Who knows how to make box magazines from scratch?

[Jack In the Box]

Man, This threads old I see, can't believe I have never found this place till now. Haven't got my answer yet but I got some good info.

I have tried a few times at this Bending thing, It always starts off Big guns and then I manage to mess it up so bad I don't even want to look in the shop again because I wasted so much time, I do get over it and try again however.

After Reading through all this, I have started thinking maybe my idea I have been having might be my only option. That Idea is going to produce several mess ups I am sure. it's a milling Idea, no bends, no seams, just painstakingly digging out of a block of stock till I get the insides correct in the form of the magazine I'm trying to imitate, leaving the bottom open and enough stock at the top to form the correct shape at the top. Yeah, I know this seems like a "Too Much BS to deal with type thing" but i am like one of your people that says " i don't care how much it costs" except for the fact that I don't have that kind of change.
The real thing that would make ya'll laugh at me is this project is for a .22 wmr. :O) it's a semi auto rifle that i wanted since I was a kid, I have it. it's a beauty, but magazines are ( You know I would like to say hard to find here) Impossible to find. for me anyway.

It's an Italian import, Mitchell arms, Jager AP80 AK22m. wmr .22 super cool to me and everyone that sees it and wanted by every single person I have ever even let hold it. But I only have one magazine. It would be really cool to have more, so cool I can't stop thinking about it.

I am thinking I might be able to mill this out of aluminum, and maybe just make a top piece of sheet metal to fit into the rifle so that the bottom aluminum 'Milled" can attach. I thought of the top part because I believe the aluminum would be too soft and wear out quickly.

I thought I had a great chance at getting clips when I read a report from Canada that all the AP80's were taken from the citizens in the entire country up there. But turns out that the .22 wmr ap80 is kind of rare even when it was imported. GRR.

I was looking forward to reading that page 9 on the gun knowledge link that was posted but that links dead. bummer for me. I have tried to find something close that I can modify as well, no luck so far. Been 7 years, yup, 7 years - gun shows toting this thing around, online every other night practically, I mean, i am serious, I have been searching pro style everywhere I can. short of buying a 700.00 other gun, I have seen no answers. if anyone knows where a clip for this is, Im all ears. LOL there are a few other model by the same company that are close enough probably, haven't found one though. Looks like this. http://www.hoosiergunworks.com/image...ak22_22mag.jpg

[Jack In the Box]

Another Idea i had I call Clam shell. where I would make two halves and then spot them together.

[wonderwolf]

There used to be a forum about 12 years ago that had a post from a guy who was a professional at sheet metal work. He made the dies to make his own mags for his pump action hunting rifle of which only came with 1 mag and replacements were $100+ irrc. His dies looked phanominal and I've always thought about his work when I look at building something like a 5 round magazine for a 50BMG where mags are $100 each or mags for something like these AXIS rifles where the current offerings leave a lot to be desired. Sheet metal work isn't something I need to get into as I have more projects than I need currently. But understanding how the dies are made etc could allow me to design the stuff and hand it over to somebody I do know who is good at sheet metal work and turn out some stampings that just need assembled. The library is your friend...I currently have metal casting books out as I'm interested in Aluminum casting...I know our library has at least 10 old school books on sheet metal work.

Somebody who could find a way to make the forms easily could make a good living and keep busy making steel magazines.

[Grey-Wolf]

v

Sheet metal is my Achilles heel. Some of the best sheet metal work I have ever seen is the box magazines that are in most of our guns.
You know, every factory must have some yay-who master of the sheetmetal that builds the prototypes from scratch.
That guy would be a really interesting feller to talk to.
Don't tell me they just draw them up in solidworks and send the drawings to the shop to build the dies to make them, and just start chunking them out. If you have ever worked in manufacturing, you know that just doesn't happen. The engineers take their best guess, and end up being told how to change the drawings by the guy on the floor who knows how to make the stuff.
Is this taught in any school?
It just kills me that I can make every other piece of a firearm, except the magazine. Not that I'm going to go into business making AK mags or anything, but there are many instances where it would make all kinds of sense to be able to make things like that from scratch.
Like a customer comes in (as has happened twice now) who wants a magazine for their vintage cheapo something or other. One of them I managed to find in an obscure place on the internet (don't remember where) and the other I'm still looking for, (Lorcin 25). In both cases, I told them that they should just scrap the pistol and get another one for $150, but people are funny. They say, just fix it, I don't care how much it costs! And cousin, let me tell you, they really don't care how much it costs!

