$1200 DIY Gunsmithing machine

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  • indyblue

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    Indy Northside `O=o-
    I am a geek, so I read Geeky news sites. Might need to get one of these. Group buy anyone???

    This is sure to rile MDA & company.

    The $1,200 DIY Gunsmithing Machine - Slashdot

    "Ghost Gunner," a CNC mill designed to create the lower receiver of an AR-15 rifle
    The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home
    metal-gun-inline.jpg
     

    CathyInBlue

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    Ya ninjaed me by 23 minutes!

    I would hope the Ghost Gunner is not so application-specific as to disallow other uses. There are lots of metal machine parts on the scale of an AR-15 lower that it could mill. Most of them that I'm thinking of ATM are firearms, but hey, that's still pretty general purpose. The car resto shows on TV show entire rooms of machines that are dedicated to remanufacturing V-block internal combustion engines of all kinds.

    How about a simple, Open Source, arbitrary length, arbitrary caliber, arbitrary twist, arbitrary number of grooves, barrel rifling cutter?
     

    indyblue

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    Ya ninjaed me by 23 minutes!

    I would hope the Ghost Gunner is not so application-specific as to disallow other uses. There are lots of metal machine parts on the scale of an AR-15 lower that it could mill. Most of them that I'm thinking of ATM are firearms, but hey, that's still pretty general purpose. The car resto shows on TV show entire rooms of machines that are dedicated to remanufacturing V-block internal combustion engines of all kinds.

    How about a simple, Open Source, arbitrary length, arbitrary caliber, arbitrary twist, arbitrary number of grooves, barrel rifling cutter?

    In other words, a Star Trek replicator.
     

    1911ly

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    midget

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    You can actually get an LMS mill, and retrofit it for CNC for not a whole lot more. Personally, I would retrofit a full size mill rather than the limited use box.
     

    CountryBoy19

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    How about a simple, Open Source, arbitrary length, arbitrary caliber, arbitrary twist, arbitrary number of grooves, barrel rifling cutter?

    Barrel making is not done with traditional machining centers like this. Barrels are made with VERY specialized machines that are quite rare to find used, and very expensive/difficult to build your own new. This would not make barrels; realistically it won't even make a complete, functional firearm without lots of other specialized stuff. It is only for making the lower receiver to give the average joe the ability to finish 80% receivers. To do more outside of that you're going to have to have knowledge of machining, G-code, etc and do your own programming.
     

    1911ly

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    The biggest problem with this project is It is made for one project. It would be neater if it were able to be used as a general hobby milling machine. You can spent a few hundred dollars more on a small mill and have a universal tool.

    It's not really clear actually how much of the machining this thing does. I kind of doubt it does 100%. The processes to machine a 100% receiver are many. Cutting the buffer tower threads it a big task so is broaching the corners in the magwell. When the smoke clears I think you will find out that this thing is made to work with a 80% receivers and probably a proprietary one at that. Even the 80% jigs on the market are not totally universal between receivers. And the software is probably proprietary too. It's a cool ideal. I just don't see it as a total win win yet. YET!!

    FYI, I am not against this project. I am just looking at it from a practical stand point.
     

    japartridge

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    Bloomington
    You can actually get an LMS mill, and retrofit it for CNC for not a whole lot more. Personally, I would retrofit a full size mill rather than the limited use box.

    I'm very interested in this process... what model LMS mill would be recommended for an undertaking like this? As well as what components would be needed to retrofit a computer? I always have multiple computers laying about, so something like this would be ideal!
     

    midget

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    I'm very interested in this process... what model LMS mill would be recommended for an undertaking like this? As well as what components would be needed to retrofit a computer? I always have multiple computers laying about, so something like this would be ideal!
    Everything you need to know (I think)
    https://littlemachineshop.com/instructions/CNCHiTorqueMiniMill.pdf
    CNC Mini Mill Conversion Kit (Hardware) | MAKE
    New Machine Build LMS HiTorque Mini-Mill CNC Conversion
    CNC Fusion
     
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