Ok everyone, I've only posted a few times, and I have been lurking for some time. I have finished my build of my first can!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eyS54AdG_Y

I will have better video later, I got this out as quickly as I could!!

As I said, I have been lurking, listening, watching, and finally formulating my own little silencer philosophy that culminated in the can you see.
I am an artist and metalworker of 25 years. I work in steel processing plant running plasma cutters, flat and tube lasers, brakes, and am an accomplished welder in TIG/MIG/ARC and oxy/fuel. I am definately a cro-mag in comparison to the many machinists that frequent this forum, but I have my strengths.

I had an epiphany one day. I was running a COF when a competitor arrived with an AR10 and AR that he was swapping a AAC can back and forth from. I was always under the impression that the diameter of the can's hole diverted the gasses because it was so tight and the gas's only alternative was to be diverted to the nearest lower pressure area. But this didnt make sense when a 223 and a 308 both were SUPER quiet using the same can. I had always been discouraged to build a can due to all the high tolerances that I felt I couldn't maintain with my low tech garage shop.

The diameter of the hole changed everything for me....

I really started thinking more about fluid dynamics, than design of a 'thing'. How could I disrupt, divert, and peel away the gasses behind the bullet. I arrived at a square can, because fluid hitting 90degree angles seemed the most likely method of ripping the gasses from the back of the slug.

What you see below is how I arrived a happy participant in your group....a slightly red-necky one! But a participant none-the-less:

Here are the parts involved.
-2x2x16ga mild steel tube
-an UZI barrel nut $12
-7ga laser cut baffle flats
-end cap and UZI nut flange



Here is a flat baffle

This is the press I built I will be bending the flats in

Here is the baffle in my home made die, pre-bend

During the bend

And the bent baffle


If you noticed in the flat, I made the hole in an elipse. It's .443" in its smallest diameter. When the elipse is bent it forms a .443" round hole, as seen below (the shadow gives the hole a weird square look. Chalk it up to a bad camera....sorry):

Below you see the UZI barrel nut and flange:

Here I am indexing the flange to the nut to the UZI. So that the can will square up to the sexy squareness of the UZI!!!! You might notice the serial number on the 'inside' of the can. I stamped it backwards...like a moron. So I just stamped it correctly on the other side and figured no one would see 'this', but you did, so .....durn it....

Pre-pressed:


Post press. Barrel nut side

Welding of the barrel nut to the flange

Welded

The next step I took was stacking and aligning the baffles. Sorry about the blurry pix. This whole post was shot on my phone. I had a threaded rod that I stacked all the baffles on.

Here are the baffles staggered and stacked

Heres a side view of the stack

I made a square fixture that the stack rested in, and was compressed by the threaded rod. The baffle you see at the end of the stack was just used to square the whole assembly. Then i hot tacked all the unions and waited for the assembly to cool so alignment wouldn't change

Front view of stack after cooling. I cleaned all BB's up and chased back the hot tacks flush with the stack. I burned HEAVY, so the stack is pretty frickin solid on its own


After chasing the welds on the baffle stack, I measures all the unions I would be welding. I then drilled the tube with these locations

I then inserted the stack

Here you can see the unions I will be welding through the plug holes

All plug holes welded!

Chased back all the external welds and D.A.'ed!

Here is the END of the can

So up until now it's all been gravy. Now I am going to weld the finished can together to the UZI. I made a cutout carboard sheild that would cover the gun during the process

What I did was weld a small shelf to my vise that the UZI rested on.I wrapped the cardboard over the barrel nut, and cradled the can in the vise.
I got an 11/32" piece of drill stock that I inserted into the UZI's barrel that I used during this whole alignment process. Once I aligned the bore, to the baffles I welded everything together, starting with the nut flange at the bottom.
Here you can see the drill stock in the receiver

And through the assembly


Once that was hard tacked into place I added the end cap. All the adjustments Were made while the assembly was attached to the UZI.

Welded end cap

Barrel nut end chased

Exit hole chased and D.A.ed

Finished barrel nut end!


And there you have it. Be gentle....

Thats sweet, How heavy is it

Bowen1911 wrote:Thats sweet, How heavy is it

UZI heavy, but then again, nothing a little upper body strength won't solve. I think the can is just under a pound, the UZI is almost 9!!!

not bad at all there. how does it sound though?

