New Proto Slug Body PICS!!!!

[someVWkid]

VERY simple

"We would like to think that we will make a couple of simple but cool designs and this will be about half the production of these bodies. The other half would go out raw to be customized by others."

any chance of some of the regular verti-feed plain tubes with cocker threads? i would be very happy with that, maybe just enough meat to mill in something custom. im happy with the whole idea of plain alluminum bodies! thats all we really need considering the myriad of anodizing and milling options. personally i hate those overly milled thousand dollar guns. makes me wonder what these people plan on doing when they grow up. i dont wanna go spending $350 on just a body. this isnt turning into that silly other "auto" gun is it???

[canibus]

i like jt and sharleys designs best

[sniper1rfa]

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Actually I beg to differ. You were talking about 2 or 3 position milling done with a milling machine, while TOM seems to want to stick with lathe work and "milling" that could almost be accomplished with a hack saw and drill press.

bah, my rambling mind was trying to get the point across that the milling would be difficult. in my first post, i asked what he was using on them, knowing he used the lathes for the other stuff he does.
im just a very vague person when im writing. :-)

Just a question about the idea of using a lathe. I have had a little experience around lathes, since my dad owns one. Now, in taking away metal from a round object spinning around, it would take metal off everywhere, right?

Now, how would it work for the top to be milled in a telescoping fashion, because the same would then be applied to the bottom of the body, since it's spinning around and a round tube on a lathe has no up or down. If this is true, then the whole underside of any lathed bodies would need to be milled flat to lay flat against the rail. Even if it were a little taken off from around the front, it means that much is taken away from the contact surface of the bottom where it meets up with the rail.

most industrial lathes have active tooling. its basically a mill bit instead of your average lathe bit. they can stop the lathe and mill slots and drill holes and stuff. unfortunately, they generally arent very fast for milling purposes, as it is a lathe... :-)

as for the slot being too small, its not important if you dont take off too much, as it will still be big enough. :-)

[j.t.]

ok.... made it even more simple....

sorry about all the pics... but very few others are posting any

[RetroEclipseMan]

Well from the sound of it these bodies are going to end up being real basic then. I still love shartley's and if that can't even be done then what can? It looks like I'm just gonna get a plain slug and then go ahead and have it milled along the lines of my design.Also if you could clear this up Tom, is it for sure that the slugs are going to be released so that the valve is covered?

[Hexis]

Here is what I have in mind. The cut outs on the back are minimmag-ish. I have more plans for the vert asa/foregrip. I'm still drawing the rest of it. This is all just conceptial, but based on some machining requirements. However I'm sure Manike will come down on me (in a good way) for desiging damn hard parts to make.

[magnj]

Nice Jt. I still liek the flames but would be $. I would buy a raw one and send it in for milling

[aaron_mag]

Hexis....is that elongated bar off the end an integrated sight rail? If that design is inexpensive enough for approval with AGD a combination of yours and J.T.'s design would be awesome. Your design still accounts for an Angel Threaded feed tube right?

[Miscue]

Hexis... me likes!

Hey, I think there's enough material to make the body boxy... rather than round. Possible to work on something like this?

[Smoken]

Hexis' gets my vote. That looks very nice. I think it would still look cool even if the sightrail part of it was too expensive to do.

[AcemanPB]

What if you combined JT's and Hexis' designs! I really like both and I think if you incorpotated both into one design it would look really cool. But alas I have no photoshop on this computer , so does anyone want to try that?

[j.t.]

I would love to combine our two designs together but it would become far too complicated to mill. Our designs could be too complicated as they are now.

[Hexis]

Yes some sort of threaded feed tube. What's there now is basicly just a place holder. With just a plain hole it looked like you couldn't get enough of a spot to thread anything into.

Yes, the back is an intergrated sight rail.

Miscue, one of the details I want to add is a rounded top, but flat sides, with simple milled lines like what's there now. The outside would echo the main rail on at least a normal mag (all I have infront of me to play with). Though it would also look pretty nice with an RT rail.

I also have some simple ideas to tie in the vert ASA/foregrip. Gimme some more time to draw...

[einhander619]

difficult milling?

I'm not sure if anyone besides me has been wondering, but why would Hexis' and JT's designs be so hard to pull off on a mill? I mean, if something like milling a tube is this hard to do, how do the dragon timmies and c&c IR3s come out looking like that? Keep in mind I know nothing about milling, so a flame free answer would be appreciated. Oh yeah, cool designs, guys!

[manike]

Re: difficult milling?

Originally posted by einhander619
I mean, if something like milling a tube is this hard to do, how do the dragon timmies and c&c IR3s come out looking like that?

Because they take about 3 hours to mill a SFL intimidator, and the production cost to Bob for milling a Dragon intimidator must be several hundred dollars per unit, AFTER he has commited to quite a few units, and that's just for the milling. It also depends on the machines used. WDP have four axis mills which are costly.

Many of these designs could be achieved with 4 axis milling centres only, to get a decent and quick milling time. Last count only Adrenalin and WDP are companies in paintball that I know off who have such machines. Some other outsource to get such work done.

Some of the designs could be achieved with 3 axis mills which are much more commonly found but would be time intensive. Any design which wraps around the equivalent of over 180 degrees of tool movement is going to require 4 axis or multiple set ups. Both of which = cost.

If you want to achieve something which would not make the cost too high you are stuck with pretty simple 3 axis profile cuts. Think original Dark Angel. Many of these ideas, cool as they are, are more in line with the milling Adrenalin did on their angels... Some of the designs could be simplified to be 3 axis cuts but you may not get the desired result shown in such images and it also depends on how much wall thickness we have to play with here.

Since AGD do not have a 4 axis mill I'm guessing a lot of these designs are not going to be production sensible, but that doesn't mean they can't be used to show outside companies what could be done with such bodies. AGDE do have a fourth axis additionn for their mill, but to be able to do continuous four axis milling takes more than positional 4 axis milling, including much more complex software calculations and post processors.

Hey buy me a continuous 5 axis mill and I could cut any (almost) of these designs quickly. But that wouldn't make them cheap.

I wonder how big the market for such a product really is, and wether a simplified extreme body would not be a simpler and easier way to go? Without the modules, just straight feed etc. Much more to mill and the design work etc. Is already done. I don't know how retro fitable it would be but then it all depends on how much of the market you are really going to retro fit to...

It's still cool to see ideas though, they give inspiration for what may be possible. At this point it's early in the process and we are brain storming, so any ideas should be allowed just in case they spark off others. Later when we start to really worry about production we can simplify the choices and designs down. That's kinda how the DFMA process works (Design For Maufacturing and Assembly). First you have to get the ideas, then you work out feasability and how to make them

manike