVED

[LRI]

New machine on the floor Wednesday. Serviced/setup on Thursday. 5x new computer towers for ALL the machines delivered from New Egg on Friday afternoon. Saturday was a "geek orgy" putting them all together.

Monday, were making chips. Our new machine is a late 90's vintage 4 axis VF2. Sole purpose is stock work. Were fixtured up and running right now. New subplates and a new fixture to take advantage of the 4th axis is on its way from Minneapolis. HARDOX 400 plate that's been stress relieved and ground. Soon as it gets here (big sum buggers) we'll be ready to really kick this arse.

Sooo much nicer now that Tanner and I aren't fighting for spindle time on the machines.

Growth is awesome! Thank you again.

C.

New "NORAD" system for doodling programs.

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[Punisher29073]

Nice! A big machine with a big exhaust pipe. You know its all the rage now to matte black those pipes. Is that where all the chips shoot out?

Ryan

 

[LRI]

1st one off the machine. Not too chitty. Just had to sort out an alarm and shut off the programmable coolant feature in the parameters. No need to home it or use it on stocks.

 

[LRI]

Nice! A big machine with a big exhaust pipe. You know its all the rage now to matte black those pipes. Is that where all the chips shoot out?

Ryan

Yeps, a typical Haas chip conveyor, lol. Doesn't work for shit but that's ok. I have highschool slave labor.

 

[Gene Poole]

Is that title a sort of double entendre?

Looks like you're wasting a perfectly good 4th axis.

 

[LRI]

Is that title a sort of double entendre?

Looks like you're wasting a perfectly good 4th axis.

Oh, not to worry. This whole evolution is about 6 months in planning. Custom made sub plates to hang the 4th off of the X travel limit so I get the full work envelope. Soon as those arrive (stress relieved, surface ground, the works) from the tool shop in Minneapolis I can start on the fixturing and programming.

Moving this forward in this direction certainly the way to go, but the work load at the computer is going to fairly intensive. Few realize just how much effort goes into programming jobs like this so that they run fluid. The end game is to hand this off to an operator who can be trained to run these successfully and predictably.

Cool stuff to come...

 

[LRI]

Small sample. Old, outdated, but along the lines of where this is going.

 

[thejeep]

Nice dremel

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[LRI]

A recent build done on the new machine:

 

[LRI]

 

[MarinePMI]

Pretty sweet stuff....

 

[lash]

Man...!!

Beautiful work!

 

[Threadcutter308]

Hey Chad, beautiful work !

It looks like you are making Stocks as well (?). It's not obvious if you are, and the pics show what appears to be a Stock that has not previously been inletted. Maybe you are buying Stocks and receiving them "un-inletted" (?). I checked on your website and didn't see anything about Stocks.

 

[lash]

I'll let him answer the specifics, but I do know that he has said a number of times in the past that he brings in most stocks as flat-tops/ un-inletted as he prefers to control the whole process himself for better results.

 

[Threadcutter308]

Makes sense......particularly when you have a 4 axis CNC mill, have CMM capability and you're proficient @ G or M-Code.....

 

[LRI]

From day one LRI has always build guns on stocks with no inletting, no pads, no hardware whenever possible. The inlet process is something I'm very entrenched over. We'll fill the stock back up and start over.

I started doing this at Nesika in 2004. They liked it and gave me a very long leash to explore the process. When I went to Iraq to work the CAM software went with me and instead of video gaming myself to death at night I wrote code instead.

Then about 5 years ago I got a tutor/mentor and he really opened Pandora's box. That brings us to present day where every single action we run now starts as a fully rendered 3D CAD model generated in Solidworks. When a manufacturer will play nice I use their direct parent models. Not everyone has this or is willing to share it. (something I find annoying as hell because most are Remington clones....what's actually left to reinvent people?_lol)

It's progressed now to where now I can offer a direct 1:1 inlet. No bedding what so ever. Some may roll an eye at this. Proof is in the pudding and we have beta tested this via our dealers for the last several months. I know fully well just how bold a statement that is. I wouldn't make it if my deck wasn't stacked. I feel confident in saying that we can now offer it to the general public. It reduces costs on full builds and it greatly accelerates the process. Stocks come off the machine 100% turn key. We still paint them however. Just how we do stuff. All LRI full builds get finished. Gel coat to me is something you reserve for a boat. Not a gun.

Here's a GRS stock we did a few months ago.

That covers the action. Next are barrels, triggers, floor metals, DBM's, EFR's, Rails, cheek hardware, the whole thing. I have models for most all of them. I still write barrel channel code from scratch for every job. It's just quicker and it avoids mistakes. Barrels fluctuate in size and if we have to set one back for some reason and were stocking it later, it's just better to match up the barrel channel so that it presents well.

Now that we have more staff and spindle horsepower around here I have the time to continue the "virtual inventory" of this kind of stuff.

It doesn't take a 4X mill to do this work. Prior to the new machine it was all done on with just 3 axis's. For now that's still how were doing it. The new sub plates and fixtures are on a Rude shipping truck from Minneapolis as I type this. (BUSY weekend!)

Were gettin there. Slowly but surely.

Thank you for looking and the kind words.

 

[Threadcutter308]

Wow, I'm way beyond impressed. I see what you are doing and why. I am not sure I have ever run across anyone else in N. America that takes the same approach to inletting vs. inletted stocks like you have. I bet you're a complete pain in the ass when it comes down to dialing in the last thousandth of an inch on a barrel channel inlet ....

I've also seen some of your R700 overhauls on your website. Everything looked great and seemed to be reasonably priced.

Thanks again, that was a great "mini-tour" !

 

[LRI]

One example of an inlet. M700, LRI lug, LRI RV contour stick. Used on a client's piece a little while ago.

 

[yama]

Wow...just wow! I LOVE seeing this kind of work.Very impressed with LRI's expertise and especially attention to detail.

Mind blown

 

[LRI]

More porn that goes bang:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4K2ivbkfkQ


Then there's action work:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNy7SSYHWsc