Now, I didn't start this thread because I need a magazine for a Lorcin pistol, (I believe I have found one)

I just want to know who has this knowledge, and what their phone number is. Better yet, is there a book about 2" thick that covers all the intricacies of how to make sheet metal magazines?

I'm thinking about using the hulk smash method. Just grab some sheetmetal and start bending and welding and recreate the magazines in the guns that I already own, using the originals as guides.

What do you think?

I be the one u were seeking in 2012 ...best way is to have a small forge to bend the metal slowly a coal forge made from a double sink.stainless steel only...and somw old bed rails is what i use and i have also made curved ones from sheet metal..so yes its able to be done but i warn easy if you have the old one even if its damaged

[Hannibal]

I believe most magazines built were either stamped steel, spot welded up, or draw formed. How can draw forming be duplicated with a forge?

Not saying it can't be done. I'm just not familiar with the process. Please school me/us?

[BigEyeBob]

Thats some darn good work!
Thanks for the book info artful! That's the stuff I'm after for sure.
Sometimes I wonder if all of this is just a storm in a teacup. I have been stumped a couple times by old guns that I can't get springs for. I have gone to extreme lengths to find springs of just the right tension to get a firearm to work correctly.
A while ago, I was coming up dry and I needed a special spring made of .042 wire with a hook one one end, three coils, and then a 1" leg with a 1/4" 90 degree bend. I was talking to my father about my woes on the way to my day job, and he asked me why I didn't just make the stupid spring myself?
Well, I went home and straitened out a spring with .042 wire in it, bent it the way I needed, and re-heat-treated it, and tempered it. It worked like a charm.
Today, I had a customer who wanted a lighter spring on the firing pin of his SMLE, so I made one using the same technique. Works every time.
The point is, making springs is something that I dreaded for years, but it turns out that its not that hard to do at all, which makes me wonder about this whole magazine issue. Maybe I should just start bending sheet metal and make it happen.

Sheet metal is very fickle to work with , too much heat and it will buckle , too much bending or stretching and it will crack or buckle .
I don't recall the Enfield magazines being brazed , I reckon the sides and ends were folded from one stamping which also put the flutes in the sides , the bottom plate IMHO would have been resistance welded in .I'm referring to the SMLE Mk's 1,11,111 and No4 not any other Enfield variant .
I have a few Enfield mags and I can't see evidence of any brazing at all , any brass joint would not parkerise and would stand out like Bullets' (Roy Rodgers' dog) ball bag . Just my take on it .

Check out the Argus Workshop Practice series of books , mainly printed for Model Engineers lots of good information they even have a book on spring design and how to make them .
Can be downloaded from here in PDF http://www.freebookspot.es/
Look in the DIY category


List of titles of the series is here www.bevenyoung.com.au/argus.pdf ,they are available from this site as well .
Please note I have no connection with the book vendor at all .
The books also appear on Ebay from time to time .

Cheers
Kev.

[NavyVet1959]

To me at least, trying to make a magazine for a firearm that you do not already have a sample magazine to pattern it after would seem to be rather difficult. What do you do? Cast a mold of the magazine cavity in the firearm an then try to decide what part of that is useful or not?

[aephilli822]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8rkllZFxx4

thread necromancy.... beh......

[BigEyeBob]

Just finished modifying a Lee Enfield 10 shot mag to hold five rounds of 375 x2 1/2" FNE , took two days of careful work ,so the box wasnt damaged ,had to unsweat the bottom ,cut the mag box to the correct shape , make a new bottom plate and tig weld it in . Then rust blue it to finish it off .

