New life for "backup mag"

[billybob_81067]

Well I had an old mag lying around that I assembled from leftover parts. It worked good and didn't look half bad, but it didn't look all that great either. I was thinking about trading it for some other gun or selling it, and now I'm sure glad I didn't, cause I put a little bit of work into it and now it rocks!

Here's what it looked like 3 days ago....



And after a few nights in the shop filing/drilling/polishing away here's what it looks like now.







All the parts that are on it in the "after" picture are the same parts that were on it before. I drilled quite a few holes to make it lighter and also make it look cooler. I drilled them in the trigger, the trigger guard, the back of the trigger frame, and in the drop forward. Next thing I did was add a trigger stop behind the trigger to adjust the over travel towards the back and also one above the trigger to adjust the forward travel. Then I took out a few of my old trusty files and started hacking away at that body rail and I.M.O. it turned out pretty darn good! I may have to do a bit more polishing to completely finish it, and I've yet to put any air hoses on it. WOOT!

[billybob_81067]

I'd say around 6-8 hours of late night shop fun

My next victim will be a spyder clone called a joker... MUAHAHAHAHA!

lol

Does anyone know anything about running hard lines from the vertical adapter to the valve? I've seen a few pictures of them, mainly on punisher customs website. Does he just use flare fittings or what?

[robertjuric]

dude....very nice. Was all that work done by hand(no machines), besides the drilling? If so, please go into greater depth about how you did it, sounds and looks very good, Id just like to get some more info.

[bleachit]

wow, maybe you found your self a new career. That looks great, I like what you did to the barrel. very nice.

[bleachit]

wow, maybe you found your self a new career. That looks great, I like what you did to the barrel. very nic.

[SI|ENT|3O|3]

how much would you charge to mill my body rail like that?
lmk.
-sebastian

[billybob_81067]

robertjuric, I filed the body rail down by hand using just a flat file, triangle file and a square file. I drilled and countersunk all the holes with the drill press, and I turned the barrel on our lathe and shortened it 3 inches.

Filing the rail was really the only thing done by hand and it took a little while to get started and figure out all the right angles to hold the file at but I eventually figured it all out! I used a triangle file for most of the work and then a flat file to smooth out the curve of the "teeth" and finally I used a square file to make the notches a bit wider.

bleachit, thanks man... I appreciate the compliments!

SI|ENT|3O|3, this was a one time thing that I just decided to try and I'm not going to go into production with this. It is actually really easy to do though and I'd suggest that you get an old scratched up body rail and try doing it yourself. And also, if you do try it, don't give up right away... when I first started filing away I thought to myself, "Ohhh crud, this is gonna look like complete poop and now I've got to buy myself a new body rail!"

LOL

Thanks for all the replies!

[robertjuric]

Sorry, this may be a stupid question, but what does it mean that you countersunk the holes?

BTW, what kind of barrel, was that?

[billybob_81067]

countersinking

I can't really think of words to describe countersinking so I figured it'd be easier to draw a picture...





Oh and the barrel was an ooooollld school mag barrel. Back before they had the crown point style barrels!

[robertjuric]

Ohh ok, I figured that, just wondering, very nice work man.

[the_next_guy_]

how much would you charge for a body rail like that?
great job

[billybob_81067]

Originally posted by the_next_guy_
how much would you charge for a body rail like that?
great job

this was a one time thing that I just decided to try for myself and I'm not going to go into production with it. It took too long to actually make it worth while to do for others at a cost. It is actually really easy to do though and I'd suggest that you get an old scratched up body rail off of the classefied forums and experiment with it. And also, if/when you do try it, don't give up right away... when I first started filing on mine it looked pretty bad and I thought I'd have to buy myself a new body rail!



All you need to do this yourself is a bench vise and a few files... a triangle file to make the notches, a flat file to smooth off the curves of the teeth, and a square file to widen the notches. Actually you could probably get away with using just a triangle file if that was all you had.

Also it is nice to have rubber jaw pads for your bench vise so it won't marr the body rail surface.

[the_next_guy_]

thanks, I think I have a new project...

[Carpecerevisi]

Holy dam...nice...very good work, especially hand work...conflatulations

[billybob_81067]

LOL!

Originally posted by Carpecerevisi
conflatulations

Lol. Thanks for the noises er... words of encouragement!!!