Yet Another DLT-19 Build

[Allerg3n]

Crossposted from the MEPD Forums...

 

So having placed myself on the 8-month waitlist for ATA armor, I've decided to build a gun in the meantime.  As we all know with guns, bigger = better, so I opted for a DLT-19 scratch build.  I have never done this before, but reading a few threads on here and at whitearmor inspired me to start.  A huge thanks to gmrhodes13, as I'm following his build fairly closely.

Fair warning: I anticipate this build will take me several weeks/months, but I'll be sure to keep updating as I go.  Also, Wall 'o Text inbound...

###

For starters, I got templates for the MG-34 here.  This is the same resource that has been linked to in a few other threads, and it's a little more robust than the other template set I found from Blaster Builders.  To get the templates to an appropriate scale, I loaded the picture file in GIMP, changed the ruler to inches, and took a few measurements.  When I measured the total length of the gun at the image's default size, it was much longer than 48", so I rescaled the image until the gun length hit the magic 48" mark.  If you're doing this now, load the image and go to Image > Scale Image and set the width to 89 inches.  This will scale things appropriately.  Use the measuring tool to double check dimensions.

Because the dimensions of the image are still huge, I did what gmrhodes did, and created a new image file that was 8.5" x 11".  I then selected areas from the templates that would fit onto a standard sheet of paper, and printed them off section by section.  After rough-assembling the pieces, I was almost ready to build.

A note on the barrel: I looked around forever trying to find the actual barrel width so I could determine what size PVC pipe to buy for this gun.  The threads here and here helped narrow things down.  Long story short, the outside diameter for the main barrel is about 40mm or 1.57" (1 & 9/16"), and the outside diameter for the wider part of the barrel (near the receiver) is about 43mm or 1.70" (based on my printed templates, not the actual measurement someone did in a thread from a while ago).  For a quick and convenient chart that will take you from mm to decimal in to fractional in, check this out.

Now here's a catch - there are no Schedule 40 PVC pipes with an outer diameter of 40mm/1.70".  The closest you can get is 1 & 1/4" PVC pipe, which has an outer dimension of 1.66".  This is large enough to be the big end near the receiver, but a bit thick for the actual barrel part.  (I realize this is totally splitting hairs, but when I bought 1 & 1/4" PVC pipe and wrapped the barrel hole template around the pipe, it was too short.  Given that the other measurements were correct on the template, I figured there must be an error somewhere).  However, a 1" Sch 40 PVC pipe has an outside diameter that is more inaccurate (way too small) than the 1 & 1/4" pipe - so I stuck with 1 & 1/4" for the build, even though the outer diameter is a bit large.

Purchase list: 
One two-foot long PVC pipe - 1 & 1/4" inner diameter
Five couplers for said pipe
One bushing with octagonal end
Screws
3/4" thick pine board

Approximate total cost: ~ $20


I cut out the side templates from my paper versions and traced them on the pine board, and then cut out the resulting pieces with a jigsaw.  Results: (apologies for crappy cell phone camera quality)

Stock
This is very thick.  Should leave plenty of room for sanding though.


Main Receiver
For the main part of the gun, I cut out one center piece that had the handle included, and then cut two pieces for the left and right sides that only fit the top part of the receiver. I know the front part of this isn't as wide as it should be - I plan on carving out some curved pieces and using small dowel rods to fix them to the sides of the gun later.




Grips
I decided to fashion the grips out of wood with a little Dremel carving, so I traced two grips for the left and right sides of the gun.  The tops of the grips overlap with tabs on the receiver - this was deliberate.  My goal is to carve out the tabs and the tops of the grips using a Dremel to fit them into the receiver. The grips will also need to be sanded down significantly (they're very thick when you put all three together).  More to come when that happens.


Top
The top of the gun pictured here.  This creates a nice gap between the receiver and the top of the gun, which is where future electronics will go (along with inside the metal box, as in gmrhodes13's build).


