Inside Doc's Machine Shop

**DocsMachine** · 04-30-2025, 11:29 PM

A month of brass!

This one'll be a bit scattershot, it's a project I've been working on basically just as time permits, for a little over a month now. I didn't always get pics, so bear with me.

Back in March, an MCB'er asked if anyone had made a brass 'Freak' barrel back. To the best of my knowledge no one had, but I had already been thinking about trying it. There's no reason to, other than just to have brass on your marker.

I looked around, four some ideally suitable material, and, because I have all the business acumen of a potato, I bought some.

Brass, in case you haven't looked recently, is really friggin' expensive. This...

... is six hundred dollars worth.

Anyway, after taking a few preorders just to make sure I wasn't flushing all that money down the loo, and after setting up a fresh array of tooling in the Omni (another forthcoming tale) I wrote a fresh program and started cutting some chips.

Typical 'Freak' threading- an internal 16 pitch, 32 TPI double-lead thread. I used to cut these by hand.

A quick test-fit...

And then a fresh program to cut the breech threads. A quick scuff with some 800 grit, and we had some ready to go, for those of you that wanted a classic straight-sided back.

I offered the option of profiling the back, both for looks and a touch of weight reduction, so we moved over to the CNC Logan, and cut even more chips.

These too got scuffed, using a cheap wood lathe as a "spinner", to make sanding batches of parts easier and quicker. A little WD-40, some 800 grit wet-or-dry paper, and a chunk of stiff foam sanding pad.

Wiped down and washed in hot soap & water, and ready to go! (The right-hand-most is polished.)

Now, because I'm a custom shop, I was asked for threading to fit Phantoms. Kind of an odd request, I thought, but hey, I've made my living off of odd requests.

So, cut down slightly and threaded- 14 TPI "stub" ACME, by the way...

Then the rest of the body profiled down...

Sanded, as usual...

And done!

(Not shown is an hour spent grinding an ACME point in a chunk of HSS so I can cut the dang threads in the first place.

)

And, both of those ready to ship out in the morning!

Kind of a fun little side project, brass is always fun to machine. I've had some other brass projects on the list for some time, maybe I ought to move those up...

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 05-04-2025, 08:12 PM

By request: Making a super-minimalist paintball barrel.

We start by bandsawing off some heavywall aluminum tubing:

This gets faced square at one end, and both IDs deburred:

Boot up the homebrew CNC, which was already configured for a straight OD turn between centers, and cut the OD down to 1" even:

This also makes the ID concentric to the OD, which will become important in a moment.

The turned blank then gets squished in my recently-made crimping die:

That squeezes the end down, reducing the ID to about .665" or so.

That then goes into the soft jaws on the Sheldon, and the crimped end faced back to square, and bored out to about .700".

With the OD and ID concentric, that new short ID section is still concentric to the rest of the bore.

To finish it off, the ID is reamed back to size, leaving a short "step" at the end to retain the insert.

Then, as I'd miscalculated how long the blank needed to be, I parted off about an inch, and carefully faced it a touch past that to get the insert depth correct.

Switching back to the regular 3-jaw, I chucked up a chunk of 7/8" round stock from the junk bins, and turned a short cone on the end.

That becomes a new center, so the piece of tubing can be turned between centers again, to reduce the OD even further.

Switching back- again- to the soft jaws (they're bored-in-place, and thus more exactly concentric to the spindle axis than the typical 3-jaw) I turned a short step...

And then threaded it to 14 TPI stub ACME.

A little deburring and a quick test- and it fits!

And there we have it- three of pretty much the absolute most minimalist paintball gun barrels possible.

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 05-08-2025, 06:33 PM

Finally got that insert caddy/tray thingie from a month and a half ago done!

Buddy of mine helped me with the woodworking- he has actual woodworking tools- and was kind enough to... er, critique some of my design choices.

Suffice it to say that I am not conversant in how a wood project like this is supposed be designed and assembled, and so there was some conflict between "how I thought it should go" and "doing it the right way".

Doing a few mid-project but thankfully minor design changes didn't help much, either.

Anyway, he attempted to recycle some of my parts and my general concept, and came up with this:

And yes, every glitch and weehaw on there is because I didn't know how to do it the 'right' way.

