Live fire update: Scottjua has posted video of his live fire blaster at the range and it looked great, but he discovered that the firing forces were moving the DEC parts around causing damage to the real barrel and the bull barrel from the set screws digging through the metal. When I ordered my DEC parts I was worried about the weight of the steel parts causing the gun to malfunction, so I also bought an aluminum flash hider and barrel.
Scott came up with an ingenious way to lock everything in place so there'd be no chance of anything moving around. He threaded his barrel and made a new aluminum booster that threads onto the barrel locking the bull barrel firmly in place. I thought that sounded great and Scott very kindly offered to modify mine as well. Here's what he did:
Threaded the outside of the real barrel, which he said was NOT easy.
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Here are the aluminum parts laid out:
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The bluing didn't come out quite as well as it did on my steel parts because Aluminum Black is a pain to work with, but I think they still look pretty good. I did the bluing, not Scott. His work is top notch.
And here it is all together:
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The only other difference between this version and the one with steel parts is that I replaced the aluminum grill with one made from plastic. The aluminum one kept getting chipped and as much as I liked the worn look, it wasn't right. I cut apart three plastic Tomtit replica parts and glued them together. I haven't weathered it because I figure it will get beat up all on its own. I'm pretty happy wiith how it came out.
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Hopefully the lighter parts attached to the upper receiver will allow the gun to function properly. Time to take this thing to the range!