Bulldog44

Coffe table book would be great! I would even settle for a PDF version as I do not own a coffee table due to space limitations in my Yoda-sized living space. I will read up more about knurling tools. I think I learn a new word every time I read one of your posts! Thanks. Having a tool made would probably be expensive but worth it if you really want the exact pattern. Don't get me started on astromechs! I would love to build one but that would spell certain financial death for me!

Yeah, on a pipe build this will not be as easy as carving one out on a Doopy receiver. Aaron's pics detail perfectly the original method and I think your idea of using the green stuff will work. The hard part will be to get it in place. I think Derrek said his muzzle can be modified to extend further into the receiver to sit directly under where the dovetail is. That would make it easier for sure. Or you can break out some aluminium and start cutting and filing away to recreate that part like a real Sterling!

Ian, The Doopy receiver is really thick the entire length,muzzle to end. The inner diameter is roughly 22 mm only, leaving a thick tube wall. I think I carved out about 6 mm in depth so far and I barely struck the inner black tubing Doopy uses to reinforce the receiver.

Definitely confirm that its hollow first. I could possibly been referring to a photo that is incorrect for a Sterling. You did such a great job forming that part, I would live in shame if I misguided you to make changes that could possibly be incorrect. If it is hollow or recessed, its a matter of do you really want to add that detail for your own satisfaction, since it is mostly hidden from view. As is, it looks like a real recoil cup when you have it in the chamber!

Damn Aaron, those are some beautiful photos of those parts. You ought to make a printed photo album titled "One Hundred Breathtaking Views of The British Sterling Sub Machine Gun". Thanks for posting these shots. Seeing the inside metal thats used for the sight block is freakin awesome. The pattern on the sight guard is so clear too. Maybe someday if you get a chance, try to make a impression copy of that pattern. Not sure if you read what I wrote to Ian, but I thought it would be cool to make some sort of impression stamp people can use to add the exact pattern into their sight guard. Or some sort of raised textured sticker that can be applied and painted over giving the same effect. All this talk of a new secret project is making me drool! Instead of asking,"What is thy making my Master?", I will wait for you to drop the bomb and show us when you are ready. I read before you said you bought two part sets , so you will have plenty of new tricks to pull out of your sleeve for quite some time! Popcorn ready. Good luck removing the muzzle if you try. "You've got the tools and the talent!"

Thanks Tino. You must be busy as hell but thanks for stopping by to comment. Your blaster is killer cool and rivets not needed. I am still having that feeling of wishing I tried something different all the time whenever I come across things. Save it for another build! Glad you like the sight pin. It's not a perfect replication but as close as I can do. Remember you got the whole sight block mod started so all compliments to you for opening my yes to the possibilities! Missed two chance to get the dovetail finished but hopefully tonight or Saturday it will be done. I will certainly posts pics when complete. I am interested too to see how it can be done on one of Derrek's pipes. Thanks again or your feedback and kind compliments.

http://i1281.photobucket.com/albums/a520/Bulldog44Japan/Sterling%20Sub%20Machine%20Gun/09427318-6d92-42db-b88e-b6f8626248d9_zpsb558b987.jpg Sorry Derrek. I meant to explain the wood part Ian created that holds to spring in place behind the bolt. Hope the photo link helps clear up what I am talking about. I need to go to a sterling SMG school to learn the official part names! Ian, check out the link/photo when you get a chance.

The smaller extended piece from the bolt looks good to me. If you want to double-check to be sure with how far it extends out of the bolt and the actual size of the piece, maybe someone can post those measurements for you. The rounded off edge looks spot on to the real part. Since its one of those partially hidden parts thats hard to get a full view of, having pinpoint measurement & placement is probably not relevant unless you feel you might loose sleep over it. As it sits in your mock up in the chamber, it looks cool. You could possible plate it with some thin aluminum sheeting for a metal finish instead of painting. Might be hard to maintain that nice rounded edge you created though. Just a suggestion. I could be wrong but There is one photo of that part I saw that shows it is like a pipe/ hollowed in the center. Maybe that could be a detail to add too. If it is indeed more like a pipe in shape rather than a solid piece, you can consider fabricating another one from some thick aluminum tubing or drill out the center of the one you made. You would have to know how thick the walls are first though. Sorry, I can't post pics from my ipad but will try in a bit from my wife's pc with the photo I am talking about. All these details you are adding make this the poster build for the DVH kit. It's going to look killer when its done!