Barrel
The mostly-fitted barrel shown here.  As you can see it matches my printed (to-scale) template pretty well.  It's a bit long but nothing that can't be shortened fairly quickly.  I have a little work to do on the front end (cutting the octagonal piece to fit, fitting the funnel part, etc.), but all in all it's coming along.  The barrel holes still don't line up perfectly, but I figure it will be easy enough to replicate the pattern with a drill press.


The pieces all arranged look like this:


The basic form is there.  Next it's on to gluing/sanding the stock, finishing the barrel fit, and screwing the receiver together.  I'm leaving the receiver in three pieces for now.  Eventually I want the build to include a translucent center barrel with LEDs that run the barrel length and animate when you press the trigger.  I may need to make room in the center receiver piece for electronics - we'll see.

Future challenges:

• How to attach the barrel to the receiver.  I neglected to make the front long enough to slip the PVC over a tab on the receiver's front.  I'm considering a few options, like using a bunch of small dowels to create a "plug" that fits onto the front of the receiver and slides into the PVC pipe.  However, any solution I come up with needs to accommodate a hole for running/connecting electronics.
      
• Which sound system to use.  I like skyone's Arduino idea, but I'd have to learn how to code the thing to do the blaster barrel lighting effect.  Alternatively there's Blaster Core, but that's $$$ and questionable availability.

That's it for now - sorry for the mega post.  I should have time this week to work on the project, but I have plenty of time before my armor arrives :-)

Cheers!

 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Looking great Josh.  I'll be following closely, as I hope to begin a build before the holidays!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looks like a good start, can't wait to see more

[Allerg3n]

OK - got some time to crank away this past weekend - time for an update!

I assembeld the main body and side pieces, and installed a 3/8" diameter metal rod through the body of the gun.


This metal rod serves as an attachment point for the barrel.  I glued two PVC couplers together and found a washer that was the inner diameter of the coupler.

A few more washers and a nut later, and I was able to connect the coupler to the gun.


Sanded the butt down into roughly its final form, and glued it to the body with a PVC ring as a coupler:


I had forgotten to make the center tab on the top of the receiver long enough to fit as a hinge.  So I borrowed a trick from Warmachine/Hordes assembly and used a metal pin and some Gorilla Glue to install a tab that will serve as a hinge point:

After that I used the blueprints to carve out the "wings" for the sides of the top piece.

I pinned, glued, and clamped them onto the top piece as well.

Sanded down pieces to use as grips until they were about 3/8" thick:

Still need to sand a bit more and actually fashion the "grip" part out of these, but that's a lot of detail work.

As it stands now (sans the top piece - not sure why I didn't have it in place when taking this picture):


Most of the work to be done on the gun now is in the details - sanding out the body where I need to and making cuts in right places, etc.  I also have some work to do on the barrel, but I need to buy a P-clamp or two to finish those.

In other news, my Arduino clone came yesterday and I successully got it working and running a simple 4-pin LED light.  I have about 1/3rd of the electronics I need - the rest should arrive from China in the next 2-3 weeks.  I'm hoping to have the body work pretty much done by then, so I can start building the feeder box and planning out how to wire the circuits.

Cheers mates!

[Allerg3n]

Updates!

 

It's been a busy month.  For starters, I got pretty much everything sanded down to the proper width.  I also installed the right side grip (used an old flashlight handle) and started installing hardware/greeblies.  For the most part this has been a mix of post screws and threaded rods that actually serve a purpose (like holding the thing together).

 

You can see the Arduino Nano knockoff in the pic above.  I fried the first one by not paying attention to my circuit and had to order a second (whoops).  On the bright side, I successfully wrote a program that lights up the barrel and creates a cool effect.

 

Here's a closeup of the handle/grips:

 

I sanded the grips down from 3/4" board so they're about 1/4" thick now.  I'll engrave details later with my Dremel.  It's not perfect, but my goal on this build is only "rough approximation", so with a little more work I think it'll do just fine.  I've also been making use of a lot of wood epoxy - in the pic above you can see where I had to epoxy my trigger guard back on after I accidentally snapped it off.

