Chopped up Sterling project = E-11 Blaster

[kev011]

Because I could never afford this, I'm making my own

 

After I signed on and posted up that I've been planning and plotting to change up a heap of metal bits to be a blaster, I was asked for a few pics, so I thought I'd start a tread. Hopefully this is helpful to folks hoping to do the same as many of the threads were for me.

 

Everyone has their own set of skills, abilities and tools to make a build happen. I have a pretty modest set of all of the above mentioned. So working with what I have and calling in a few favors from friends with better set-ups than myself, I set off with the goal for a fairly generic build. I see a lot of folks getting very specific in their builds even mimicking specific troopers/heros weapons. Mine will not be that "intense".

 

 

 

Starting with all the cut up bits, I placed them together out of the box to get a sense of how big this thing is. First impression is that it was much smaller than I thought it would be. Funny how the big screen plays tricks on us. Basically I had everything minus the receiver tube that I would need. Thankfully there seems to be a lot of templates out there. 

 

What I realized after studying many of these templates is that they were really designed to be used on PVC pipe and only mimic the general approximation of hole locations and such and didn't completely work for me, but it was a great start all the same. Between the one set of prints for an E-11 blaster and another set from an airsoft Sterling mod and my own careful measuring, I put together my own set of templates to work from, and to date, it seems pretty good.

 

First up, I needed to clean up all the bits. There was a heavy coat of oil on all the metal parts and old paint as well which needed to go. I took these parts and left them overnight in a 1 gallon bucket of carb cleaner.

 

 

After soaking and wiping down with a paper towel, resting on some cardboard, I had relatively "clean" parts to look at and handle. For the larger parts that wouldn't fit in the bucket, I used some airplane stripper and finished with a wire wheel on my 4.5" grinder.

 

 

on to the next part of setting up

Edited December 18, 2014 by kev011

[kev011]

I found on another website for people rebuilding sterlings the specs on the actual receiver tube. 

 

1.5" x 0.058" X 1.384" Alloy Steel tube. (4130, Chrome Moly to be specific)

 

This is the proper fit for both the OD and ID so all the bits fit. I ordered a 3' piece  as I knew this would only be 18" in length, I would have a spare if I messed up. The reason why you want to use this particular tubing is it's drawn, which means it doesn't have a bead weld on either side of the tube and it's also exact dimensions.  If you look online you can find suppliers pretty easy.

 

After I got the tube and cleaned it with rubbing alcohol, I printed out my own concoction of holes to drill and glued it to the tube. I'll post my layout later as I'm still tweaking it and don't want to put up misguided directions that someone will follow. 

 

Next up was how to drill top dead center on my little drill press.

 

 

 

There are tools out there that you can purchase that have a 90º angle to them to let a cylinder shape next nicely on the work surface. I elected to just make my own out of scrap steel I have sitting around. I took two pieces of angle and tacked them to a steel base plate and drilled holes for bolts to mount them to the table. This worked great! Because some of the holes are out towards the end of the tube I needed something to help stabilize the end of the tube. I had a hole cutter that was slightly larger than the 1.5" OD of my tube and used a scrap piece of wood I mounted to my table to help guide me.

 

 

Because of the nature of the way the 90º holds the tube, as long as your bit is centered on the bottom of the V, it's going to drill top dead center. Although I used a center punch on many of the holes, I actually found it easier to drill if I didn't premark the holes like that, for the most part.

 

I started with a bunch of 3/32" pilot holes across the board and then stepped them up to the sizes I needed, slowly. 

 

 

For the larger areas I used a dremel tool with a cut off wheel to get the generic shape and then I spent forever filing to final sizes.

 

Next up: torching.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2014 by kev011

[kev011]

After getting the majority of holes to shape and taking a lot of measurements off the original parts, I contacted a friend of mine who's family runs a welding shop about silver brazing/soldering. He told me about the process of how these bits are attached and also informed me that my Mapp Gas and propane torch wouldn't get the parts hot enough to take them off. Thankfully he offered up his oxy acetylene torch to help me out!

 

 

 

I wish I had more pics, but I don't. This was a two man operation which I was on stand by to grab the pieces off with tongs. Most bits came out fairly easy…. but then I learned some lessons that I should share:

 

The barrel tip is silver soldered on, but I didn't know about the registration pins in the tube that held it in place. I also didn't know that the end of that tube is curled over to shape it to the barrel. Knowing now, I would have cut that tube close to the end of the barrel and tried to weld it in place rather than bash things up trying to get them out. The other part is on the opposite end. The butt cap which has a sleeved piece with the grooves in it to hold the cap on didn't want to move. So when we got a little more aggressive with it, that sleeve was destroyed. Again, I wish I would have cut it off and just welded it to the end of my tube. Live and learn.