But, it's 100% functional, and just a tool-drawer organizer, not a friggin' heirloom armoire, okay? Anyway, that got slathered with stain, without bothering to try and remove or sand off some of the excess glue- see previous statement- and left to dry.

And hey, it's just cheap craft ply anyway.

Once dry, I gave it two thick and kinda runny coats of clear poly, and set that aside to cure for several days. And finally, earlier today I slipped it into the drawer and did a kind of preliminary load of the goodies:

Seven rows of insert boxes, potentially three deep on each, and then seven pockets for whatever else- allen keys, Torx keys, some drills, some still-packaged taps, a small handful of used inserts (most of which still have at least one good edge- the actual scrap-carbide tin is in the other room) and the baggie of spare insert screws.

It may not look like it, but that's actually a pretty good improvement in the old drawer, and between it and the pegboard, has notably improved storage and ease-of-use here at the Machine.

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 05-17-2025, 11:46 PM

The Thing begins!

Alaska's absurdly short summer has started, and I have several projects I've been wanting to get done. Unfortunately, jamming the shop full of machine tools means that some things need to be done outside, whether for reasons of space, or dirtiness (welding, grinding) or whatever (painting, cutting wood, etc.)

This particular one I've been wanting to do for at least three years now, for reasons of storage and organization. Best I'll be able to do is the usual- sneak in a few minutes here and there, but this won't be a very complex build so hopefully it won't take long.

I started by getting out some bits and remnants of some 1" square tubing, 1/8" wall, and bandsawing the bejeebers out of it.

Each one of those, I ran through the mill, to give them a perfect miter and uniform lengths.

Like so:

Those get clamped, one pair at a time, to the welding table...

And, this is the tricky part that will stun and amaze you, I welded them together!

Repeat as necessary, and we all of a sudden, we have two... rectangular frame thingies.

That was, unfortunately, all the time I had for this project today. Everything else was 'bulk' work, drilling a basketful of parts, deburring a different basket, etc.

More to come!

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 05-18-2025, 11:35 PM

Today's bite at the elephant:

Cut two more pieces of square tubing, and milled the ends flat n' square:

And those got TIG'd into what will become the bottom frame:

Which was pretty much the sum total of what I could do for the frame, until I can get more material. The only other thing I could do, is get out the chunk of plywood I'd been saving for this exact project, since I'd bought it in '22 or '23, and now that I had the frame dimensions, I was able to cut one of the decks to size:

And that, too, became the end of what I could do on this job, today. I need a second chunk of ply for the other deck, and I need to get a job off the drill press first, then use that to drill a bunch more holes.

But, time was limited anyway, and I had other tasks to do. More to come!

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 06-04-2025, 08:22 PM

Haven't forgotten about you guys, nor have I been snoozing.

A lot of what I've been doing is either catch-up work, or just the preliminaries for some bulk-run parts.

But, the thingamadoojobber shown above, is finally done! It's a cart that goes to the big turret lathe, both to store the spare chucks, and mainly to store and organize all the collets.

It rolls on six urethane inline-skate wheels, and has room for up to 98 collets:

That's a huge improvement for me. The collets had previously been more or less randomly scattered in three different boxes (including the milk crate in the first pic

) and it was hard to find the right size, or often enough, even tell what I had. Now I can find the one I need at a glance.

And, the whole thing rolls like a drawer under the lathe, and has room for the spare chucks, and finally a place to put the collet cap assembly, rather than just leaving it all in the drip tray.

That's already given me some of my floor back, and if I can just get those baskets of parts done, that'll give me even more.

As always, plenty still to come!

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 06-14-2025, 02:16 AM

Haven't been entirely neglecting my duties... but they may have slipped a bit- Hey, it's summer in Alaska, and we only get 37 minutes of it!

So today, I looked at my stash of CNC stuff, picked a likely next task, and programmed that to use my new tool setup. Took me a little over an hour to get the program sorted, though a bit longer to sort out a chatter issue that, best I can guess, was just stupid programming. I brute-forced a fix by cutting in the opposite direction, but the first few pieces I ran will need minor second-op cleanup to get rid of the chatter. (Which is just cosmetic.)

