Boingo

My MG34 is taking forever, especially since I have been lazy the last two months, but yesterday and today I made some excellent progress. Two months ago, I built a duplicator. It is a simple set up where a free floating stylus is connected to a router. As the stylus is traced over the contours of an original, the router bit follows the same path, carving a piece of wood into a rough duplicate of the original. Click here to see a video of a duplicator in action. For an original I used the butt section of that vacuuformed piece of garbage from Cushman. It was not good enough to be used itself, but once I filled it with plaster to make it stiff, it was good enough to use as a rough form for a piece of wood that would be further carved and modified. The victim of my experiment was a piece of black walnut from a branch that fell into my brother's back yard last year. (He was actually planning to use it for firewood!) Anyway, this is the result I got ... In this scan, the piece is still rough, but I have since smoothed it out with my skillful use of the belt sander, and a heck of a lot of hand sanding. I am currently trying to hollow the darned thing out so that the buffer seat can sit inside. The power drill and the drill press have both failed, the forsner couldn't handle the hard black walnut, and the spade bit was threatening to tear the whole thing apart. My only reliable tool is proving to be a dull 50 year old brace and bit my father left here, but I will keep in trying. It is looking like I am going to end up with a really decent quality butt when I am done. Wish me luck.

I am not very keen on your weathering job, but the construction is excellent. Good work soldier!

I wouldn't mind seeing someone building a prop of the prod Boba Fett used to save Luke theepio and R2 when they first met in the Panna system. http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp...liday_Large.jpg < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eWbs_QER0Y >>

I honestly think that there should be a sticky topic here on this forum warning people not to buy the MG34, or any of the other vacuuformed "replicas", from Cushman. I've been burned. Many other people have been burned. I have yet to hear anyone say they were actually satisfied with with any of the Cushman "replicas". It would probably be a good idea to put up a sticky topic that at least has some good close up photos of one so that anyone considering buying one of these pieces of junk can at least get a good look at what will be getting for their money. Just a thought.

Yup. Lugging around a 27 pound hunk of steel would be rather tiresome after a while.

If you are crazy, you could try building an accurate full sized model like I am trying to do.

Now that I have gotten a few parts from him, I guess I should post a link to this fellow's website. http://www.myspace.com/germanmilitariaww2 Anyone who is interested should be able to pick up parts for building their own full sized model, as I am, or for repairing a real one if you own one. Cheers.

Knurling is always a problem. It is virtually impossible for one to do himself, meaning one is forced to rely on found items that are already knurled.

I don't mean to be a pain, but could I get confirmation of the above measurements from a second person? The measurements I took from the Cushman (spits) give me a shroud diameter of 1 1/4", and I just want to be 100% sure of the measurements before I run out and buy new materials.

I spotted a cheap mini aluminum flashlight in a dollar store yesterday that I think can be used to make a recharge handle on my model, because it looks to be about the right size, and has a diamond knurl (the criss cross pattern engraved into the surface for gripping) like the real thing. Before I rush out and buy it, I need to know if it is the right size. Could one of you nice gentlemen with either a real MG34, or good replica, please let me know what the diameter of an MG34 recharge handle is, and what its length should be? Thanks.

Good news! The part has finally arrived. If you don't believe me, here is the proof: Now it is time to get back to work on the wood and fibreglass pieces.

<>

Thanks.

I've asked this before, and I will ask them again. Maybe somebody will answer this time. 1.) What is the outside diameter of the MG34's barrel shroud? 2.) What is the diameter of the holes drilled in the barrel shroud? R.S.V.P.

Update: Four weeks later, and the part has not arrived. The post office has no record of it, and I have not received any notice from customs, which the post office says I should receive if it got hung up there. Geez! I am currently in discussion with the fellow I bought it from, and we are trying to figure out what is going on. At this current rate, I am never going to get my MG34 model done. <a firing pin being sold without any incident at all. Unlike the trigger housing, these are parts that are actually required for firing the weapon! So the part I wanted, which is not essential for building a functional weapon, is pulled, because it looks dangerous, but other parts that are required for building a working weapon are able to go through with no trouble at all. People are so stupid. >>

Yes. We have to get the word out about how bad the Cushmans really are. The problem is that the photos on their web site are usually taken from a distance, and are slightly blurry. In those pictures, the guns actually look good. They are not representative of what the customer is actually getting.

No problem. I hope they helped. I had intended to send you some measurements, but I have been very slow at taking them. The bipod is a lot more complicated than I thought. For example, each leg is actually made up of eight different pieces. Hopefully, I will get around to making up those measured drawings of it and all of its components, and getting them up on the net some time soon.

By the way, there is currently another MG34 bipod for sale on ebay at the moment, in case anybody is interested.

Excellent. I have a real bipod too, although my plans are different. For some time, I have been slowly taking measurements. Eventually, I hope to have some drawings to share.

I was thinking more along the lines of getting word out how crappy these things are, so fewer newbies get caught.

Funny you should say that, because that is exactly what I did (More precisely, he contacted me.), but I did not want to mention it until I actually got the part in hand. I am nervous about the part going through customs. Unlike the other parts I have gotten (a bipod and a buffer seat), this part is clearly recognizable as part of a gun. I may know that it is only going to be part of a model made mostly of wood, PVC, and polyester resin, but the the folks at the boarder do not. People are paranoid these days, and that gives me good cause to be paranoid about them being paranoid.

Something really has to be done to stop Cushman from peddling these inferior quality pieces of vacuuformed junk.

Please do find a clearer view of the Cushman. The blurring in the photo disguises just how awful the Cushman really is.

Ummm ... To be honest, a broom handle would look better than a Cushman.

This may sound silly, but how compatible is Corel Draw's .CDR format? If I start putting up technical drawings in .CDR format, will anyone be able to use them? < I do not know how useful this is, but here is my first meager contribution to this project. http://www.doomlegends.com/deimwolf/gun ... onents.zip I took a preexisting exploded view diagram of the MG34, cleaned it up, and removed all of the internal parts, then rearranged all of the components into a more logical diagram. I then imported the bitmap into my ancient copy of Corel Draw (version 5!), and added identification tags to the major parts. Hopefully, this diagram is compatible with newer versions of Corel Draw, and other drawing programs. If needed, I can upload a bitmap version of the diagram for printing from a paint program. >>