Adder's Something From Nothing E-11 Scratchbuild

[Addertime[TK]]

Several months ago I was looking for a project. I used to build things for a living and now I work in a more virtual environment. I was nostalgic for a hands-on, low-tech build of something... anything... and finally set my sights on an E-11 largely due to the amazing depth or resources available here on FISD. The criteria for the build were simple... create something cool with easily obtained materials and simple tools, build it with very little cost, have fun doing it and do it all without annoying the neighbors.

I created a small shop in the corner of my basement storage and armed with a dremel, cordless drill and hand tools, began creating my new toy. I've been working on it for an hour here and an hour there since late January and it's about halfway done. I figured it was about time to unveil my progress. Sadly, I didn't look at my build photos along the way and a lot of them weren't very good so I'll just cover the highlights of the build up to this point and try to be more diligent as the project goes forward.

 

I'm formatting each aspect with time, cost and a description of what I did.

The "Time to build" does not include r&d or do-overs and the "Cost of Materials" is based on the amount of material used for the actual build and doesn't include tools purchased or failed experiments. These numbers are basically the, "If I had it to do over tomorrow, I could build for this."
 

 

So... here we go...

 

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The Tube - Part 1

Time to create: 4 hours
Cost of materials: €0.75

I went with a standard pipe build using readily PVC electrical conduit. I wanted the appropriate wall thickness of a real Sterling and schedule 40 PVC seemed way too thick. I found a perfect tube on my first outing and purchased a 2 meter piece of tubing for €2.95

Using a plans found on this forum, I imported the .pdf files into CorelDRAW and redrew them using the imported images for scale. I wanted the seam on the bottom instead of the top, as they were originally created, in case the seam didn't line up perfectly... and it didn't. There was a slight overlap and lining it up was more challenging than anticipated. I drew a line on the pipe (cut to length) and taped the plan along one edge to the pipe and spray glued the paper plan rolling around the tube after spraying and giving the glue a moment to tack up.

I drilled the vent holes using the stepping technique and all went fine until I hit a snag toward the end... my drill index used to go with my 1/2" chuck drill press I used to use in my old shop and my 3/8" cordless drill wouldn't accept the last four sizes I needed to use...


After a bit of thought, I decided to just try reaming the holes by hand to reach the appropriate bit size. I wrapped a piece of cloth around the bit and bore only took a few twists to bring it up to size. I advanced through the last few bits and got all the holes to the correct sizes. Granted, it took another hour plus and I felt it in my forearms for a few days bit, short of buying new drill bits (which I considered), it was my best option.

 

I scored through the plan with an Xacto knife to indicate the postions of the various other pieces such as the sights, ejection port, etc. and then cut the ejection port, and charging slot by drilling a starter hole and then repeatedly scoring the lines with an Xacto knife. I left the magazine side intact and would later drill a hole for wiring the electronics.

 

__________________

 

[kevin926]

Off to a nice start. It is a fun build.

[T-Jay[TK]]

That looks interesting...

 

Good luck Michael

[Thrawn's guard]

Great idea Michael . I'll be following this thread with interest.

[Addertime[TK]]

Thanks all for the encouragement.
More to come!

[Addertime[TK]]

The Tube - Part 2
Ejection Port and Muzzle Guards

Time to create: 20 minutes
Cost of materials: €0.00

The ejection port and muzzle guards were cut from a tiny piece of scrap 20mm pvc conduit from the trash bin. It was a good way to go as the pieces were already curved and required very little shaping. I cut the pattern and as always, used spray glue to adhere the pattern pieces to the tubing.

 

 

I used aviation snips to cut the rough shapes.

 

 

Then a bit more snipping and some final shaping with sandpaper.



Lastly, I adjusted the curve with pliers and test fitted to a piece of pipe. Perfect fit!

 

Here's what they look like on the tube. I used JB Weld for the attachment and will go back with a second application later to create a fillet resembling a real weld.



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[Tr00per]

Nice so far

 

Did you drill the hole where the bayonet lug will go aswell ?

As it's not needed to drill that hole...

[Addertime[TK]]

Nice so far

 

Did you drill the hole where the bayonet lug will go aswell ?

As it's not needed to drill that hole...

Thanks.

 

I drilled a small hole where the lug will be to help with the attachment.

Edited April 25, 2016 by Addertime

[kevin926]

Those flares make the pipe stand out so much. They were the first pieces I put on as well. Looks great.

[T-Jay[TK]]

A good way to scratch-build those two guards - and a nice clean style to run this thread.

