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Doc's Blaster is a wrap!
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doc3d
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 5:27 pm    Post subject: Doc's Blaster is a wrap! Reply with quote

Well, it's a wrap. As far as Rich Coyle and I know, this is the only operational blaster ever made from one of his kits. As you can see, a few liberties have been taken with the overall design of the gun. It's a bit shorter in order to use a factory 4" barrel. Shortening the overall length involved a number of steps too tedious to describe here. The "laser sight" has been mounted to the Steyr receiver, not the left Steyr cylinder cover. This is far stronger, and allows the gun to be safely placed into a spring clip leather holster (the holster in the pics is one of Phil's (http://www.steinschneider.com)-- I could have made my own, but at $130, this is damn cheap for a custom holster, and well worth the money in relation to one's own time and effort to form the leather.) To vent chamber gasses generated between the cylinder and barrel, I added a hole in the left cylinder shroud just above the second hex bolt; it angles into the cylinder chamber. To avoid having to remove the magazine housing for reloading, I made a brass bushing that I threaded on the stub of the extractor rod. This allows the cylinder to safely lock into the aligned position when firing. The red LEDs in the magazine are operational, but I decided not to activate the green LEDs in the laser sight. For one thing, they're never seen lit in the movie. For another, drilling holes for wires in the brass tube in the center of the pewter casting (Coyle's system-- I don't know about other replicas) weakens it, which you don't want to do if you plan to holster the gun. The finish I decided upon was a chemical blacking that I then rubbed out with 0000 steel wool, giving the gun the look of worn steel. To stay in character, we have to assume Deckard had a gun that he lived with intimately. He'd be able to take it apart and asemble it in the dark. It would show considerable holster and handling wear-- he was considered the best of the best, which means he used it often, and practiced with it at the range. It would not look pretty. It would look a bit worn, like its owner, and very dangerous. At a later point I'll drill out a hole in the center of the front to allow passage of a laser. I have one that will fit inside the Steyr shell, so I can point-on aim the gun. So maybe it's not quite a wrap. But it does shoot those bullets shown in the pictures-- I know this for a fact because I've done it-- although in the future, I'll probably just use .44 special handloaded blanks. Blanks make a lot more flash/bang than live ammo, and I guarantee mojo .44 caliber blanks being fired will make the hideously expensive Asian BR pistols look like Mattel greenie-stickum-caps guns. I had to buy more screws and chemicals, so total cost of project is now up to $675. I still claim that this is the cheapest firing replica ever built. It doesn't take a pile of money to make a working gun, just a little dementia. Watch for the You Tube of it firing flash blanks, coming soon to a computer near you. BTW, the last photo is some of the left over or sliced and diced bits of Coyle's and Charter Arm's original stuff. For sale cheap (just kidding-- it's now in the trash).

Lastly, this entire project was done with a drill press, a dremel tool, and hand tools. I don't have a machine shop, though I'm thinking about buying one of those small metal lathes and a milling machine... if I ever have the money. Confused








Last edited by doc3d on Sat Dec 13, 2008 6:15 pm; edited 2 times in total
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joberg
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 5:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very well done doc3d!! Amazing patina on that baby. Looks used, fired and clean all at the same time if you know what I mean.
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Nexus6
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

WIN.
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Mr Webber
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am without speech.......
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Once-bitten
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Would love to see a pic of it firing!
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phase pistol
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 7:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Excellent work!
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steevy
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 8:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Very cool.Clearly it's not a snub but you could call it the "compact"model. Very Happy
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doc3d
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 9:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not sure what to call it either. The trade-off in terms of length was strictly dictated by economics. You can buy the 4 inch barrel inexpensively and off-the-shelf from Charter Arms and slap it into the more common 2 inch barreled Bulldog. The Bulldog barrel has one start point in the threading, so you can't put it on wrong, nor do you have to do machine work to the frame. At most, you'll have to reset the cylinder to barrel gap if it's too tight for the cylinder to easily rotate. Most gunsmiths have a jig for changing a standard pistol barrel, so if you're not comfortable doing it yourself, you can pay ten or twenty bucks to have it done. In hindsight, I probably could have bought an appropriate .44 rifle barrel blank, cut it down into three or four prop accurate PKD length barrels, had a gunsmith friend of mine thread them for a Bulldog, and sold the extras. I just didn't want to get into economic committments and complications. But that's a very viable approach if there's a small group of people who want to build functional guns and split the costs. There are numerous sources for barrel blanks, as google will show you. The one drawback is engineering the attachment points to connect the barrel to the Steyr receiver and lower Steyr magazine housing.

