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Just out of curiousity, how does someone end up with an extra Doopy trigger? Build gone wrong and saved the remainder for spare parts? I just wanna know so maybe I can start having spare parts...

NICELY DONE! I like that vise too!

The recoil cup enters to back of the bolt when the small spring is compressed. On mine, 26mm or just over 1" is visible. Parallax error throws off the measurement in the picture...looking at it head on, the visible portion of the cup extends from 44mm to 70mm. The ruler is shifted to the right so it lays flat against the receiver - otherwise it would be hiked up on the end cap. The hole is like if you took a paper drinking cup and cut a hole in the bottom of it. The hole is about 1mm deep (thickness of the sheet metal). If I hold the cup up, I can look straight through the hole and out the end with the lip. Valparaiso is a nice place, but not very green right now (snow). We have new roundabouts all over the place and it's a university town, so there's a lot to do. We have an awesome mayor and he does lots of community projects, keeps the roads in excellent shape and has lots of festivals and musical events at the pavillion downtown. You can go to any number of restaurants within sight of the pavillion, have dinner outside and listen to a concert. One time, the city put pianos out on every corner. People would just stop and play...my wife LOVED that - I thought we were going to be downtown FOREVER that night. In the summer, I like to take my boat up to Lake Michigan and cruise to Chicago with friends (girls in bikinis!!!) and drinks. I like to say Valparaiso is "small town living with big city influence" (from Chicago).

OK, here we go...measurements with a Starrett caliper. Imperial measurements (metric in parathesis) as pictured. Total height: 1.305" (33.147mm) Lip diameter: 1.145" (29.083mm) Lip thickness: 0.142" (3.607mm) Cup outer diameter: 0.968" (24.587mm) Hole diameter: 0.730" (18.542mm) Bevel angle: 30 degrees

You're NOT kidding about the financial part...ESPECIALLY if you go all aluminum... I think the guy on Astromech bought a simple knurling tool on a certain auction site for $10.

I like sketches! Some of the best ideas start with them. It's a cup, but it has a hole in the bottom. No recess, at least not on any of the 3 I have. I checked all 3 because my E-11 was made from an EARLY Sterling, and the extractor is different (notched vs solid) from everyone else's. It'll be nice to finish my picture project so I don't have to tear down my E-11 anymore. It's naturally weathered now.

How about a large size coffee table book? I can neither confirm nor deny... I'll send you an email, Brian. Somebody should get a set of knurling tools made...those should work in steel or resin. It's just a diamond pattern. Getting the scale right would be the hard part. Somebody just bought some over on the Astromech site for making R2 leg parts.

For all practical purposes, it's a sheet metal cup. The smaller spring slides inside the cup. The larger spring slides over the outside of the cup. The beveled lip acts as a stop for the larger spring. When everything is assembled, you can only see the bottom of the cup peeking out from behind the bolt.

Already done, kinda... The muzzle is silver soldered into the receiver, so removal isn't easy. I'm in the process of COMPLETELY disassembling and cleaning a parts set. Still debating on whether to remove the muzzle or not...there's a lot of metal there and it will take an enormous amount of heat to separate. I managed to get the locking notch ring off yesterday with no distortion or damage...like brain surgery with an acetylene torch. I need at least two more arms and hands... Anyway, here are some shots inside the front end of a cleaned up receiver. You can see the block that's soldered in for the dovetail. The front of the inner barrel has flat areas which slide under the dovetail block. Lighting isn't the greatest, but at least you get the idea.

I had to go spelunking through Photobucket, but I found pictures of the bolt, spring, charging handle, recoil cup and recoil pin. Only the rear of the recoil cup is visible when assembled and compressed. You've done a good job of replicating it with your wooden part! Hmmm...I may use that first picture with another project I'm working on...