 

 

All the pieces that came off still had some silver solder on them which needs to be removed for the best reapplication. In this photo you can see this brassy like color on the edges, that's what needs to be removed. I tried sandblasting it off and it really didn't do much other than help me see where it still was vs the base metal. In the end about a day was spent carefully trying to file away all the resident solder. What I also learned is many of these bits have registration pins on them which need to be drilled in the tube as well. So I headed  back and forth between my work area and my computer to update the template as I went along.

 

 

I recommend cutting and filing modestly at first, leaving fat edges. This piece that takes the mag receiver to the tube will have a very low clearance between the two pieces and the fit is pretty darn tight. 

 

 

I've seen a few variations to the bayonet plug. Some builds seem to have a square hole in their tube while others are rounded. Mine was an oval which I had to carefully grind into shape.

 

 

At this point you're probably wondering why I haven't drilled out all the venting holes in the tube. Well, I don't see a point in drilling out holes that you just end up covering up in the end, but that's me. I'd also like to save myself the time and lastly have as much surface area to glue or attach the T-track to the receiver. Make sense?

 

 

Now, onto the harder holes to cut.

 

Edited December 18, 2014 by kev011

[kev011]

I left off on the gun site.

 

 

 

This seemed to take me a long time to carefully file in the dovetail shape to fit the site. If you aren't concerned about getting it right, I don't bother! It's pretty time consuming and you'll need a few different shaped files to do it.

 

Now the only hole left to take care of is for the bolt pin.

 

 

I drilled out the larger hole at the end and two guiding holes on either side of the 6" space. I debated on how I was going to cut it and keep it straight. In the end I called another friend of mine and asked if I could use his Mill. Again here I don't have any pictures of the piece being milled as I was working the machine and trying to keep track of the numbers. It's like working an etch-a-sketch so if you turn the knob the wrong way, you end up messing up a few days worth of work. So sorry, no photos of that. I will say you need to be very careful when clamping it down in the mill table vice because it can easily distort the shape of the tube itself with too much pressure. I recommend buying a chunk of doll rod that is as tight as you can get it to fit inside the tube so you don't have a distorted cutline.

 

 

While over there I also wanted to shave my end of my tube which I'd previously left a little long on purpose because I wasn't clear when I cut it with the saws-all if I had the measurements 100%.  We took 1/8" off the end which should be perfect (fingers X'ed)

 

 

Now for some quick mock-ups to see where I'm at.

 

 

Next up (still working on this part) the receiver sleeve for the butt cap.

Edited December 18, 2014 by kev011

[kev011]

 

So I'd mentioned that the butt cap sleeve was mangled in the heating and beating process. Above is that horror story.

Now for the task of recreating that piece to put it back together again.

 

 

This is one of those times I wish I had done all the measuring before breaking it. I did my best job to make estimations on that sleeve and made my own template above. 

 

This tube is the same Chrome Moly 4130  Alloy Steel but is 1.625" x 0.065". The ID of this tube is close, really close, but some sanding on both the receiver tube and the sleeve will need to happen to make it slide over as there's about 1/100th of an inch that needs to come off to get them to mate. So, first things first, made the sleeve fit.

 

After sanding both pieces, time to clean the sleeve tube again with alcohol and paste on the template on, just as before.

 

 

I primarily used a demel tool on this with my smallest diameter cutting wheel. I just tried to get it close and then file away. This was another pain in the butt for filing. Probably about 2 hours in all to make the initial cuts and another 2 hours of careful filing to get the cap to get on and turn into place.

 

 

Here's the old and the new. Hard to believe that I was able to get this to work, but it does.

 

 

I just need to cut off the sleeve tube and it will be ready to go on.

 

 

Here's some details without the template on.

 

 

Above I tried to make some steel T-track. that's not going to work after an attempt. Too much work and far too heavy in the end.

 

Here's that dovetail cut.

 

 

holes and yeah, that's about it for now. hope you enjoy

[usaeatt2]

And I thought I did everything the hard way...  AWESOME BUILD, KEVEN!!! 

[kev011]

And I thought I did everything the hard way... AWESOME BUILD, KEVEN!!!

I still can't believe you were able to graph your two ends to your tube! That seemed like the hard way to me, but maybe that was easier in the end.

 

I need to re reference your soldering tips again as I'm getting close to that. Do you recall having to groups the parts and solder them at the same time so they'd go together?

[Truimphmark[TK]]

Looking good Keven great build so far

[I'm Batman[501st]]

Good recovery on the end lug!

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Super start. That's goint to be one mean rebel killing machine when it's done.

[kev011]

Thanks everybody! I'm pretty happy with the results. I just wish it was going a little faster!

 

I gingerly cut off the sleeve from the longer tube:

 

 

Slides right on the receiving tube:

 

And the cap fits nice.

