Name: Jake Sip

Hometown: Toquerville Utah

Major: Mechanical Engineering

Engagement Track: Creativity Engagement

 

Custom Gun Internship

 

My EDGE project was an internship for Justin Custom Guns in Toquerville Utah. During this internship I was able to work with them to redesign some of their products. Two of the main designs that I worked on were a new bolt stop for a Remington 700 and a new stock for a Ruger 10/22. We did some preliminary designs and some of the parts were drawn in Solidworks. After the designs were made I helped with ordering the materials for the prototyping. While the materials were being shipped I had the opportunity to help them set-up and calibrate a CNC milling machine that they had purchased to engrave parts.  One the materials arrived I got the opportunity to start prototyping.

 

The bolt stop on the Remington 700 was relatively simple. It was similar to other aftermarket designs out there, with a few improvements. The main change was that it was greatly reduced in size so that it was not bulky. The bolt stop it self was made on the CNC mill, and I was able to install it on to the action with a manual mill. The Ruger stock ended up being a significant amount of work. I did a lot with molds, fiberglass, and resin. The end product turned out really good, but they will probably not make another one of these stocks due to the amount of time and energy that it required.

 

Inspiration

 

When I began thinking about a project that I could do I wanted something that would help me stand out a an engineer. Engineers often lack a lot of hands on experience in the field. While they were taught to design new products and buildings, many of them do not know how these things are built. Before I started in the engineering program I was working with my hands and I have a background in machining, welding, and woodworking. I felt that by having these skills that it would help me in the engineering field. I wanted an internship that would let me use those skills along with the engineering I have learned to design and build something. There was this place in my hometown that built custom hunting rifles, so one weekend i stopped by to see if they had any design work that needed to be done. With this meeting I was able to set-up with them an internship for over winter break that would let me design some products and prototype them.

 

Challenges

 

There were some challenges throughout the course of the project. Most of these challenges came from the building and design of the Ruger 10/22 stock. When this stock was being designed I really wanted it to be made from fiberglass and resin. This would allow the stock to be lightweight and really strong. To do this without making molds for an entirely new stock, I tried to modify an existing fiberglass stock. This proved to be entirely too much work. This required me to make a few smaller molds and build up on the stock. After a lot of filing, sanding, and toiling, I was able to get the stock how I wanted it. After going through this process, I determined that it would have been easier to just carve the stock out from wood. Luckily this is all part of the learning process and my stock design will still get to be implemented. It will just not be made of fiberglass.

 

Project Outcomes

 

This internship was for Justin Custom Guns. While I was doing this internship I was able to do a lot of design work for them. I was able to help them figure out some of their design issues that they didn’t have time to figure out. I also was able to set-up and calibrate their new CNC engraver. I also designed some other parts for them that I did not prototype. One of these was a new scope base for a Blaser R8. I was able to prototype some of my new designs for them and I worked on the production procedures so that these new products would be repeatable. I feel that I got along well with them and they seemed really pleased with the work that I was able to get done. So in this category I feel that my project was successful.

 

I feel that I benefited a great deal from this internship. I was able to get out there and do some real engineering. I was given problems that needed to be solved and I designed products that did so. Even more important than the design work was my opportunity to prototype my designs. This was invaluable experience that many young engineers are not exposed to. I feel that this sets me apart from other recent graduates. I also think that my difficulties with the Ruger stock gave me some great experience. Because I was able to take the product from design to prototype i was able to quickly see the mistake that i had made with material choice. This helped me see how my design choice affected the manufacturing process. I will now make sure I think through the entire manufacturing process before I make these types of decisions.