UltiMAK modification

[spd556]

Ok, so my Mini-G arrived today (wasn't expecting it until November). Super pleased. Of course the first thing I did after fingering it for a while was to disassemble it. This thing was worth the wait.

Now, I have an ultiMAK rail to mount and I knew the rail mounts and the op rod were going to have to be modified. I like to tinker and decided to work on it myself rather than have Shuff do it.

Question I have is how much can be/should be removed from the op rod before there are strentgth issues? Looking at it it looks like the ultiMAK mounts are going to have most of the material removed to gain the most clearance. Any pointers?

[axemurderer]

I just sent mine along with the build.

[timshufflin]

The oprod will have to be trimmed down to a flat about .020" thick. The Ultimak mounts will be trimmed so that they just clear the oprod, it varies. The problem is that when the oprod has the piston on the end, it's very hard to see how thick the tube is. I mill the oprod before I put the piston on it so I can look down the tube and see how thick the tube is. I won't lie to you, I do the thing almost all by eye now. I just literally know when to stop or to take a bit more off.

One more thing. The most common thing that happens to the Mini-G is that I test fire them here, they run great, then the customer likes to take them apart. The customer then puts it back together and the rifle sometimes doesn't run. What seems to be the case about 100% of the time is that the oprod spring is put back on backwards. Like any Garand, the small end of the spring is the portion that has to go on the follower rod. If you reverse the oprod spring, it won't work worth a hoot.

[spd556]

1173

1172

1174

Tim, thanks for the advice. Just finished up mounting the rail. Everything seems to be working as its suppose to. I think it turned out pretty good. There are a few small things to take care of on the stock, but for the most part its good to go.

[timshufflin]

Awe heck, I remember that rifle.

[spd556]

Yeah, I sent you a turd, but you managed to polish it up pretty well.

[timshufflin]

There are no turds, that's the beauty of the M1. I know of no other rifle that is so easily transformed like a box of legos.

[Shug]

There's got to be a better way to mount an Ultimak to a Mini-G than all that machining and custom fitting. I've been thinking of a way to use the rear handguard band clip slots in the barrel along with a longer version of the band that goes over the mount and is tensioned by a screw. I'll have to draft something up in CAD tomorrow to illustrate the concept. Then the problem is how to secure the front of the mount. Maybe to the lower band? But the band and pin were not designed to take the stresses that the mass of a scope would cause during recoil, so it might wear loose after a while. Any ideas?

I have an Ultimak on one of my full-size Garands, but will probably order another to experiment with on my Mini-G. For now, I have a Hopco mount on the Mini with a Trijicon RMR, but I like having irons as backup which is impossible with the Hopco (which does function rather well, by the way).

Allen

[timshufflin]

There's a couple of ways it can be done. The barrel can be machined with a front and rear slot to accept the Ultimak mount straps. The mount straps could then machined at the tops so that they could be drawn in further up into the barrel slots or the mount could actually be machined to allow the straps to be drawn up higher into the barrel. This method allows the oprod to not be machined. I've thought about this method for a few years now, Punchtheclown begs me to do it this way. Not doing it though, the machining in this manner takes longer then the simple oprod and ultimak machining.

What I would really like is if the Ultimak used the Amega rail mount. I believe that this mount would work with the oprod being machined and no other mods. I like the Amega mounting bracket but with the Ultimak rail.

[Shug]

I went ahead and ordered an Ultimak to play with on the Mini-G. I think I have an idea of a small bracket for the forward part of the mount that can use the lower band pin recess in the barrel, because that area is milled out of the lower band on the Mini and unused.

I'm hoping I can use a spare rear handguard spring and mill a U-shaped channel around the mount where the channels are in the barrel.

My poor little home shop is nothing more than a Sherline 2000 and I'm a lousy machinist, so if I can stick to machining aluminum, I'm much more comfortable. If a workable mod for the mount results, I'll share the design.

[timshufflin]

I went ahead and ordered an Ultimak to play with on the Mini-G. I think I have an idea of a small bracket for the forward part of the mount that can use the lower band pin recess in the barrel, because that area is milled out of the lower band on the Mini and unused.

I'm hoping I can use a spare rear handguard spring and mill a U-shaped channel around the mount where the channels are in the barrel.

My poor little home shop is nothing more than a Sherline 2000 and I'm a lousy machinist, so if I can stick to machining aluminum, I'm much more comfortable. If a workable mod for the mount results, I'll share the design.

Blaze away, I'd love to figure out how to solve the problem in a more simple fashion. I'm hoping Standard Parts comes out with a scout rail to fit the Mini-G and the Tanker variants. Like I said, best case scenario would be a bracket like the Amega with a rail like the Ultimak.