Posted on 11/21/2012 8:30:52 AM PST by marktwain
SAN DIEGO - A long line of people snaked out of a North County machine shop on a recent Sunday. The customers were there to build a gun.
Customers do not get to the machine shop until after they are checked out by Ares Armor in Oceanside. Team 10 promised not to reveal the location of the actual machine shop.
Dmitri Harris runs the Ares Armor store, along with his buddies, some Marine Corps infantry veterans. The shop is busy because more people are finding out about the chance to build your own gun without having to go through any registration or government signups of any kind.
It is possible because of the Gun Control Act of 1968. It reads, "an unlicensed individual may make a firearm," but also says it has to be for personal use and cannot be for sale or distribution.
Harris warns that not everyone can build their own gun. Non U.S. citizens, felons or anyone disqualified from gun ownership cannot participate.
Read more about the 1968 law and information from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that clear up any ambiguities here, here and here. Additionally, you can read letters from the ATF here and here.
Team 10 purchased a piece of aluminum and watched as it was turned into a receiver for an AR-15. It can take four or five hours to do this, depending on how busy the shop is. Inside that machine shop is a computer-controlled milling machine that cuts out the aluminum.
(Excerpt) Read more at 10news.com ...
I’m sure there is. I seriously doubt if the legality regarding the ‘for personal use’ exception will be looked upon as freely as we would like if ATF or other alphabet agency decides to take a gander at what is going on.
Of course, it doesn’t matter with all of the tragic canoeing incidents happening. Everyone seems to always lose guns in those.
Certainly an interesting article, but why go through the trouble of setting up a machine shop when all the ammo, guns and armaments you’ll ever need are sitting there for the taking?
Come on, guys. Do you really believe that the forecasters at the National Weather Service will be shooting cop-killer bullets out their arses and hitting targets at 500 meters?
Been there, done that.
“Mr. Single Shot’s Book of Rifle Plans — designed for the serious gunbuilding enthusiast. Included are detailed instructions on how to build four unique breech loading single shot rifles, from metal stock to a finished rifle.”
Already own that book.... and many more.
I think the first one I make from scratch will be a 1878 Borchardt or a 1885 High Wall.
What I’d like to find is the right sized shaper to do the interior corners and outside flats. Shapers leave a nice, clean surface finish from their cut, unlike mill cuts.
It’s a wonderful place and the guys who own it are extremely nice and helpful!
I ground a shaper cutter to cut the block mortise on a falling block I made. The shop had an old shaper but it was too worn out and used up, so I held the tool in a Bridgeport, locked the spindle, and used the quill to shove it down to clean out the corners and smooth the walls. It worked, but it isn’t for high production.
The outside mill cuts were easy enough to clean up with filing and sanding and polishing.
de Haas gets around the whole mortise with his vault locks and chicopees using round holes or flat plates. Both work, I have discovered.
Yep, and I’ve done something similar by mounting a cutter on a bar between centers on a lathe, putting the hollow piece on the cross-slide and moving the carriage back and forth. It’s amazing what one can accomplish without the “perfect” tool when one puts one’s mind to it... but as you say, it won’t make for production.
I’ve looked closely at de Haas’ designs and I’m going to try one of them, then try some ideas I have on how to alter them. The certainly work, it’s just that they don’t “look right,” and I’m at that point in gun work where I like nice looking guns...
This book has everything you need to know:
After Hurricane Katrina, everyone should have a copy on hand.
P4L
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