www.MG42.us

I thought you kids might like to see my scratch built receiver. It is VERY rough, but it is STRAIGHT and solid. I began Saturday morning with a 16 gauge sheet of weld steel I purchased at Best Hardware for $13.00.

My tools for "stamping" are: a big vise, 12 ton press, a few blocks of steel, various hand tools and a cheap welder. Oh yeah....having a plasma cutter and a milling machine don't exactly hurt my progress.

So I have put about 30 hours into it, copying directly from my first semiauto MG-42. The really sad thing about this project is I had the original receiver end. This was before I found out about home builds. I gave it to a buddy to burn up in his trash fire years ago.

If you understand basic shapes and you can read a ruler, anyone can do one of these.

Well. I hope I can be a member of yer' all's "cool MG-42 club" now.......if not, I will keep dreaming.

My precious....es...es (#2 before I cut out the top hole, barrel gate and trunion things.) The paint on #2 is just plain old flat black. But the stuff I used on #1 is this "High tempature oven paint". It's 9 bucks a can, but DAMN it looks good.

AWESOME, you are my hero. I wanted to do the same exact thing, but atlas i don't own a mg42 so i haven't got a clue of the measurements.(going to use the ones off the stickies)
are you going to try and tackle the shroud? i think the receiver part is most likely the easiest since its mainly square. Awesome work so far.

That is amazing!! Awesome! You can be in the club now,I suppose.That is truly nice work.Why are we all waiting for the new receivers-we're coming to your house! ---bil

Thank you for the kind words.

The secret to this is to not try to make a complete "stamping" for either side and weld them together.

I simply measured and traced a silhouette of the receiver, which I have made from about the center of the rear sight back.

I add flat pieces here and there. It's fairly thick metal so I can round off the edges to look exactly like the original. The only truly rounded off parts I bent, are on the rear area and camming section. I welded a 1/4 inch 1' long rod to my vise, put in the "blank" and bent it as required. It's not easy......but........13 bucks guys.

Here's some more pics: (note, alot of sanding required!!!!!!)

I bent the center section top part, but it is pretty much square.

Self explanitory......and not pretty, however functional!!!!!

The cocking handle slot.....

I was going to use thick metal stock and mill the "details".....but I desided to add weld later where required, to create a track for the handle.

Wow!!! Now that's just too cool. Very nice work. $30 bucks and some ingenuity and you have yourself a $1000 receiver.

Regards,
Heli

And I'll bet you had a lot of fun doing it! Keep us posted as you make more progress! ---bil

I sure will.

Here is my trick for the camming area.

Note the RED circled part. I started with a sqare piece. I then welded a bar on top to complete the shape. Notice that the bottom is incomplete. I will use the same technique on the top and bottom "arrow shape" parts that retain the trunion.

Here is a better look at the rough handle slot. Completley unfinished!

Here is the rear end. On the top I used a section of pipe for the roundess, and flatened it out towards the front. I will make my buttstock retaining "cams?" out of bent 1/8" steel and rivet them in, from AK rivet kit leftovers.

I believe the bottom is more sqared off.

kudos to you! looks like a good shooter some day.

very nice job!!!i am going to attempt to fab one from scratch also as soon as my receiver prints arive,it's great that you have a complete part to reference as you fabricated the copy.nice work!!!!

thats an awesome peice of metal work!!

It proves that if you really try you can do it. American ingenuity at it's finest. Great piece of work you have there, and welcome.

Thanks guys!

I got home late today to find absolutley NO cooperation in my garage. I did however manage to escape with the grip stick (semiauto length) and ejection port holes milled.

For you guys with out a receiver to copy. Here's my advice;

If you know basically what the outside of the receiver looks like and you have some basic measurements.... If you understand how all of the parts work, then you will understand what needs to go where and how to make the receiver based on that.

It's kinda simple. You have the rails, which are straight....they run into the trunion, and so on. The top cover attaches to the trunion, which sets your lenght to the rear...plus a few inches. The top cover fits snug over the receiver so there is you width. Then you need the recuporator, which fits snug under the left rail, and rests snug on the bottom of the receiver. The top ofthe rails fit snug with the top of the receiver, so there is alot of your height. For the rest, the trunion fits sug around the front, and the buttstock/buffer gives you a perfect picture of how the rear should be formed.

Basically what I am saying is that if you have the parts, build the receiver around the parts, not the parts around the receiver. I hope this might inspire some of you who are in doubt. There's plenty more 13 dollar sheets of steel from mine came from.

This is YOUR receiver. If you need to cut it 1,000,000 times, or heat it up and bang it against a tree to get it straight...it's OK. Remember.....for every 1 person that completes a working receiver, there's still 1000 people who wish they could. Be creative, there are NO WRONG ANSWERS when it's for you happiness....YOUR idea of "perfection". And as always: Practice makes perfect!!!!!!!!

Boy,I thought I was doing good on my build,and along comes this guy!! I love this! The explanation is so simple,although I know it is much harder than it seems.Some people are a natural at mechanical things,they see things diferantly.Almost like it takes place in their head.When my son was small,one day he said "Let's build a car,Dad!"I asked how would we do it,he replied"It's easy-first we make the round things,then we make the rest!" I think he should have gone over to Beltlead's house,he could have driven home! Very nice work. ---bil

Boy,I thought I was doing good on my build,and along comes this guy!! I love this! The explanation is so simple,although I know it is much harder than it seems.Some people are a natural at mechanical things,they see things diferantly.Almost like it takes place in their head.When my son was small,one day he said "Let's build a car,Dad!"I asked how would we do it,he replied"It's easy-first we make the round things,then we make the rest!" I think he should have gone over to Beltlead's house,he could have driven home! Very nice work. ---bil mod-please delete duplicate post-I don't know how.thanks. ---bil