And, by the by, I lucked out in finding another identical tool block on eBay for less than half of new. I also bought some bar stock, and when I have fifteen or twenty seconds in a row, I plan to make at least one special block. Something that uses a combination of 1/2", 5/8" and 3/4" tooling, and has room for the big parting tool.

Anyway, after running a basketful of those parts, I chopped some stock into blanks- I chopped a LOT of stock into blanks- and got all my mismatched baskets of random bits together to see what I had, and get a fresh idea of the forthcoming order of battle.

Nine baskets on the welding table...

A bucket over by the turret...

And five more stacked on the Exacto, waiting their turn through the Logan CNC, which is immediately to the left of that pic.

The sixth trayful is waiting for a trip through the green mill, where I have the fixture already set up.

Tryin' to balance work and play- and indoor and outdoor work, since the outdoor requires the cooperation of fickle Alaskan weather- during a really, really short summer.

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 06-17-2025, 12:00 AM

Kickin' a couple customer projects off the table: Here's one I haven't done in a while, modding an 'unrebuildable' A1 ram.

For those just tuning in, the Angels were great guns, and there's still a ton of them out there, but one questionable design choice of the later models was that the ram was not rebuildable. The factory, in their infinite wisdom, crimped them shut, so if the O-rings wore or started to leak... well, tough noogies.

But, some clever people, years ago, figured out a way to fix the unfixable, and over the years, I've done my share.

I haven't done one in a while, though, when a customer hit me up- his ram was already modded, but wanted the kinda rough mod cleaned up, and the plastic ring- a section of sliced off poly tubing- replaced with one of my machined brass rings. (Click that link- it explains the process.)

So, I opened this thing up, cleaned up the original cut, drilled and tapped for some setscrews...

Fabbed up the custom-fit ring (which is tiny, fiddly and of close tolerance, took me the better part of an hour)...

And cleaned, greased and reassembled.

Nothing big or complex, but still kind of a fun revisit- and one of three more projects I got off the table today. Makin' progress!

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 06-17-2025, 10:20 PM

I was running some more barrel backs through the CNC this afternoon, and while setting up for a different thread, I ended up with a couple unusable blanks. I hate wasting material- though it's the nature of the business- and the tip thread end was perfect. As I was running the proper parts, I got another one of my absolutely brilliant ideas.

I already have some barrels that take XL inserts but "classic" tips... why not make one that takes "classic" inserts and XL tips?

Any of you nutballs want one? I made a few, since I had the material and the machine was set up, call it $25 each shipped to your door.

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 06-25-2025, 02:23 AM

Tallied up all the bins, boxes and baskets in which I have my various parts, either in the process of, or about to be fed through the CNCs. The shop is littered with them, and with everything that's been going on, I have to admit I've been kind of losing track of some of them.

But, wrangled 'em into some semblance of order- I need a rack or shelf arrangement I can organize these on, but I have zero room for such a thing. Anyway, turned out to be a nice, even twenty, totaling just over 550 parts. Some were nearly finished, some are just roughed blanks. (And one, I'm... not entirely sure just what I cut those for.

) The smallest is six parts, the largest is four bins holding seventy-eight.

Not counting the two 12-foot sticks out on the apron, or the eight six-footers stacked behind the machines, all of which also needs to be cut up and turned as well.

But, I was reminded of two bins of nearly-complete parts, so after getting a couple other tasks done today, I lit up the Logan homebrew CNC and finished 'em off.

Just starting...

Roughed....

Profiling....

And done. Simple cut, just over two minutes cycle time, and just to add a little flair.

Finally, buffed to 800 grit, washed in the ultrasonic, dried, and ready to pack up for anno.

With luck, I can have that box filled and shipped off by Friday.

Doc.

**Pumps4ever** · 06-25-2025, 09:19 AM

Right on Doc, Kicking some serious ass.

Those look amazing!!

**DocsMachine** · 07-02-2025, 02:34 AM

Since nobody's paying me to work on my car, every now and then I have to do some actual payin' work.

Or at least "hope to eventually get paid" work, often as not.

Out of the 20-odd bins of parts I have scattered randomly about the shop, I've recently emptied four... and filled two more.

Today's project was to finish up, much as I could anyway, yet another batch of barrel blanks. I make several flavors of these, so it's a common project.

