The Expanse - MCRN pistol - Machined aluminium kits, WIP thread

[eethan]

Hey there,

I love the Expanse! and lately, I have been asked by someone if I could machine the cylinder that goes on top of the MCRN pistol slide. I made a 3D model based on the super clear Propstore photos and machined the aluminium cilinder. But I also want to challenge myself a bit with the whole thing in aluminium.

I have already discussed this a bit in the global Expanse prop thread, but I don't want to derail it too much with my build, so I'm opening my own thread to show my progress. This will of course then go into an interest thread in the correct forum catergory and I'll make those for the people that need them

here are some images of the 3D model, matched to the propstore refs:

please don't mind the black grill part, it should go inside a recess on the cylinder, it's just not modeled as it is a machining 3D model, not for printing. It will be recessed on the final parts of course

the first cylinder prototype, photos are not great, and I have actually made a second better one now that I have figured out the machining well

Today I received a large aluminium order, and the correct size aluminium I need for the slide milled part.
The issue is, I needed somethign slightly over a 1" square. So I ordered a 25mmx60m rectangle stock. The thing is that I didn't really think about how long the part needed to be and that it would be problematic to cut that along the length on my small saw... but that was too late.

so, this morning, I tried to figure that out, cut the 23.5cm length I needed, then attached it vertically in my saw and went carefully to see how it would go.

so, this is a bit weird to do, and I had to do it in two steps, but it worked, and then you get material for two pistols, so it's not too bad.

I'll try to show more soon. i'm working 3 projects simultaneously right now, so it's not going to be lighting quick.
cheers all

 

[RandomMaker]

Good you were able to split that bar stock to get two pieces from it... Also nice that your saw handles that well. I keep thinking about getting a table saw setup similar to that for my portable bandsaw, but I can't imagine it being that accurate!

 

[Loneken]

Really cool! Will you be doing a run or is it a personal project?

 

[eethan]

Good you were able to split that bar stock to get two pieces from it... Also nice that your saw handles that well. I keep thinking about getting a table saw setup similar to that for my portable bandsaw, but I can't imagine it being that accurate!

Thank you.
I initially wanted to buy a big automatic saw, but had to abandon the idea because it was big and 100kg, I don't have the room in my small workshop and I was worried about the old floor there as it's on the second floor of an old building.
This is a more portable german saw, it has a good reputation, however it's already 900€ for a relatively small tool.

 

[eethan]

Really cool! Will you be doing a run or is it a personal project?

I'm mainly doing this to help if people want those, and I know the interest will be very limited, but yes, this will be a small run for people that want those.
Cheers

 

[eethan]

I am trying to work on this a bit today.
There was a lot of figuring out to do because that part is so long and needs to be drilled through!
my mill doesn't have enough height clearance, no matter what I try. My column drill I basically only use as a polishing station since I have the mill. I wouldn't trust it for a 12cm deep, 16mm diameter hole on a 23.5cm long piece of aluminium...
so... I tried to figure out something with the lathe! don't worry, it's safe. Especially for drilling at low speeds.

I first had to put the pieces in the mill and square off and clean both ends so the part would sit perfectly straight in the lathe.

not the cleanest machining result as the parts are almost 30mm high in one pass. But there will only be 4mm of that height left on the final parts and a bit of sanding will do wonders too.

so... it's a bit complex. I have spent 1h on this this morning. That is the most technical part, they must have had a huge CNC machine to do this part for sure. So it's a bit more complex for me.

Anyways. I was doing the 16mm large hole side but, looking at my 3D matched renders above, I caught just in time that the tube on the barrel end was a bit too small on my model. I made the model largely from the side view, and I underestimated the barrel diameter because it goes a bit inside the milled part in the bottom and the tip is hidden by the red thingy. The fact my part is too skinny is visible on my front/top view render from before though.
So I increased the size and worked a bit more on my perspective match to show that it works now
Just in time!

cheers

 

[eethan]

fun facts, for this damn part, I actually cut the end of both my 16mm drill bit AND of my actual drill chuck for the lathe as well. All this because the part is so long and I need a long enough drill bit to drill 12cm, so my lathe is a bit small here as well.
I wanted to cut that drill chuck for a long time, the morse cone was a bit too long and I was loosing more than 1cm of drilling depth on the tail stock of the lathe because of it.

 

[eethan]

So, I have finished the holes on both sides and milled the part to specs.
well, the holes are really problematic, they take very long to make... I need to figure out something if I do more.

 

[RandomMaker]

Thanks for sharing those posts. I do a fair amount of playing around with metal working (and blacksmithing) but do very little of what I would consider machining. It's an option I wish I had, but it's just too much time/money/space for me to add another specialty to my generalist shop. My grandfather was a machinist though and had a wonderful lathe and basement shop, so I have always loved this sort of thing.

 

[EvanW]

Excellent work! Definitely interested in getting this for my WE conversion! Please put me down for a set

Thanks!

 

[PicasoX]

Your MCRN Pistol could beat up my MCRN Pistol.

I'm interested in a run if you have an interest list please add me,

 

[RandomMaker]

Your MCRN Pistol could beat up my MCRN Pistol.