[haui[TK]]

nice work so far :-)

[Addertime[TK]]

The Tube - Part 3
Front Sight Guard

Time to create: 45 minutes
Cost of materials: €0.40

After making a couple of plastic versions as tests, I decided to create this piece from 2mm aluminum for durability and really, because I find aluminum far easier to manipulate than plastic. I bought a piece of 30cm x 50cm x 2mm aluminum at the hardware store for about 8 euros and it's been a great material with which to work.

 

I spray glued my plan piece and adhered it to the substrate, as always, and then locked the piece in the vise. I cut the shape using a cheap jeweler's saw I got from Amazon. I tried a few different cutting methods and the jeweler's saw proved to be the best way to cut very close rough cuts with no deformation and I love the narrow kerf.



After cutting, the fine shaping was done with small files and sandpaper. I spray-glued some sand paper to a dowel for shaping inside cuts.

 

 

The shaped piece was bent with care while locked in the vise. I made a balsa form when I shaped the plastic prototype and used the form as a guide for my aluminum guard. A few times back and forth from the vise to the form and the piece was pretty close.

 

 

The sight is next but I'm still waffling on whether to build it like a real one and cut a slot in the tube or to cut a semi-circle out of the base block.

____________________

[T-Jay[TK]]

This front sight guard turned out very good. Any plans on adding the knurling pattern?

[Addertime[TK]]

Thanks, and yes... er... no... um...

Heh! I have a great knurled, steel knob which I was thinking I might use to create the effect after-the-fact using putty like I saw in a few other builds but after I finished this piece, I realized I probably could have used a soft hammer toe tap the knob at I rolled it along the flat aluminum piece. I like this idea a lot and may have to redo this piece for that reason. We'll see. I'll think about it and move on to something else for the moment.

[AWOL]

 

 

I probably could have used a soft hammer toe tap the knob at I rolled it along the flat aluminum piece. I like this idea a lot and may have to redo this piece for that reason.

Go for it, at its only ally it should take the print easily... from the detail you seem to be going for you'll kick yourself layer if you don't...

 

that's no moon, Kim Kardashian is bending over again...

[kevin926]

When I made mine, I wasn't happy with it so I am going to remake it. Because it's soft aluminum I filed away where the knurled form goes to give me that machined look rather than me having to feather in the texture. I was mainly displeased with my bend, however you made it look great using that form you made from wood. If you don't mimd, I would like to give this a try. Great job!

Edited April 30, 2016 by kevin926

[Addertime[TK]]

Go for it, at its only ally it should take the print easily... from the detail you seem to be going for you'll kick yourself layer if you don't...

 

that's no moon, Kim Kardashian is bending over again...

After much self-deliberation, I decided to add the knurling as Tino suggested. I didn't want to do it, I wanted to move on but in the end, Kev's words kept haunting me.

[Addertime[TK]]

The Tube - Part 3a
Front Sight Guard Texture

Time to create: 30 minutes hands on and 4 hours drying time
Cost of materials: €0.10

 

I wasn't sure I'd like it but I'm glad I took the time. I considered remaking the piece and pounding the texture into the aluminum but maybe on my next build.

Here is the guard clamped in the vise ready for action and the slathering of the JB Weld:

 

 

I smoothed the JB Weld with a piece of aluminum to create a uniform film depth and smoothness. It wasn't perfect but we were walking out the do to go to the theatre so close was good enough.

 

 

Four hours later, the JB Weld was set enough to roll a texture into it. I did a test earlier and found that two hours was not quite enough whie lead to a bunch of clean up of the ratchet handle.

 

 

After letting the piece dry overnight, I cleaned up the excess with an Xacto knife and gave the whole thing a light sanding with 220 grit sandpaper to add a more worn appearance. The finish came out much more distressed than I intended but I think it works as and it has character.

 

 

 

[Addertime[TK]]

Power Cylinders
 

Time to create: 4 hours
Cost of materials: €2.00

 

And now for something completely different. I'm changing gears from the tube to the power tubes because I have a short attention span and like to jump around in projects to keep them fresh. I was perusing the copious amount information here on White Armor and happened upon PlayfulWolfCub's epic Power Cylinder Research Thread and I was further inspired by T-Jay's How To: Make your Power Cylinders more accurate thread. I don't have the attention span to create a perfect replica and I'm still trying to create something from nothing here but I was rolling and ready to give it a go.

I used some of the images from PlayfulWolfCub's thread to draw a scale pattern on the bracket in CorelDraw and then then created the piece from 1.5mm aluminum sheet. The lighting makes it look kinda golden but it's aluminum, you'll see.