And, as per long-established procedure, the blanks first got fed through the Logan, to be turned between centers, down to diameter.

I've been putting a lot of miles on that poor thing- I've been wondering if I don't now have more hours on it as a CNC than I ever did on it as a manual lathe...

Anyway, once turned to size, they got fed into the Omni for the female tip threads...

And then again for the breech end threads.

I didn't yet have these threads programmed into the library for this particular tool set, so I had to take the time to write a fresh program, and test & tweak it.

Et voilá! (Which is French for "hey, check this s**t out!"

)

Lotta miles recently on this one, too.

That's a fifth bin almost done, just need to do the profiling step again. The buff, wash, dry, wrap, pack and ship off to the anodizers!

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 07-06-2025, 01:49 PM

Missed Anniversary: As of the first of this month, I've now been in business- the same business, under the same name, doing the same work- for twenty-seven years now.

I'm still not 100% sure, but there's a very good chance I'm now the longest continually running active airsmith in the biz, and may be even since the sport's inception.

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 08-27-2025, 01:50 AM

Proof of life!

I kind of lost track of doing some of my progress posts once summer went into full swing, but with the leaves changing color and the rainy season having started with a vengeance, I thought I'd take a moment to... well, maybe not catch up, but at least prove I haven't been replaced by a pod person or something.

Shop's still a wreck from a busy summer, and I'm still fighting my way through what I've got on the table, both old and new.

-And still working my way through a dozen bins of parts, over a thousand piece in total...

Which I've been running through the machines as time and stamina permit.

And over this past weekend, I finished up, bagged and tagged just short of $4K worth of parts to add to inventory, and sometime this week, I actually need to go and pick up another shelf unit to expand all my bin-boxes into.

On the flip side, I'm weeks behind on messages and emails, but doing my best to catch up. I haven't disappeared, I haven't run off to extradition-free Rio and I haven't sold your marker to the gypsies.

I'm trying like hell to go into winter with clean tables and mostly-empty project bins, so stand by.

For those that don't follow me over on the Tinker's Guild, I will admit to having spent a fair chunk of this summer working on my car...

(Not my shop or lift, unfortunately.)

Yeah, it cost me way more time than I'd hoped, and way more cash than I'd hoped (or even had available)- and yes, too way too much time from my shopwork... BUT... that's also work I'd been wanting to do for at least seven years now (I had the seats reupholstered back in 2018) and... it all came out great. I got the full list of fixes and mods done, I'm very happy with the new interior, and that was a big dopamine shot ol' Jack-is-a-dull-boy over hear has been needing for way too long now.

And, just because, here's a surprise kitty:

Taken earlier in the summer when everything was still green.

Anyway, more pics and projects to come! Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience!

Doc.

**DocsMachine** · 09-02-2025, 02:31 AM

It is officially September, which unfortunately means summer is over, up here. The leaves are already starting to turn yellow and fall off, the rains have started, and it's cooling off at night.

So, after lazing away in my hammock all summer, as the kids go back to school, I gotta get back into the shop.

(And if you believe that...

Heck, the only way I could spend more time out there is to bring out a cot and a microwave. ... Which I've thought of, but haven't, for that very reason.)

Anyway, where was I?

Oh, right. First, I have been criminally neglecting my online store for much too long. I spent a few hours this evening adding almost a dozen products I haven't had listed on there, and I finally fixed that annoying glitch in the shipping. (Can't honestly call it a 'glitch', I had mis-set something and didn't know) I also added Ground Advantage as an option, since so many single products can fit into a small padded envelope, and that should save you almost half on postage.

I still have a few other things to list, but I'm also in the middle of trying to reorganize my inventory storage. I need to go buy another shelf unit from Homey-Dee, and shift a few things around to make space for it.

Nothing particularly exciting out in the shop, just more production work. On Saturday I'd cut up some more material, so today I ran each one through the little speed lathe to face one end square.- the reference face.

One of two baskets worth:

After that, they need to go for a ride through the Logan to turn the OD down to size, but before I did that, I still had a last basket to send through with the profiling program- only 38 pieces, with a 2:57 cycle time.

Tomorrow? More of the same.

Doc.

Inside Doc's Machine Shop

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