BTW, I just started another project that essentially "kills two birds with one stone"... Awhile back, you asked about the spring inside the end cap clip... Turns out, they made about the easiest thing they could make - just a strip of spring steel riveted to the clip. And it explains why there are TWO "bumps" on the top of the clip. Here's the cleanup and breakdown of a real Sterling clip: Sometimes, I feel guilty for posting tons of pictures in other people's threads, but I guess if it helps and adds to the collective knowledge... Aaron

RIDICULOUS!!! Brian, you're welcome in my shop ANYTIME. No apologies required for anything - You're the first person I'm aware of that has done the dovetail on a resin build and it looks INCREDIBLE! Anyone trying to replicate this mod will be hard pressed to top you. Awesome job with the hardware and pins! I can't BELIEVE you MANUALLY flared tubing ends!!! Talk about successfully accomplishing a difficult task! There's a tool for flaring tubing ends...usually used to fabricate automotive brake lines. The tack heads are brilliant. I've had all kinds of crazy stuff chucked in my drill - works great, like a mini-lathe. All in all, QUITE inspirational! The bar has been raised another notch!

Based on your story, I'm pretty sure the guys who built the cabinets in my house were drunk...

That's EXACTLY how I ended up buying mine...after my 4th attempt. Seriously, Brian, the sight block looks INCREDIBLE!!! It's going to look even better in a real dovetail! Cut the slot in the bottom, drill two holes, drop in your pin, add an allen screw and you're done!

I find it HILARIOUS in hindsight. After several sets of metal power cylinders, I'd literally find myself saying things like, "HOLY $#%@!!! That's a 1/2 mm off!!! When building regular things, people would think you're insane for maintaining tolerances to less than a millimeter... And Andy built over 50 perfect sets.

How about calling in a favor from Dennis? I see he's including that entire piece with run #3 of the conversion kits. You gave him a lot of advertisement...I didn't even know his kits existed until your posts. Wouldn't hurt to ask? Then you can hack of the resin and replace it with a real part...and Dennis gets more advertisement in a popular thread. Win-win!

SPECTACULAR!!! You're making those having trouble painting the traps and frown look bad! This is such an odd cultural mix, but I'd be immediately drawn to it for further investigation. LOL, and especially if the display includes models in lingerie! Probably some purists won't like it, but I think it's GREAT! Thanks for sharing your talents!!!

Good stuff here!!! I like the front sight, and especially the knurling, but it might look even better if you knocked it down just a little with some fine sandpaper. With the work you did on your front sight block and pin, it'll be difficult to tell this from the real thing! Great detail work on the mag well, counter and cylinders! It always amazes me when someone carves out all the little details with such precision!

Over 10,000 views!!! Nice GIF! I'm having a seizure now, but I like it! Congratulations, Tim!

For display purposes, I'd go for "spring" accuracy and use the coiled wire. For trooping, I'd go for the functional bolt. I wouldn't sweat how many coils are visible if you can find a functional spring that fits. Yeah, some people will criticize it, but do they have a functional bolt in their pipe build? Probably NOT. In my opinion, a functional bolt is way cooler than a static display piece. It's more fun because there's gadgets to play with. We know about "11 coils visible" because the base gun is a Sterling, but even with blu-ray, I don't think you can count coils in ANY screenshot. So, is 11 coils screen accurate or is it just speculation? Maybe E-11's had some coils removed to make room for laser electronics? Hehe, just realized I'm going to run into the same problem with my build...

Springs are made with "spring" steel. The metal is different than regular wire. It has a "memory". It would also be really difficult to bend into a spring shape because you have to bend it well past where you want it to end up. Gazmosis found a hardware store spring that's really close to the one you need. I think it was in his real folding stock build and may have included a part number. I'm pretty sure I found that spring the next time I was at the hardware store...if I can find it again, I can send it to you.