 

Here's a shot with the top in place - that took a lot of sanding (could still use more, probably):

 

I drilled wiring holes for the barrel lighting and worked it into my barrel attachment: 

 

And my major accomplishment so far: the track-mounted LED assembly: 

 

I used an old 2-liter soda bottle and cut sections of it out, hot glued them together, and glued posts onto it for the LED mounts. Using clear plastic helps spread the light around and you can't really see much even with the barrel full of holes (it'll have T-track in it anyway as well).

 

Here's closeup of the front assembly for the LED track:

 

All the LEDs are Adafuit Neopixels - at first I tried using the bare versions but they were crazy hard to solder with my big fat soldering gun.  Neopixels are easy to program for - Adafruit publishes the library - and crazy easy to install.  

 

All in all, things are really coming together.  I've been trying to work from the back of the gun forward in terms of adding details (there are lots!).  I have all the electronics to start programming sounds, but I think I'll hold of on that for a month or two so I can maximize the nice fall weather to work outside.  It gets dark early nowadays...

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good so far, can't wait to see it finished

[Allerg3n]

Thanks everyone for your support & comments - this is slowly but surely coming along as I get time in the evenings (and it's keeping me from playing too many video games, so there's that).  Here's what I've been up to:

 

Trigger:

I carved out two trigger pieces and sandwiched a micro momentary trigger switch between them.  Drilled the wire hole and verified it worked, then pulled it out of the gun - this will be one of the last pieces I glue in place.

 

Top:

I finally found furniture buttons to use on the top piece - got them at Hobby Lobby.  This piece is pretty much finished now.

 

Left side update:

 

Finished the left side handle and sanded the handle down to fit my grip pieces:

 

Added the (non-functional) flange on the bottom:

 

Carved out the side piece where the sight will be mounted.  The shaded area will eventually become the location of my on/off switch - I've got to carve it out and install a sliding switch, and inlay some material that will preserve the look of the release switch on the mg-34.

 

Right side update:

 

Installed metal "track" for the grip handle:

 

Carved out the side piece:

 

I was working on forming the metal box today - got something roughly cut out but the dimensions are a bit wonky.  I'm wondering how to attach it while still preserving my ability to pull the top up & open - if anyone has any thoughts I'd certainly welcome your advice.  Part of me wants to do a hinge, but I'm not quite sure where I'd hide it.  The other complication is that it will be stuffed with batteries, a speaker, and possibly even my arduino (if I can get it all to fit).

 

The other thing I've been wondering over - what have people used for the selector switch on the left side of the gun (above the trigger)?  I'd like to make that a functional piece to change the firing mode on the arduino, but I can't seem to find a switch like that anywhere...my thought for now is to carve/make something up to put in place there, and put a momentary switch underneath it.  It'd be a bit counter-intuitive because you'd have to press it in rather than turn the selector, but I'm not set on doing it that way either.

 

Cheers!

Edited November 12, 2013 by Allerg3n

[SorenM[TK]]

Wauw, just wauw:-)... Looking really good!

[Allerg3n]

More progress!

 

Sculpted more of the side:

 

Finished details on the side/bottom for the "rail":

 

Added the metal plate behind the top piece and the dividers in the feed section:

 

Added the ammo feed cover box:

 

 

Replaced the acorn nuts on the handle with pegs:

 

Here's a couple shots from the front:

 

 

I got my battery holder today - it almost fits into the ammo feed box (I need to do some slight trimming where I folded it on the bottom).  This weekend I'm going to try to get that fitted along with some fake switches/details on the left side of the gun and along the bottom.  Will probably try to drill the appropriate holes for my on/off switch as well.

 

 

Moving right along!

