That one can stay but on the left there is a big raised section under the sight adjuster and part of it has a cavity behind it that's an intensional part of the casting ,so if I mill it of it would be pretty thin and I would hate to find any voids in the casting there .
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Ah I see. Ah well, a Bren's a Bren really. I'm sure it'll look amazing when it's finished, making any little details unnoticeable.
I got bored ,too wet and windy for flying helicopters so i went back to the workshop and started making swarf ,lots and lots and lots of swarf till it was up to my knee's .The first picture is of the void spaces in the casting of the ZB exposed after i milled it flat on front ,it won't be seen or cause an issue but its crap quality casting , i wonder how many come out so crap they just melt em back down .
and more
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
First gas system has completed its lath work ,now to make another and then it will be onto the mill.
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
You might at this point be wondering why I chose to use such a big diameter piece of metal ? In the milling stage I'll be making the mounting for a gun mount ,either for vehicles of an anti aircraft mount ,this mounting is under the gas system and need the extra diameter .
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
looks damm sexy! 
Started the second manoth swarf pile ,once the lath work is done its on to the mill.
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Second gas system finished on lath
Now its onto the milling 
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Started milling the first one ,hopefully you can see where I'm going now ,the twist lock fitting for the bipod works ,I had a little fun with the part that inserts into the receiver ,I measured the hole at the end and forgot that its a casting so in order for it to release from the mold it has to be slightly tapered ,in this case 3/4mm over 60mm taper ,so I had to turn it down with a taper as well .
media/
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Second gas system now at the same stage ,now I need to choose the design to use for the side profile ,there's quite a bit of variation from very square sided and plain with a top on a level with the receiver to a lowered top level and radiused top edges and everything in between ,I can find examples of all types in pictures of mk1 Bren's so its very match just a choice ,personally I think the lowered top level and radiused top edges looks the prettiest ,its also the most work ,Simon ,Chris by all means chip in with your preference.
This shows a couple of styles ,the second is my choice but the other one is a lot easier so make a choice lads .
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
OK.My brain and eyes are clearly not working. I can't see the difference in the pics? ....Also... Where's Wally?
I'm a hero with coward's legs.
Its only a subtle difference ,I'll just do the one I like better ,its a little more complicated is all but I like it better .I'll be able to chat to you at St Vith and explain if you like .
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Happy to go with your choice chief.
I'm a hero with coward's legs.
I got some more done this weekend after completely loosing motivation in December after both our cars broke down terminally 
,so after doing quite a bit of milling the motor on the mill has started to make a bad noise i have another ordered but its not helping me get out of that bad funk mood , do you ever just feel like sitting on a big hill and watching the world go by for a few days .
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
The new motor for the lath/mill arrived last week and I installed it today ,a beast of a job that should have been easy ,the hinge pin should have just slid out but no such luck ,it was jammed in place so i had to dissasemble the whole drive and feed system so i could hammer the pin out ,instead of being a 45 min job it rolled into 3 hour's .
Anyway I've lost the will to do any work on the Bren's today after all that but at least the mill's back up and running so more soon .
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
some progress .
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Second piece is now in virtually same state as the first so the gas systems are nearly finished so on to the barrels soon .
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Got quite a bit more done and the gas systems a virtually complete , 54 holes drilled and some really time consuming hand turning , i just could not work out how to put a tidy radius on the top because the [part is deeper at the bottom meaning it could only do a half rotation on the lath and i could not support it on a rotary table on the mill because its too long so i did it by hand rotating the lath one third of a turn to cut then back adjust the cut and repeat for over an hour ,I've got a left arm like Popeye 
a before and after of the top radius
well i think its worth it and that's what counts ...
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
Hi ,little update ,both the gas systems are now complete and one is partially cleaned up , so its time to move on to the next bit the barrels , first part is the flash hider cones and site bases and thats what we have here in the pictures , all ready to be fitted to the barrels ,all that's left to do is mill out the sights and weld them onto the cylindrical base section .the metal for the barrel's is on order and should get here mid week ,the barrel of the Bren is a mixture of different diameter's between 22 and 29mm so I've ordered 2 sections of tube , the first is 25.5mm outer diameter with a 3mm wall thickness so it can be turned down to 22mm ,23mm and 24.5mm diameter where needed ,the second section of tube i ordered is 28.5mm outer with a 2.5mm wall thickness that can be sleeved and welded over the thinner tube ,it will mean that one section that should be 29mm will only be 28.5mm but 0.5mm is barely going to be visible and i could not get another piece that was 29+ outer with the correct wall thickness to sleeve over tightly enough .Oh should mention its a full steel barrel.
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
All fantastic work, mate, always love seeing your builds come together. 
You should go into business!
'ABSIT OMEN'