I should also mention to those who are willing to cut up a real Steyr (and you can't use just any SL, you need a 4 digit serial number model), this is probably the best approach for a rock solid functional PKD. But plan to spend a thousand bucks or more for the gun, and then ruin this fine rifle with a hell of a lot of expensive machining. Also, you need a gunsmith who really understands the safety issues involved in mating a Steyr to a Bulldog.

So far the Richard Coyle casting has held up during firing. He uses a pewter alloy made of lead and tin. A bit soft, but easy to braze and solder for reinforcing and modifying. I think he still sells castings at www.racprops.com.

And used Bulldogs go for about two hundred at gun shows-- be sure to check it very carefully, because these are pistols that have had a lot of variations. The good thing about them is that they're stone simple in terms of taking apart. Charter Arms has a pdf with the exploded view if you're curious.

Lastly, while working on my gun, I realized that I'd be doing a ton of tap and die work. Initially I used one of those long handled taps from Harbor Freight. They're difficult to control, and since taps are hard brittle steel, it's easy to get a bad angle and snap the tool right in half. Which leaves the other half embedded in your work, and virtually impossible to remove. At Tacoma Screw Products here in town, I found a Vermont tap that allows excellent control, and I highly recommend it.



This gizmo will save you a lot of frustration and bad language.

doc
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temponaut
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 2:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

WOW!!


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Delmustator
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 8:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think I will make a working version of the blaster also.

Sounds like a fun project to me..
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doc3d
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 2:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That all depends upon how you define "fun". I think masochism comes into the equation somewhere...

BTW, as I've said before, these postings are just a chronicle of a project done by this crazed old fart who happens to be a mechanition (is that a word?) There are many more ways to do it wrong than there are ways to do it right. And wrong can be seriously dangerous. Doc3d is not an advocate, nor will he help you with specific technical advice.

Rich Coyle sells pewter blaster models (last I heard, about $400 for a kit), not firearms, and while his models are realistic, they were never intended to be real guns. However, since my role model is the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, I have sort of an obscessive compulsive relationship with things that go bang and I ripped into his kit like a hyena at a picnic lunch. Hopefully you're saner than that.

So, fast traveler, you're on your own if you mess around with this. Stay legal. And more important, stay safe.

Only one post left in this thread for me-- a link to the You Tube location where I'll do a better job of a firing demo than my previous crappy effort where I shot a few rounds of live ammo. I'm even scripting it, and this time I'll use blanks so you'll see a suitable muzzle burst. Gotta wait for the snow to melt at the firing range, so it'll be a few weeks.

doc
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oldzey
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 3:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Beautiful job!

-oldzey
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joberg
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 3:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As you said doc in an early post, frustration and bad language are sometime part of the hobby. As for mechanition the webster spells it mechanician (hardly used in North America) of french origin ''mecanicien'' (mechanic)
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phase pistol
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So wait, you're saying all that other work to shorten the entire blaster, is easier than just machining a longer barrel for the Bulldog?