 

PS - if anyone is noticing things that are incorrect or small details I could correct, please feel free to point them out!  I'm going for "reasonably accurate" since I didn't order a kit that was molded from an original :-D

Edited November 23, 2013 by Allerg3n

[Opi Wan[TK]]

Verry good work till now!

[Allerg3n]

Quick update - it's been a while!

 

I finally got through the electronics hurdle I've been facing.  Basically I was having a problem with the Chinese MP3 player I ordered - it wouldn't play sounds from any of the SD chips I had.  After several weeks now of trial and error and ordering different SD chips, I finally found a combo that worked. 

 

I managed to fry my audio amp in the process but have another on order from China.  Should be here in the next week or two.

 

This is big news because I'll finally be able to stuff the electronics into the gun to test it out, once I get all this stuff together.  Most of the gun is sculpted and I have to do finishing details on the barrel as well as build the stand, but other than that I think I'm in good position to finish in early spring.  I need to get T-Track too but that's small potatoes.

 

In the meantime I did some more detail work...

 

Added the on/off switch to the side of the gun:

 

Added the bottom (non-functional) release switch:

 

 

Fitted the ammo feed cover for my Li-ion batteries (haven't purchased these yet - they're expensive!):

 

In between all this I've been working on my helmet - I will update that thread in the next week or two, as I've been slowly hand-painting all the decals on it.  French Blue MM enamel paint is on its way for the tube stripes.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Coming along nicely

[Allerg3n]

Electronics are working!   

 

Here's a Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/86566355

 

Now I can focus on doing more detail work to the body of the gun without having to worry about if this will all work in the end.  Nothing like a little win to keep one motivated!

 

Thanks again for your encouragement - I'm looking forward to pulling this whole thing together.  Batteries are on order and should arrive in 2 weeks, and in the meantime I'll be working on the barrel and other details.

 

Cheers mates!

[Toddo[TK]]

what a cool project.  Keep going!

[Griffin-X[TK]]

Nice work on this blaster!

[Allerg3n]

Tiny update inbound...Now that I have all my switches working, I wanted to figure out a way to mount the weapon selector switch on the gun.  I figured the safety selector would be a good place.  I know the original switch would slide up and down, but I rigged up a pushbutton alternative instead.

 

I carved the switch components out of spare balsa wood and glued a 1/8" magnet to the top of the switch.

 

Then I carved out a furniture button and drilled a hole for a second 1/8" magnet.  This way if the switch needs maintenance I can take the switch cap off to replace it.

 

A little glue got it all in place.  I did a little bit more detail work around the top edge but forgot to take pictures before I went to bed.  Will update with that later.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work

[Allerg3n]

Last night I incorporated some PVC connector pieces into the barrel components - just jamming them together and taking them apart was making them a bit too loose. 

 

Installed a 1/4" connection in the main barrel with some JB Weld PVC Putty.

 

Cut up the female connector for the larger end of the barrel

 

Doesn't look pretty, but works and the barrel is straight

[Allerg3n]

OK all, time for next round of updates... lots of little things accomplished.

 

First off, after installing threads in the barrel, I realized that I'd inadvertently made my barrel about 2" longer than it was before, *and* I'd messed up the spacing between the holes in the barrel.  Oops.  Off to the hardware store I went - $5 later and I had another PVC pipe and thread insert.  Went ahead and glued all that up, trimmed the barrel to the proper length, and now I just need to add new holes.

 

The gun now appropriately measures right about 48".  Here's the right side:

 

And the left side:

 

I also reshaped the right side a bit - brought the front back and put more of an indent in back.

 

Since my batteries should be arriving soon, I needed to make space for some of my electronics.  The metal feed cover is big enough to hold batteries, amp, speakers, and wire - but my Arduino and mp3 player had no place to go.  I started carving some room out in the feed section:

 

My Dremel was my friend :-)

 

 

 

 

None of this is actually wired yet, but with the lid closed you'll be able to see the chips inside.  I need to come up with a good way of anchoring them so they don't rattle around, and possibly a screen to cover them and the wiring from view.