Fantastic work Ian. The charging handle looks mighty strong the way you set in the bolt. This is going into my special memo for have-to-do things on my DVH kit. Great choice going with function over form. Having moving parts is always a plus! The spring looks awesome. Nice find! Your spring is certainly better than the one I have for making a functioning bolt. Seriously, i would never even notice there are too many coils at all if you didn't say anything. It looks the part. Going to comment on the bolt spacer part in a bit, I am being helmed to the dinner table! Sorry!

I second that! Glad you finally got your Doopy kit though. But certainly contact Derrek in the future if you plan on another resin build!

You need to be applauded for posting all the cool things & information you add to everyone's posts! This is another example of OMG!WOW! Seeing this end cap lock broken down into is raw components is more than I could have asked for. I hope you did not endanger your sterling at all by doing this. So cool to see how simple the mechanics of it really is. I am going to try an incorporate this into my lock if possible. Thanks a million!!!!!!! Thanks for your kind words. It was inevitable someone would try this and I am happy to be the test rat for it. Once Tino made that big step to make his own detailed sight block , then you posting the dovetail (mind blowing at the time for me!), then Ian making his recent detailed sight block, pushed the evolution for this to happen. Ian's clicking selector switch still has me itching to go that route too! Once you see it done, you can't help but to try it. I hope though other people try the dovetail and make it even better. That what makes this hobby so much fun. Gosh, I wish I had known there was a tool for flaring the tube ends. That was probably the biggest waste of time on this project to get the perfect flare for each side pin. Good grief! But thanks for letting me know! Putting that on my list of needed tools! Thanks a ton again for your help and humbling words. The bar cannot be raised without the help and advice of everyone contributing! So thanks to you all!

Appreciate your feedback Germain! I will keep those photos coming then for future work on this build! Thanks Ian. Capturing the fine details is the hardest part but the most fun. I am still amazed you made your sight block from one solid piece. That is by far a true example of taking it to the next level. The sight pin does screw in and can be adjusted. The two parts will snap off if I apply too much pressure though when turning. I don't think I will be needing to adjust it at all but thought it would be fun to have the option in case it sits too high or low . One of the underlying themes of my build is to keep things fixable or adjustable after its all finished. I am somewhat insecure about locking things down permanently since I am prone to making mistakes and often get second thoughts.

Ha! Thanks Derrek. I always fear adding too many photos can dilute the build too much with lots of the same thing and put people off from browsing through it all. Glad you like all the photos & updates. Cheers on the dovetail joint. Really looking forward to completing it. Definitely get working on yours when you get a chance inbetween your blaster kit sales then! Holding of my breath for one of those magic receiver tubes of yours to arrive at mupy door! It will be interesting to see how to add the dovetail joint to yours milled tubes. Thanks for your feedback!

Late to reply to this but sounds funny. You wouldn't want me building your cabinets either. It would take me 5 years to get anything finished!

Sorry lots of photos for these updates but hope it helps with understanding there details I am trying to capture. Laste update for today- The Dovetail!!!!!! Once down the path of creating the sight block as a separate part, the dovetail opening to house the sight block must be made. Got so involved in the initial cuts I forgot to take photos. Its not finished yet but almost there. I can't tell if this is at all correct since I am working from photos and never seen a real sterling in person. Please let me know if I screwed it up. You can kind of see the penciled lines I marked in a grid to gauge where and how deep to remove. Still needs to be filed down a bit deeper to slide in the sight block. The tools I used to carve the dovetail opening out with- Looking to finish fitting the sight block tonight or tomorrow. Slow and steady on this sucker! Feedback is always welcome. If there is any improvements I can make please let me know.

Front Sight Block- Sight- made from 2mm sheet aluminium. Cut an M4 size domed rivet shaft down the middle to seat the flat sight into & glued it. Then I cut off the rivet head on the bottom. Did some more filing to create the tapering effect on each side. Cut an M4 grub screw down in length to the measurements Aaron provided on his diagram. and glued the two parts together. Its not extremely strong but it seems to hold up even when its screwed into the sight block. I used the M4 grub screw because the M5 grub screw looked way too big. The top hole on the sight block would have to be bigger and I didn't want to take any chances. I used the same size M4 grub screw on the side hole. That also needed to be cut to down in half to fit in the hole. End result with everything installed; base block with the center line cut the entire length. And a photo of my big mess-

Folding Stock Wishbone Ends- Removed the resin fastener heads with my trusty Tamiya hobby saw. I wanted to keep these fairly intact to use as reference. Then drilled some holes for the new fasteners. I tried forming new fasteners with ball-head rivets but they just looked too meaty and domed. So I tried using 11 mm stainless steel tacs/pins. I used Tino's awesome idea to use my power drill to spin the tac and simply file it down on the sides, reducing the head to about 9 mm. Then I carefully filed down the domed heads to a flatter profile like the Sterling stock has. Again, not perfect but decent enough. These tac heads will be more or less decorative. I am thinking of using some tubing to attach the wishbone ends to the bottom of the receiver. Figure that out later. Here is a side profile of the tac (foreground) and the domed rivet. *(and also a tac destroyed by aggressive filing.