I'm interested in a run if you have an interest list please add me,

Hey, for the upper (Glock) pistol, did you fabricate the little box thing on the accessory rail, or find something off the shelf? I need something like that for mine, but I think something slimmer.

 

[eethan]

Hey guys, sorry, no progress this last few days, I have other prioritary projects to attend to.
Thank you for the kind words, please don't post interest here as it is only a WIP thread, I will post an interest thread once everything has been prototyped.
cheers

 

[PicasoX]

Your MCRN Pistol could beat up my MCRN Pistol.

I'm interested in a run if you have an interest list please add me,

Joatrash made it for me, He was also working on a MCRN pistol, which i didn't get because I have one, although his is way nicer than mine.

 

[eethan]

Hi there,
sorry for the lack of progress last month, I was too busy and decided to finish the prioritary projects first instead of working on 3 projects at the same time! so, the two main projects are now finished and I am back on this today.

Good news and bad news, I made quite a bit of progress and the machining is not as overwhelming as I feared with my very complex plan and all the opperations to do.
However, and this is the bad news, I made a mistake reading my plan and forgot to add up two numbers when tracing, and my part is now wrong... So that is a bit more than a day of prototyping through the window! damnit!!!

I cursed for a few minutes in the workshop, and then I started drilling the second piece of aluminium I cut last time... I made a better job of drilling the second part this time, half the time more or less. Still very difficult and time consuming, but it wasn't as crazy this time.

alright, so not a great come back to this project today, however, if we ignore that I made a wrong measurement on that part, i'm very happy with the machining I made and I think that part is doable.
It just requires super focus while machining as I basically have to do the job of a CNC by hand. So the fear of making a wrong move and wasting another 5 or so hours again in the future is big, but I won't make the same mistake again. I have corrected my plan, and will be more carefull of the way I trace the measurements on the part next time.

I hope I have better progress to show tomorrow then, but that will be basically the same work all over again.

in the meantime, here is the wasted part, at least you can check out the machining and see we are on a good path I think

cheers all

 

[eethan]

Hi,

alright, so I took my new drilled square stock part and started over!
I went old school extra safe this time and marked everything carefully.

first ops with a 20mm end mill:

then second pass with the 8mm end mill, exactly like they did with remnants of the 20mm end mill in the corners:

and I started on the other side with all the 20mm end mill op done.

so, this is going forward nicely.
This is clearly a difficult and very time consuming part to do, but it seems doable I just need to be super focused and meticulous.
I hope to show good progress tomorrow too!
cheers

 

[Griefboy]

This is amazing! I'm all in if you decide to do a small run. Now finding a WE X IPSC... that's going to be a problem.

-G

 

[eethan]

Alright, more progress
I finished the second side, then I started milling the big windows/cuttouts. This is a bit less fun because the part is starting to be lighter, difficult to put in the vice and it starts to vibrate, and we need to remove a lot of material still.

then i milled the flat spots from the top of the part:

at this point, I think I did a bit too many hours today, especially for a prototype and I should have stopped a bit before.
I switched to the smaller end mill to finish the shape of the cuttouts, I had a first issue where the whole piece vibrated and the end mill took the whole height of the material in one go a bit strongly. I think this will clean up as it was not the final pass, but not fun.
and then, 15-20min later, I was finishing up and ran the end mill into the vice while it was stopping.
I also needed to help my wife with the Donkeys, so I just turned everything off and closed the workshop.
But I think my end mill is probably dead now...

The milling on this project is only made with 3 different cutting tools.

and we can say RIP to the small one in the middle...

Anyways, I will finish this prototype tomorrow, but again, very difficult part, I'm willing to do it for more people as I like the challenge, but I'm not sure the price will be ok for people even though the part will definitely be very cool.
we'll see
cheers

 

[eethan]

hey there,
so, yeah, I completely destroyed my end mill, damn it! the vice just has an extra battle scar, but the end mill is done for good...

anyways, took another end mill and got back to work. almost done with the last steps, at 45°

 

[eethan]

Alright, I finished the machining,
milled the bottom, first 16mm flat end mill, then 6mm curved end mill:

then, added recesses for the details on the pistol:

it fits

and quick assembly. I removed the back sight from the inside. The screw holds a small mecanism inside, so you need to be carefull. I drilled a corresponding hole on my machined slide so you can screw it back on the new part instead of the back sight. And that works well. For now, I have only attached the part with that single M2.5 screw. But it works well already, even the slide is still fonctional

quick assembly with the back cylinder, not at the correct position yet. but, looking pretty cool

alright, that's it for today.
I'm super happy I managed to make this work, it was definitely a challenge and the most difficult and time consuming part I ever made. Better be really concentrated when machining if you don't want to throw away a lot of hours of work. 11.5h to be correct...
so, I didn't expect that long to be honest and that is really going to question the feasability of the run price wise, but I hope some people will be interested.

What is for sure, it is reaaally cool, it is made exactly like the original with the same machining idiosyncrasies and it's fully metal but this will all have a cost I'm afraid.

I hope you like it
cheers all