 

I pulled some pieces of hardware from my jars of random stuff and cut the pieces of aluminum tubing (€1.98 for a 1m length) I then cut a thin strip of 1.5mm aluminum and cut it into four sections the circumference of my tubing, bent it around a piece of tubing to make the arc and finished the bend with pliers. These bands are the sides of the end caps. I also added slots for detail. As I was building the end caps on the tubes, the cylinders needed to be inserted into the bracket prior to assembly. The bands were attached using cyanoacrylate. It had the advantage of being thin and thus drawn under the band via capillary action as the band was clamped in place. Then came the washers with the screws and nuts. Now, it would have made my life easier if I had a threaded rod to span the length of the tube but that require another trip to the hardware store and I went with screws instead.

 

 

Next I epoxied the tubes to the bracket and began work on the capacitors. A piece of wooden dowel from my infamous "box of sticks" as the movers labelled it 13 years ago The name was appropriate and stuck. It holds all manner of longish pieces of wood, tubing, panduit, metal rods, etc. We still call it the "box of sticks" in our house. Anyway, back to our program, I cut three lengths of dowel and drilled the ends fir the wires.

 

 

Some floral wire from the craft box became the wires. To make bent wire perfectly straight, stretch it. Put one end in a vise and pull the other end with pliers until you feel it stretch just a little. It will be straight and slightly work-hardened making it perfect for lots of applications.

  

Add a little white Milliput and some epoxy and let cure overnight.

 

 

 

The fauxpacitors were then epoxied into the bracket.

 

 

 

I clipped a few centimeters of cloth-covered wire from an old lamp in our guest room, pulled the copper wired out of the insulation and stuck is onto the fauxpacitor wired which protruded through the rear of the bracket and then painted the brown cloth insulation with red acrylic to match the originals. The final addition is the resisters underneath the cylinders. I used a length of brass tube I bought for this purpose and cut three old-school resistor-length pieces.

 

 

Filed and sanded.

 

 

 

I filled the brass tubelets with Milliput and pushed them onto the wires. Two of the wires were too short so I had to add some dummy pieces to complete the look.

  

And here is the assembled power cylinder piece:

 

 
 

 

[T-Jay[TK]]

This is awesome! A full set of power cylinders, built from scratch in just one update. Wow, I like it.

 

Any plans to close the gaps between the washers and the rings to make the end caps look like one part? Maybe epoxy or soldering?

[Addertime[TK]]

On 5/16/2016 at 5:48 PM, T-Jay said:

This is awesome! A full set of power cylinders, built from scratch in just one update. Wow, I like it.

 

Any plans to close the gaps between the washers and the rings to make the end caps look like one part? Maybe epoxy or soldering?

Thanks Tino! This has been my favorite part of the build so far. 

 

I guess I failed to mention that I used JB Weld to fill that gap. It's hard to see in the pics. I'm hooked on JB Weld; it sands an paints well and is easier than mixing up automotive body filler although it probably costs a lot more gram for gram but hey, these pieces are tiny.

 

I shot a little primer across one side to illustrate what it actually looks like:

[Addertime[TK]]

Magazine Housing - Part 1

Time to create: 1/2 hour
Cost of materials: €0.40 

 

For the magazine housing, I used ZeroRoom's plan and modified it a little bit. I built a mock up from poster board and decided to add a tab on the back side and moved the fold lines a bit as I used 1.5mm aluminum instead of the 2mm substrate recommended. In all fairness, I tried making one from 2mm aluminum and the added thickness made it impossible for me to get a sharp corner using the level of technology available in my little basement workshop.

 

 

 

I spray glued the plan to the substrate and then scored and broke the piece from the larger material. I'm a big proponent of scoring and breaking any thin, flat material whenever possible. It's just so much faster.

 

 

 

 

A few strategic saw cut aid in the breaking the scored pieces loose.

 

 

 

 

 

Cut the arcs and we're ready to file and sand the edges. 

 

 

 

Sanding the arcs and then deburring with 220 sandpaper. 

 

 

 

And a shot of my favorite sheet goods tool, the hand punch. This affordable little punch easily pops holes up to 7mm in materials as thick as 16ga mild steel. 
 

 

 

And now, we start bending. I used a piece of wood as a ghetto brake press and it worked pretty well.

 

 

 

 

 

More bending...

 

 

 

Some of the bends require creative clamping... and a short time later, we have all the rough bends done. Pretty cool for just a half hour of work. A little more finishing and we'll use JB Weld to close up the shape.

 

 

[Addertime[TK]]

And yeah, if you noticed that I didn't bend the tab, you're right. I went back and did it a few minutes later but didn't document it. 

[T-Jay[TK]]

Only half an hour of work for a full update - that is something I can only dream of

 

Seriously, great work. I like to follow your progress and can't wait for the next update...

[I'm Batman[501st]]

Looks great Michael! I love the JB Weld too. Use it for all my joining and small filling. Even used it last night as a skim coat on a 15cm square piece of flat styrene! 

 

Keep up the amazing build.