[aephilli822]

Nice work, Bob

I was looking at this thread because I have some work to do on a blind box Savage, doesn't have to look pretty, just feed.

[M-Tecs]

Nice work. What is a 375 x2 1/2" FNE? I am guessing it's a 303 opened to 375 but I couldn't find any info on the web.

[NavyVet1959]

Nice work. What is a 375 x2 1/2" FNE? I am guessing it's a 303 opened to 375 but I couldn't find any info on the web.

http://www.lee-enfieldrifles.com/nitro.html

[Dan Cash]

.375 Flanged Nitor Express. A very fine cartridge to 300. 270 grain bullet at 2000-2100 muzzle.

[LAGS]

I have made around a dozen magazines for rifles and pistols over the past 20 years.
It is a Chore.
But can be done
In fact I am still trying to finish a 15 or 20 rounder for my buddy Armoredman, for his CZ 527 Carbine.
I already made him up a 10 rounder, and now have an idea of the Quirks in increasing the capacity.
And NO, I know nothing about Sheet Netal Work.
I am self taught, and dont have some fancy shop with all the Gadgets.
But they do call me MacGyver at times.

[ulav8r]

I was looking forward to reading that page 9 on the gun knowledge link that was posted but that links dead. bummer for me. I

https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/wa...hine%20Gun.pdf

[BigEyeBob]

Just finished modifying a Lee Enfield 10 shot mag to hold five rounds of 375 x2 1/2" FNE , took two days of careful work ,so the box wasnt damaged ,had to unsweat the bottom ,cut the mag box to the correct shape , make a new bottom plate and tig weld it in . Then rust blue it to finish it off .

Finished product magazine blued and filled with 375 x 2 1/2" cartridges , final adjustments will be made one I get the barrel and action chambered and assembled.Takes four comfortably in the mag and one up the tube .Thought Id throw in the trigger guard as well for good measure.Trigger guard loop has been thinned and lightened and narrowed to make it a bit more elegant than the chunky looking Lee Enfield standard issue ,polished to a high chrome finish and blued .
Make my cases from 405 win brass , machine .020" of the rim diameter trim and push them through the CHH4D 375 dies .

[Labrador_Ronin]

Sorry to necro This Thread I've been tinkering with the idea of making a magazine for the Springfield M1A or the norinco m305 like we have in Canada and I have a damaged magazine that I drilled the spot welds out of my to make a pattern from it but I'm wondering how do I get the back to take such a sharp edge I need a mandrel or hammerform for that wouldn't I? I'm think about setting up my little brake drum Forge as well for heating and hammering it around.
I'm thinking about 20 or 19 gauge steel that I can Harden and the follower I like the long followers that the Chinese magazines have, any tips ?

[shootrj2003]

A good blacksmith maybe could,the first ones were done that way,there are people who could ,some of them used to work for the Viet Cong ask guys who fought them and found their handi work some crude some really good even whole browning and Colt copies,and now in Afghanistan,it is amazing what you can make by hand if you need to or want to.i was proud of a 3 shot mag for my Marlin60/70 I just shortened that and aK and AR mags have those little grooves to fit the action,but somebody can somewhere.

[Shopdog]

One of our "sanders".....we call them grinders is a 1910 American.It is a combo,16" drum and an 18" disc.So,tripping on back to that time period....generally,the gauge metal would be folded over a mandrel after the pce had the two back corners "broke" at a 90.Then gas welded up the center of the back.Which even today,with Tig available, I could gas weld it pretty dang efficiently. But anyway,after it's welded it gets run across a big disc sander/grinder to not only knock down the weld,it also squares and "sharpens" those back corners.With magazine in hand,I'd say maybe 5-10 seconds on the disc would see it done.

[Shopdog]

Look up a Denbigh (UK) "flypress".Helped unload a 600#+ ,number 6 this a.m.

So going along with my post above,back in the day equipment......a flypress would be most likely used.This one is 1920-30'ish.