I gave this QUITE a bit of thought before applying any heat to my Gino tracks. ONE chance, or I was going to spend another $80 (this happened PRE-Roy)... That's WHY I made the little bending jig. In my mind (but I'm pretty warped to begin with) it goes something like this: After you heat the plastic, it's sort of in a "semi-solid" state, which means it's going to warp and buckle anywhere it doesn't have support. When you bend the track over the edge of a board or a table, you're stretching the vertical portion and COMPRESSING the horizontal portion. The plastic can't compress into itself, and it can't compress into the table, so it buckles UP. I'm trying to stretch the vertical portion while keeping the horizontal section flat. Hmmm...that gives me another idea...you could probably lay the track on the edge of the table, lay some of your leftover rail scraps on top of each side of the track, push those down with two fingers and bend the track over the edge with your other hand. The scraps prevent the plastic from compressing upward, the table prevents it from compressing downward and it can't compress into itself...it can only go towards the bend...the only downside is you MIGHT leave marks on the soft plastic. I'll have to try that. One other factor...temperature. I wanted the plastic to stay closer to a solid than a liquid so I could maintain more control. When heating the t-track, you should be spinning the track between your fingers to EVENLY heat it all the way around, while holding it an inch or two away from the tip. Concentrate the heat a little more on the vertical portion because that is WHERE you want most of the bending to happen. It takes awhile, but you can make as many attempts as you like. Do you think it's too hot? STOP. Let it cool down a few seconds. If you watch REALLY CLOSE, you can see the plastic expand ever so slightly once it starts getting hot enough. When you think it's ready, stick it in the jig and try the pulling/bending. If it's not hot enough, try again. A few of mine only made it to about 45 degrees before I couldn't bend them anymore. No problem, just pull it out and warm it up a little more, then try again. I only had very SLIGHT warpage on maybe one piece and that's because I think I got it too hot. Sorry Vern, but I honestly don't think putting the 'V' shape on the end first has ANYTHING to do with it. The plastic really doesn't care what shape it is when you bend it. In fact, if you get the plastic too hot, it just wants to relax wherever it can, which is why temperature is so important. NOT SO HOT! OK, so just to prove my theory to myself, I dug out my Marv track (nobody can claim "but Marv track is probably a different type of plastic than Roy's so it responds differently"). I also got out my trusty T-track jig (just a scrap of steel with a 1/2" hole drilled in it). "But Sterling holes are 7/16"" - Yes, they ARE, but we're not INSTALLING the tracks, we're BENDING them! I need the 1/2" hole to clear the untrimmed track. I used the method above to warm up the end of the track. When it was ready, I placed the end through the jig, grabbed that end with the fingers of my right hand and started bending CAREFULLY with my left hand. AT THE SAME TIME, I had my index finger on the little groove in the bottom applying outward pressure to prevent any warpage to the horizontal area. I was also pulling slightly with my right hand, just enough to balance the forces. When I was done bending, this is what it looked like. You can see I'm not even touching the jig with the majority of the track - only where the bend happened. You can also see the horizontal portion didn't warp at all. And closer inspection of the finished bend: NOW, you can do your trimming. Try it! It shouldn't be too tough to scrounge up a scrap of metal and drill a 1/2" hole! I said the process is soothing and relaxing and I believe it is. Trust me, I had that "crap my pants" moment too, but after the first couple of bends, I was like, awe shucks, this is EASY!!! Just take your time and be careful with the temperature. The whole process is MUCH harder to explain than it is to do. Maybe I should make a HOW-TO video? That would be "the HEAT"!!! Maybe when I get done working 12's on Friday... Aaron

Hehe, looks like I'm a little late to the party! Here's an updated photo: I definitely like the thinner rail better. Derrek is right; if you look closely, you can see I added washers under the socket head bolts with the thinner rail. The idea was to stop the rail if it started bowing. The rail didn't bow and my counter is touching the receiver tube, so that provides extra resistance against movement. I didn't like the "chunky" look of the regular socket head bolts, and especially not with the washers. In the end, I replaced those bolts with low-profile socket head bolts.

Exactly. Definitely the dawn of a new era in building replicas!

Pedro, I don't know if you're familiar with Shapeways - Google it! If you open a shop on Shapeways, people can view and purchase your products globally. Then Shapeways 3D prints the ordered products based on your material specifications. They handle everything from production to shipping to customer service. They charge a 3.5% payment processing fee and you get the profits! I'm sure LOTS of troopers would purchase your parts - they're super clean and look very accurate! I know I would. If you search the Shapeways website under Star Wars, you'll find all kinds of weapon and costume parts. Something to consider...it would save you a ton of time producing parts! Aaron