It must be a real bitch to machine that barrel! Laughing
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doc3d
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yep. You see, the 4 inch stock Charter Arms barrel has full length top rail (which extends from behind the front sight) and a thick full length bottom rail (which protects the extractor, but runs the length of the barrel for aesthetic reasons, I'm assuming). This makes it a handy chunk of metal to drill, file, and attach things to, without compromising the integrity of the barrel itself. With a thick enough barrel, you could use a flat bottom tap for a thread point, which is how many front sights are mounted in rifles, for one example, but your drilling and tapping have also created a potential weak point in the barrel. On a BR gun, somehow you've got to attach the front post of the Steyr magazine, the magazine itself... and maybe even the front of the Steyr receiver depending on your design approach. A stock CA barrel is cheap and fits the frame. A custom barrel is expensive (relatively) and would need custom fitting. I don't know what the Sid kit is made from, nor the various Asian prop copies, but all I had to do with the Coyle pewter kit (which was readily available, having been sitting in a shop drawer untouched for over a year and a half awaiting Charter Arms to put the 4 inch .44 barrel back into production) is lop off a bit of the end of the Steyr receiver, and then use a 1 inch Porter Cable hole bit, designed for precise cylindrical pegging of wood furniture, and run it into the front of the receiver casting so I could insert the front plug deeper than intended. Lastly it was necessary to solder fill the original front receiver holes and redrill new ones a bit further back. If a shell casting was high zinc potmetal, or ABS, you have, as Dorothy was told upon entering the Emerald City, a horse of another color. I'm totally clueless re other kits without experimenting, and this is expensive to do on these high cost BR gun shells. Probably cheaper to just buy a real Steyr and whack it up in a machine shop. Mentioned in an earlier post, I "only" spent $675 on the entire project, but I've heard numbers as high as $8K for machined real Steyr/Bulldog replicas. Since the alloy in the metal BR casting by Coyle is relatively soft, I've no idea how it will all hold up under long term use. But if I just use blanks, it'll be much easier on the overall gun than running hot loads. There's a lot I haven't posted, because I don't want to make this project excessively easy to clone by people who don't do their own gunsmithing. My experience is a chronicle, not a how-to manual. One thing I will say is that I added reinforcing here and there. The rule is safety, safety, safety. For example, there's a 6-32 hex drive screw inset in the top of the Steyr receiver that threads through a brass collar directly into the Bulldog top strap. That top receiver casting is going nowhere! The 200 grain lead bullets I tested with have a pretty good kick that will be hugely reduced by sticking to .44 blanks. After all, this is just a toy, really. I wanted to prove it would handle real cartridges, and I've been there, done that, got the tshirt.

Jeez, here I am posting tech stuff again! Anyway, this is the last of the tech talk, realio, trulio, Little Red Dragon! Or I guess that old children's rhyme should be Little White Dragon in a Blade Runner setting.

Oh yeah, almost forgot... many thanks to everyone for all the nice comments. I thought I was going to get pilloried for taking liberties with the original design of the prop!


doc


Last edited by doc3d on Mon Dec 15, 2008 1:34 am; edited 3 times in total
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phase pistol
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So... wow, then.
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andy
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I like all the Tech stuff myself. It would be a little easier to digest with some parentheses though Wink

Some great work Doc and I love the the fact that you made the gun your own and even more unique. If you have seen the fetish we have with the snub versions starting with Rick Ross's work. To me adding variation on a work of fiction helps make the fantasy more real and fleshed out. It adds to the fictional world of BR which makes the geek in me pretty happy.

thank you again,
Andy
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temponaut
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

temponaut wrote:
WOW!!

phase pistol wrote:
So... wow, then.

Great minds, you know... Wink
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phase pistol
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 3:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well what else is there to say really. Cool
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doc3d
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:01 pm    Post subject: Non-tech talk Reply with quote

Andy sez:

Quote:
I like all the Tech stuff myself. It would be a little easier to digest with some parentheses though


That cracked me up. Some of my sentences do go on don't they.

I realize my prose ain't Joycean or Pynchonesque, but even my favorite spy writer Adam Hall (pseud. Elleston Trevor), whose Quiller books are beginning to fall apart from so many readings, thought nothing of writing a single sentence over a page long. He also tends to eschew punctuation! However, unlike me, he writes well enough to get away with it.

BTW, Quiller is a character I think Blade Runner fans would really enjoy. He's a loner, a survivor, ruthless, physical (judo), and smart. Somewhat ironically within the context of this thread, he almost never uses a gun.

Forget the crappy movie made from the first novel in the series (The Quiller Memorandum). Read one of the books and you're hooked.

doc
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