When I lent my services to a collegue who was working on a film about 12 years ago, I was introduced to the world of cnc. I remember watching this huge machining centre milling out a slab of mdf and turning it into a fantastic set of gears. I knew that it would have taken me hours to achieve the same thing with traditional power tools. I decided then that I would invest in a cnc router for my own business Oxenham Design. At that time I could turn on a computer, but even to check email seemed like a crazy set of operations. I persevered and learned every piece of relevant software I could get my hands on. I am now fortunate enough to be using Vectric's ASPIRE software, and Techno cnc routers, which has helped us to create some amazing projects, both in part, or in full. I thought that this blog would be a great place to share "behind the scenes" adventures with the software, materials and equipment we use, as well as the projects we build.

Tuesday 24 November 2015

Building a rifle!

Our work has all been computer files lately, so that means the cnc's aren't cutting any work files.
That also means I get to run MY files all day, Muu Haa-haa!
It's nice to cut my own crap, without having to "squeeze" it in around other router work!

So I have put them to use cutting stuff I need for filming my short film this weekend. This weekend will be just the intro to the film, the rest will be shot over the whole of next summer.

I decided I wanted our cowboy hitman to have a rifle on his back. He won't actually use it, it's just for show. My awesome wardrobe friends, Denise and Joe, will be building the rifle belt, and holster for it.
First up, I scoured the internet for a cool rifle, and settled on this one. Plus, our local gun store had a  remake of this one, so I was able to measure it up quickly!
The nice thing about this image, is I can follow the light reflection to find the center bulge point all the way down the rifle side.
Then I brought the image, scaled to size, into my 3d modeller, and built the rough form. The flat area around the chamber, I'll deal with in Aspire, as well as a few other things that are easier to do in that software.
With the small tweaks made, and the vectors all created, I mirrored the other side for machining.
I decided to double-side machine this from cedar. Not a traditional gun making material, but a VERY lightweight alternative. I don't want to weigh our cowboy down with a heavy one. That's the sole reason I'm actually making this gun, for weight reasons. The reason for double side machining both halves is  so I could have the cnc hog out all the openings for the trigger, hammer, etc.


I also had our small Techno cut all the little bits and pieces for the rest of the gun. These were a combination of PVC and styrene.
For the center section, instead of doing it from a separate piece, I just masked it off, and brushed on several coats of the high build primer, and I'll sand it in the morning.
8)
JWO





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