I may create a shield that gives the appearance of a feed tray which also doubles as a screen for the electronics.  Will probably be one of the last things I do.

 

I cut a ring of PVC and used plumber's putty to sculpt the rest notch for the main sight (which I haven't built yet).  Glued that in place and also cut and glued a thin strip of metal which will sit at the bottom of the base of the barrel:

 

I probably need to screw this in for additional reinforcement (plus I believe the original had two screws installed here):

 

Anyway, lots of details.  Work continues down the barrel - will be drilling holes with my dad's drill press this weekend.  Progress!

 

Cheers mates!

[RuFiO]

Your project is already taking shape.

I too am starting on an eletronic blaster (E-11) while waiting for my armor. I have already ordered the majority of the parts. I hope I can actually assemble everything together. 

[Allerg3n]

OK - so I thought it would just be simpler to make a video showing where I'm at now and the lighting effects.  Here it is on Vimeo:

 

Here's a second one where I turned a light off so you can see a bit better:

 

Apologies for picture/audio quality - I was using a 2012 Nexus 7 to film this and the front-facing camera isn't all that great.

[beast05]

Want!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Allerg3n]

Updates!

 

Bought a new camera - it is a joy to use. Pics from now on will be taken using it, so hopefully quality should be much better.

 

On to the build!

 

Carved out the middle barrel sight with some scrap oak and fixed it to my PVC ring. Used JB Weld putty to form the rest of the ring. Lots of sanding - still some left to do on the surface of the sight.

 

 

 

Started sanding/crafting the tip of the barrel. My legs won't be removable, but I'm going to try to make them at least functional. I cut/sanded part of the PVC ring to match the gun as much as possible, but unfortunately the original gun is just a bit too narrow in some places.  I don't want to have to cut into the barrel underneath, so I'm leaving this for now. I also hand-filed the notches into the front section.  This is the top:

 

Here's the left side of that piece:

 

A look down the barrel...

 

 

I added a shield to cover the electronics and to imitate the feed cover tray. The mesh isn't canon but helps contain the wires and let sound through, and when it's all finished in black it shouldn't stick out too much.

 

Here are some of the condensed electronic guts of the gun. In this first shot, (looking top down) the Arduino is buried on the bottom left, and the mp3 board from China is oriented vertically on the right.

 

Here's the inside of the ammo feed cover box. Speaker amp, batteries, speakers.

 

Tried brushing up some of the sanding around my inlay.  Some examples:

 

Looks ugly, but feels really smooth.  Hoping it will look better when painted:

 

And one shot for funzies:

 

###

 

I found some angled shelf brackets at Lowe's that will make perfect legs. Need to assemble the attachment to fix them to the barrel.

 

After that, minor detail work. I need a sight for the very front of the barrel, a rear sight, a carved-out depression for the spent shell casings (as discussed earlier), and grooves in my grips and on the back of the butt.

 

Then t-track and wire.

 

Then on to painting!  Saw some cheap paint today and picked up white primer, silver undercoat, black top coat, and satin finish.  The end is in sight!

 

/also, if anyone would like me to take pics of a part of the gun with the new camera, just let me know. I can capture a lot more detail a lot more reliably now. 

[skyone]

wow great work! it is always awesome to watch a scratch build/work, in your case electronic included

 

can u tell us what batteries are u using in your project?

 

also i didnt see but i guess that u are using just one speaker, isn't it?

Edited April 23, 2014 by skyone

[Allerg3n]

Hey skyone,

 

Sorry for delay in replying! The batteries are Panasonic NCR18650B Protected Rechargeable 3400mAh 3.7V 18650 Lithium Batteries

I ordered them from FastTech.

 

I actually have two speakers in the ammo feed cover but they are wimpy 1.5W. I have to dial the volume on the Arduino down halfway or it blows the speakers out. I want to upgrade but there's not much room left for a bigger speaker.