I agree. This will probably not be ideal since it will require each pattern pressed to match the one next to it. I am trying to think of another way to replicate this. Perhaps getting an impression copy of a real sterling sight guard pattern and then making a master mold much like a dentist does for teeth. Then maybe some sort of stamp can be made. Another idea would be similar by getting the texture captured in some sort of raised printed sticker, or film sheet. Just peel, apply the pattern, trim to shape on the guard and paint over it.

I wanted to replace the small hardware details on the folding stock with metal pieces that looked more like the real hardware. I spent a ridiculous amount of time making & testing different little rivets. Nothing I bought worked or looked correct so I went with Aaron's idea and create them from aluminium tubing. Getting it to look close to the real parts was not easy and can't say I achieved my goal 100% but it looks much better than melted blobs & indents of resin. Here are some parts I had little success with. I had to cut the tubing, widen the diameter on one end (this is hard o explain how I did it), then gently hammering that end face down on a metal anvil to get the ends of the tube to roll back & give that rivet look effect. Then some sanding to polish it up a bit. I had to make about 20 of these to get the right sizes I wanted. Lots of swearing and hair pulling. I know these are not hollowed out in the middle so I will fill the centers in with some epoxy and sand to create the cup-like shape. On the stock handle, seen below, I first sanded down the raised resin rivets on both sides, then I drilled all the way through from the center point of where the resin rivets were located and inserted a piece of aluminium tubing the length of the hole. The reverse side of the new rivets fit snug into the tubing for a secure fit. I will glue this all later on for safe measure. Last, I lightly hammered them to get them as flush as possible to the washer without cracking the resin underneath. They do protrude a bit too much but I will leave them as they are. (For the stock handle connecting hardware, I used the same homemade rivets and an M3 size washer. I had to file out the inner hole of the washers to get the rivets to fit.)

Thanks Tino. Great to finally jump back into the build. Ian, nothing serious on the health but just continuously catching colds and the flu (even I had the shot). At least thats all I hope! Just got work through it I guess. -You had me thinking after your search for the imprinted pattern on the sight guard and I found this in the tool box; screw on part for a bike valve. It has a nice pattern that looks like it might work. Wish it was a bit wider but I will test to see what I can do with it.

Thanks Ian, always great to have feedback on the build. It feels good to finally get back into things. Been having a rough season straying healthy. Finding self sick more often that not. Sounded like a good learning experience taking that cabinet course. Kinda sounds like the scrutiny NASA puts all their projects through. Good thing this is just a hobby! Let me know how your hunt for that spring goes. Got mine ready to ship to you tomorrow if needed)

Yeah, it makes me want to just go and buy the darn thing. No matter how careful I try to be, I manage to screw things up enough to want to start all over. The front front sight block was one of those parts. The one I am going with is the 4th attempt. Not entirely happy with it but this build needs to move ahead.

Photo Updates to this build to come tomorrow when I get my photos taken and uploaded. I was wondering if someone can tell me the mechanics for the end cap lock. Is it a spring hidden inside someone? If so what kind of spring? Or is it some kind os flexible metal bad sort of like in a battery case ? Here are just 2 shots i took of the front sight block after gluing the two parts together and some details added. I did eventually finish the front sight block and the sight itself. Also dug in deep and attempted the dovetail section. Needs a bit more filing to fit the sight block and some fine tuning. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the process, got too consumed just making the cuts and sanding. My sight block is slightly off from the exact measurements Aaron so kindly provided in his sight block diagram. Aaron, I totally know what you mean now when you say that working with small scale items is difficult . Just a millimeter too big or small and things look way off. Also found this spring that somewhat fits the Doopy receiver. A tiny bit loose, not a snug fit (22 mm diameter). Too short unfortunately ( 105 mm). I can try giving it a stretch to add length but might just leave it as is. Thats all for now!

That is a great story! Thanks for posting!

Wow, that scope rail is a perfect fit. What did you use to make the cuts for the front end? Very clean work!