Now thats slamming the door in the face of conventional wisdom right there. See what thinking inside the box will get ya. Ingenious idea on the baffle design, looks damn good.

Hey, what was that racheting action I heard when you snugged the can up?

Fastflt1 wrote:Hey, what was that racheting action I heard when you snugged the can up?

It's the spring loaded piece that keeps the barrel nut from unscrewing itself. He turned his can into the barrel nut and it holds it all together.

Nice silencer, sort of similar to the MP5SD internals.

Darn good work, its built like a tank, it should last a century or two, and I like how the weapon looks when its all together.

Was there a picture and or video posted here of the final product? If so, I cannot find it now.

eseaton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eyS54AdG_Y


I'm not sure how to embed a YouTube video, the link is above

VERY nice work there.

Gets my vote for 1.) defying some conventional suppressor wisdom, 2.) simple - yet fuctional, 3.) high quality craftsmanship, and 4.) using mostly basic tooling (besides the laser) to which most anyone would have access.

As a weldor, I'd generally discourage GMAW welding for suppressor applications, but your materials were mild steel and very stout, you used good technique and neatly done handwork hid all the evil. Obviously not your first rodeo. In this case it worked out fine.

Great documentation of your build. Well done, Sir.

Very very cool. Would like to see the pictures though they arent showing up.

Un EFFINGLY believably creative and pure 'Nikola Tesla' genius.

Having had the honor of encountering a few Kelly Johnson [Skunk Works ... XP-80, U2, etc.] types
in my previous incarnation I am particularly awestruck when I see such 'why limit my thinking'
enviable design sense and execution.

There are light weight aluminum square tubing and your approach to a long and light
weight .22 'beam' could be copied.

I shall raise a Glenmorangie 25 Years Old Scotch cheer to you.

[ WIth age, wisdom, and never settling for cheap comes privilege. ]

Nicely done as others have said.

Jeff

Dude ... you photobucket bandwidth is denied but nice video.

Looks like the threads are timed to get the can to "square" up ... Details ?

Sounds like a 300cc driver in the video, you could blend on a golf course really well.

Well it looks like i had too many photos on my Photobucket account. I didnt know that was possible, but I deleted them all. And I can now see all the photos, I hope you all can too.

Thanks for all the accolades. I hope to refine the design in the future .

I added a video that might explain a little more of the "ding" noise!!! Any input is welcome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgTgc65Ol-o

Just a side note , the square design was a choice I made with the whole 'fluid dynamics' in mind. I felt round designs allowed gas to flow smoothly along its surfaces. I wanted to make 90's and 45's so that when the gasses hit they would be disrupted a little more. Without high speed thermal x-ray we may never know!!!

I know the weight issue is the biggest one people have, but in all actuality I did build it to last. I do have access to a TIG, but I felt that if I was going to dump $$$$ into something, I wanted it to be as strong as the gun itself. AND, to that I can embarassingly say that I was being all swell headed today taking pics of it on the hood of my truck when it FELL!!!! Not only did it fall, it fell on the tip of the supressor!!!!! AAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!! BUT, I picked it up, dusted it off, shot a string with NO change of POI!!!!!! Praise Jeebus!!!! Man I was pissed I did that!!! But my overkill engineering saved my ass!!! If I had made it of aluminum it'd be done!!!
Yes yes I know I should have been more careful, but I guess I'll just chalk it up to testing the prototype!!!

Thanks for all the info and input everybody!!! This is a great forum and a great bunch of people!!!

Awesome job, the reason you cant see the photos is not because you had to many its because too many people have looked at them. Prolly because you posted it in General Discussion of arf. lol

yamatitan wrote:Awesome job, the reason you cant see the photos is not because you had to many its because too many people have looked at them. Prolly because you posted it in General Discussion of arf. lol

HAHAHAHahahahah!!! Thank gob!!!! I let that float away. Had no idea that would be the case!!!!! I hope the pix answer some of your questions!!!!!

Very nice!

Can't see the pics METALMAN.
Heard they are worth viewing.

Edit: METALMAN try Flickr.

cant see s--t

Coolest. Suppressor. Ever.

Looks good in the video. I would like to see the pics, but...


Jeremy

I watched your video just now. I thought your can was nice! Good Job!

Dweezil wrote:Coolest. Suppressor. Ever.

cooler than mine?
That hurts