Welcome, all to the very first article of the new series TFB Armorer’s Bench! As mentioned in the little blurb below this series will focus on a lot of home armorer and gunsmith activities. In this first article of the series sponsored by Wheeler, Tipton, Caldwell, [Read More…]
If you’re a DIY type in the firearms space, odds are strong that you’re already familiar with Real Avid. These Minnesota-based toolsmiths have been putting out helpful gun cleaning and gunsmithing products for years. Their offerings are relied upon by a vast [Read More…]
An opportunity arose to review the new Ghost Gunner 3 from Defense Distributed and I swooped on it like a boomer on a 1911. The Ghost Gunner 3 is a completely new machine from its predecessors. Like the Daft Punk song, the GG3 is Harder, Better, Faster. Besides [Read More…]
Real Avid, some of the firearms industry’s top tool-masters, produce a host of excellent products to help home gunsmiths. These DIY gurus offer tools like the Master Sight Pusher, the Level-Right Pro precision reticle level, a comprehensive AR-15 armorer’s [Read More…]
The gunsmithing gurus at Real Avid offer an expansive line of tools for your firearms-fixing needs. From their build tools, optics mounting equipment, cleaning gear, and more, if you work on your guns at home chances are they have a product that can help you. Now with [Read More…]
Minnesota-based Real Avid has been hailed in the past for offering useful products like cleaning tools and armorer’s kits. From wrenches and informational cleaning mats to magazine disassembly tools and punch sets, if you’re a firearms DIY-er chances are [Read More…]
With restaurants, bars, theaters and a whole host of other entertainment establishments closed due to Corona 2020, some of you may be starting to feel the effects of extreme boredom. If you’ve organized the garage, inventoried the ammunition and cleaned the armory, it [Read More…]
With the AR-15 being the Lego-style build it yourself rifle on the market today, I’ve talked about the SIG Sauer P320 is a similar modular design with the Fire Control Unit being the heart of the gun. Those designs are great, but how hard is it to build your own [Read More…]
Continuing from Part 1 of December’s Underground Arms Watch edition, below are some of the good and not so good criminally manufactured and modified weapons recently seized off the streets. ‘Numerous weapons found by OPP, border services during search’ [Read More…]
Occasionally police operations across the world churn up weapons produced solely for the criminal market. Some of these are improvised while others are semi-professionally produced in illicit workshops. Documented here are a handful of interesting examples uncovered in [Read More…]
What do you get when you bring together replica STEN parts, a .22 semi-auto and a lot of hard work? You get a pretty cool build. Marius Horskjær, from Denmark sent us in some photos of a build he recently finished. Initially, asking if it might be eligible for our Hot [Read More…]
The obsession with buying and maintaining quality tools starts in early childhood, usually beginning around the time you helped your dad (or mom) change the oil in the car or build a treehouse as they unleashed obscenities and crushed PBRs. “Take care of your tools [Read More…]
Back in March 2017, I reported on a proof of concept attempt to create rifling grooves, essential to ensure stabilization of bullet, in a length of steel tubing using a process known as Electrochemical Machining (ECM). This was achieved using a simple jig designed using [Read More…]
Below are pictures of a homemade submachine gun seized last month by the Municipal Civil Guard of Limeira in Sao Paulo along with cocaine base paste and marijuana. This illicit craft produced SMG model has been seized as far back as at least 2014 and has appeared more [Read More…]
While cleaning the garage of inherited property, various outlandish looking homemade firearms were discovered by a man from Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. All appear to show the skill of a highly dedicated and imaginative individual. Homemade ammunition appears to have been [Read More…]
In February 1993 members of Aum Shinrikyo cult traveled to Russia including among them a mechanical engineering graduate of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Through a Russian contact they were able to tour several arms production plants and glean information on [Read More…]
Police in Sussex, UK, raided a seemingly innocuous factory unit outside the small town of Hailsham. Three men have been arrested in connection with the raid for various firearms offences. The factory was officially registered as a gearbox repair business but the plain [Read More…]
Here is a simple .22 revolver project built by a reader from absolute scratch using basic tools while following the plans here. For a gun built at home from scrap steel it isn’t far off from looking like a commercially produced handgun, far flung from typical [Read More…]
Canton Ohio custom gunmaker Middlebranch Machine has released a teaser image of a new kind of suppressor, which they say is made of “carbon fiber composite” construction. Unlike previous efforts at making carbon fiber suppressors, Middlebranch [Read More…]
Well, it’s that time of year again – the holiday season is upon us and with it comes the the stress of both giving and receiving gifts. Fear not, we are going to spend the next 12 days giving you ideas for that special shooter in your life. And while your at it, [Read More…]
Mike over at Mike’s Custom Weaponry has sent in photos of his latest project in the final stages of completion which happens to be a semi-auto version of the Machine Pistol from P.A Luty’s book Expedient Homemade Firearms Vol 2. The original design is of [Read More…]
Having a bad day? I’ll help you put your firearms “issues” into perspective. Instagram user @chrisbarrett (yes, president of Barrett – Chris Barrett) posted an image of a barrel from an unlucky customer who was experiencing accuracy issues. As it turns [Read More…]
Nicely documented below are some photos of the building process behind making a .22 copy of a Webley break-top revolver. This firearm was made entirely from scratch using some basic machine tools. “Bar stock with paper templates I made” “Block of wood [Read More…]
One mans humble dream of becoming a master craftsman at Taurus was cut short after Police in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil seized this entirely homemade .380 semi-automatic pistol (excluding the magazine) which was made in his backyard, presumably from melted down [Read More…]
We traveled to Austria to see how Ritter & Stark is making some of the most advanced factory rifles on the market, but to totally understand the thought process behind what they do we were invited to tour EPT Precision Technologies. I have been told that EPT has been in the gun making game for [Read More…]
God bless competent gunsmiths. Not only do they have to deal with a broad spectrum of weapons in for upgrade and repair, but a wide range of owners as well. Today, on the back end of the curve, we have a negligent KRISS Vector owner who has not once, but twice, [Read More…]
If one goes according to legend, the AK-47 would never need fixing. By reputation, the weapon functions under the whole gamut of most unpleasant conditions. Various weapons have been pulled out of mud after decades of submersion to fire again. If that’s the case, [Read More…]
Here is a classic traditional style break barrel 12 gauge shotgun built entirely from scratch using scrap steel plate and tubing which can be found at any decent hardware store. Using the the drawings here as a basis, the builder managed to produce something which [Read More…]
Here are pictures of a preliminary setup for creating rifling grooves in a piece of steel tubing by using a 3D printed spiral insert, lots of salt water and a battery charger. Electrochemical Machining is a process whereby metal is removed by passing an electrical [Read More…]
Much todo is made of the “quality” of staking jobs on the AR-15. Why this is so is absolutely beyond my comprehension… (other than shooter being particularly picky about aesthetics of their rifle). Don’t get me wrong, I completely support the [Read More…]