 

I think I'm just about ready to reattach the bits now. I have to align my schedule with my buddy who helped me burn the pieces off to reattach them.

 

In the meanwhile, I may mess around with the scope:

 

Also, looking for advisement on the t-track. who's got the good stuff for blasters?

[I'm Batman[501st]]

 

Also, looking for advisement on the t-track. who's got the good stuff for blasters?

 

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/29118-alternate-t-track-supplier/

 

I think you'll find most of them in the for sale section here.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Sith Lord

[kev011]

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/29118-alternate-t-track-supplier/

 

I think you'll find most of them in the for sale section here.

Thanks for the link. Now I wish I didn't read past page one of that thread. Way more drama then I could have imagined! Ugh!

[I'm Batman[501st]]

Haha, I was going to warn you..... 

[usaeatt2]

I need to re reference your soldering tips again as I'm getting close to that. Do you recall having to groups the parts and solder them at the same time so they'd go together?

 

I did one part at a time, but I only had to solder the mag housing, stock pivot, grip frame and ejection port shield.  There's enough separation that I didn't have any problem with previously done parts coming loose.  You might have trouble near the front and rear, so grouping may be the way to go.  I found it best to clean, flux and tin everything, then clamp it in place.  You'll need a lot of clamps (which act as heat sinks, so you end up needing more heat).  Once everything is clamped, heat the whole assembly, then "wick" the solder into the joints.  To make everything look really professional, have a moist rag standing by - when you think you've added enough solder, or when you see it bubbling out of the joints, take your rag and "swipe" it along the joint.  Almost a "flicking" motion.  This results in a really smooth solder joint.  You'll have little mess ups, spatters and brown flux spots...don't worry about those - I just went back later on and warmed them up with a little pencil torch and "erased" them with a moist rag.  The important thing is to get a good, solid solder connection.  The rest is cosmetic.  GOOD LUCK!!!

[kev011]

A little update on some quick parts.

 

 

 

First up was shortening the clip (magazine). I basically took off 1/2 - 2/3's of the total length. I'd been studying the actual prop on ebay (right now) that I listed in the very first post. It has many nice detail shots of a screen used E-11. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Screen-Used-Star-WarsThe-Empire-Strikes-Back-Stormtrooper-E11-Blaster-Original-/331412168597

 

With the clip in, it makes a nice little bud hanging out. These clips seem to vary in length all the ones I'd seen around the net, so using the ebay one as a good reference, I'm pretty happy.

 

 

There's not much to cutting it off other then getting the cut straight. After that, a little filing down of the short ends and bending the long sides out and fitting the butt cap on the magazine. I cut down the spring and kept all the internals to it.

 

 

The rollers are still in the clip with the spring. It could still hold a few rounds I suppose.

 

 

One thing I've been thinking about to eliminate getting in hot water as to make a new bolt. Looking again that prop, it appears to have a solid core where the spring action would be. I decided to make up a solid bolt.

 

I used an aluminum tube and a solid rod of the same as a plug in the middle.

 

 

If I recall, it's a 3/8" bore all the way through and then  counter sunk just a tad so the lever sits just below and will slide in.

 

 

You need to have a chunk cut out to allow for the magazine to fit and lock in.

 

 

So, you drop in the pin when you line up with the receiver tube, then slide it back

 

 

Here it is closed.

 

.

 

Looks like the ID of the aluminum tube is 1.125". I still can use some of the spring to keep tension on the receiver cap or possibly have some room for electronics stuff. I don't know much about the fancy sound cards and control boards, but it might be fun to do something with that as well.

 

 

Still needs some more polishing, That's it for now.

Edited December 20, 2014 by kev011

[usaeatt2]

Bolt looks good, Keven, but what about the "clearing strips"?  The bolt rides on those strips inside the receiver - looks like you don't have any clearance to add them, unless you're planning to machine them into the bolt...THAT would be impressive!

[I'm Batman[501st]]

Awesome workmanship! Looks amazing. It would be a shame to lose the detail of the bolt and the rear spring though.

[kev011]

Bolt looks good, Keven, but what about the "clearing strips"?  The bolt rides on those strips inside the receiver - looks like you don't have any clearance to add them, unless you're planning to machine them into the bolt...THAT would be impressive!

 

 

Awesome workmanship! Looks amazing. It would be a shame to lose the detail of the bolt and the rear spring though.

 

I hear you guys. I think there is a fine line between what is and E-11 and what is a Sterling. We start to get into esoteric grounds that I'm unclear on which way is considered right and which way is wrong. In the end, it's my build and I'll do as I see fit and it will be very nice no matter if people think it's wrong or right. 

 

If you look at that ebay link I put up, you see a blaster that was used, up close on screen. Yes, it's a non firing version, but so will be this Blaster too.

 

Here's those pictures from the eBay listing:

 

 

It's clearly one part Sterling and the other parts are cast. The receiver was cut and a cast rear end was graph on it. In fact in the listing the bolt was painted black on the screen shot. But, no spring, no clearing strips. 

 

[usaeatt2]

Tunisian version, commonly referred to as a Bapty, which explains the lack of Sterling parts, such as the spring and clearing strips.

[kev011]

 

I played with the scope some today. When I say "play" it was mostly a lot of anger and curse words...

 

 

So I have two scopes: 1) M77C  and 2) M38. The M38 being the correct shape of the scopes used in ANH.

 

 

The M77C had great optics and the M38 had fudged up excuses for optics. So my plan was to transplant the good stuff into the right stuff. 

 

What I discovered was this wasn't as easy as I thought and removing the rear lens from the M77C (for whatever reason) was a real pain that took hours and a lot of hand gouging. It didn't want to come out, but I'm persuasive.

 

 

I don't have an pictures of working on it because it was a lot of just me angry. But when I put the M38 back together, I did cut out a piece of 1/8" Red plexiglass and sealed it in behind the outer trim ring.

 

 

I took this at exactly the right angle but the scope needs to be adjusted. I wish I knew more about how to adjust it!

 

(My hands are really beat up right now from working in the cold and metal that needs to get scrubbed out. Sorry)

 

 

Tunisian version, commonly referred to as a Bapty, which explains the lack of Sterling parts, such as the spring and clearing strips.

 

Yes, it was a Bapty. This is just a typical, non-firing version. Basically the only ones that have the clearing strips and the spring will be live fire versions on screen. If the particular shot doesn't call for a blaster fight, they won't be using "sterling" (live fire) versions on screen. The one in the ebay listing (which ended at over $30K and didn't meet reserve!) was identified as an onscreen one used in the scene where the StormTroopers bust in (and one bumps his head on the door) and find C3PO and R2D2 hiding in the closet. They had the screen shots to identify it. That was filmed in London. So I think there can be a little confusion on what was used where. Basically it breaks down to firing and non firing.  Firing ones aren't typically used in scenes where there isn't a call for gun fire, just dummy versions, like in the ebay listing. It's a safety issue and there needs to be an on site armorer who's there when any live fire versions are out. 

 

Update to this point:

 

I'm a big fan of the Tested webisode series. The guys from Mythbusters do some shop talk about props and even builds. I think most folks here would enjoy watching any of the builds. 

This clip is about props from Tarantino films but they talk specifically about what I was trying to address above.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUxrCFxavO8

At 7 minutes and 17 seconds in, listen to the story of real vs resin guns. I've worked on a few independent films and even though they are low budget, they still follow the guidelines of only using firing props for the specific shots where the gun actually shoots a blank and immediately switch to the fake/prop/resin ones after they hear "CUT".

 

That's what makes this hard as you see so much variance in who's holding what gun and how they seem to switch. There is also an interesting documentary on the whole Star Wars saga where Lucas talks about how all the scenes on the Death Star were sped along in ANH because the studio wanted them done weeks prior and over budget. The crew was split into shifts to accommodate the shooting schedule and still get the shots done in time. This would probably be a reason why the props were falling apart as there wasn't time for them to get fixed while shooting nearly around the clock. Lot's of interesting facts about Star Wars!

 

 

Edited January 7, 2015 by kev011

[I'm Batman[501st]]

I assume you found all the little set screws on the scope? There was about 6 on mine. The thread on my outer retaining screws was also stuffed. Managed to get them out but I'm struggling to get them in again....

[kev011]

I assume you found all the little set screws on the scope? There was about 6 on mine. The thread on my outer retaining screws was also stuffed. Managed to get them out but I'm struggling to get them in again....

Yes, one of them was buried under paint and didn't have much of a slot left on it to turn. It was the headache in the end.

[kev011]

Finally everything is going together.

 

 

 

I brought my bucket of parts over to my buddy's welding shop to start reattaching all the bits and bobs that we'd torched off a week ago. I'm a bit nervous to turn over all this hard work to this point but it's gotta happen.

 

 

All the parts were tacked on with a TIG to make sure everything is where it's supposed to be.

 

 

Hopefully in a couple of days I'll get a call. Hopefully before Xmas if I'm lucky!

[usaeatt2]

Looking good, Keven!

Fond memories of my build.  I almost didn't want to paint it since the raw steel looked so good...

I bought two more Sterling parts sets for possible future "for sale" builds - I just need to figure out a really good way to deactivate them.

Thinking about milling out the firing pin end of the bolt, then welding in a cross pin at the rear so the bolt can't be removed/changed.

I hate to prevent full disassembly with the cross pin, but it ENSURES the weapon can NEVER be fired and won't be visible from the outside.