The creation of the E-11 blaster rifle


Page 07
©2007 - The Eternal Darkness
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Some holes were filled on the inside of the endcap with bondo and sanded smooth.
Now that I already had made a functioning folding stock, I wanted to make the endcap functional as well as this is what will hold the folding stock in place when in the backwards folded position.

To do this, I made two locking pins out of two screws on the inside of the endcap that will slide along tracks on the back of the gun body.

Pilot holes were drilled for the screws in this photo.
3 millimeter wide threads were made through the endcap for the screws with a thread making tool.
With a grinding bit on a Dremel tool, I made grooves for where the heads of the screws will be hidden and covered with bondo later on.
The screws were screwed into place, oddly enough.

Move on to the next photo.
The heads of the screws were grinded down to the base of the endcap, and some super-glue was applied around them to make them sit better.
Using a cutting wheel on the Dremel tool, i cut the plastic away where the endcap is supposed to have a slot on the edge of it for clearance from the back sight.
The slot looked like this after it was finished.

Ooh, aah.
After having placed the endcap in the right position on the gun body, I used a marker to mark off where the tracks for the locking pins should be made.
After marking further back on the gun body where the first tracks should be, I used a cutting wheel on a Dremel tool to make the tracks.
The first tracks were cut long enough for the endcap to go as far forward onto the gun body as it should.

Note that the edge slot of the endcap is now placed towards the right side of the back sight, now that the endcap is at the removable position.
A second set of tracks that will make it possible to turn the endcap to it's straight position were also cut with the Dremel.
After the second tracks were finished, the endcap could be turned to the straight position.

Note that the edge slot of the endcap is now placed towards the left side of the back sight, now that the endcap has been turned to the straight position.
The third and final set of tracks were made to allow the endcap to slide backwards again to the locked straight position.
The next parts to make for the locking mechanism of the endcap were the stock clip and its holder.

These were made from a sheet of aluminum and a piece of thick plastic.

Here you can see the custom template that I drew for the stock clip holder.
After having cut the stock clip body out of the aluminum sheet around the template with a tin-cutter, I drilled the required holes through it.
The stock clip holder was bent to the right shape in a vise.
The stock clip was machined to the right shape with a large grinding bit.
This is what the stock clip looked like after having been machined to its right T shape.
Some holes were drilled through the stock clip, one hole through it sideways for the swinging mechanism and two other holes on top of it where there will be placed two rivet looking parts on it later.
On the back of the stock clip, I made a mesh of grooves into it using a small file.
After the mesh grooves were finished, two round headed screws were super-glued into the two holes that I made through the stock clip earlier.

The grooves on top of the screws and the cracked bottom of the stock clip will be filled with bondo later on.
Using a small screwdriver, I carved a hole underneath the stock clip and glued a small spring onto the inside of it.
Two holes were drilled into the holder of the stock clip, one large at the back that the spring of the stock clip will go into, and one in the middle where it will be screwed onto the gun body later on to make it sit better and sturdier.
Using a drill bit on a Dremel tool, I drilled a hole through the gun body where the stock clip holder will be screwed onto the gun body later on.
To make the stock clip holder flow with the rest of the gun body, I applied bondo around it.
After the bondo had been sanded, the part flowed nicely with the rest of the gun body.

I guess the original part of the Sterling sub-machine gun didn't look like this, but I like it anyway.

In the photo you can see the screw that was added in the middle of the part to make it stronger and prevent it from accidentally getting knocked off sideways.
After the stock clip was screwed into its holder, it was all fully functional.
In the first photo you can see the stock clip when having been pushed open, letting the endcap slide far enough forward to then slide up the vertical tracks of the gun body to be removed, and the second photo shows the stock clip locked, not letting the endcap through to the vertical slots so that it cannot fall off or be removed.
Now that the whole mechanism to make the endcap functional was finished, I could finish the rest of the endcap.

For the back part of the endcap, I cut a small piece of the same binocular part as used for the rest of the endcap.
I filled the ring I cut earlier with metal plates that were then bondoed onto the rest of the endcap.
The bondo was applied on both sides of the ring and the metal plates to make them all into one piece.
The part was then glued onto the back of the endcap.
Some bondo was applied around the parts to make the back slope of the endcap.
After some sanding, the endcap looked like this.
The next things that were needed on the endcap were the two locking hooks that will lock the folding stock in place when in its backwards folded position.

Here you can see the two templates that I made for the locking hooks to make them out of sheet metal.
After having glued the templates onto a sheet of aluminum, I cut the locking hooks out using a tin-cutter.
I bent the sharpest angle of the locking hooks in a vise before bending them some more and adjusting them to fit with the endcap.
After having bent the backs of the locking hooks to a curve, I cut slots into the endcap that the tops of the locking hooks were glued into later on.

I also removed some of the metal from the backs of the locking hooks.
Using a large flat file, I filed away some of the plastic from the endcap to make the triangle shaped areas over the locking hooks.
Both locking hooks were super-glued into place.
Bondo was applied around the locking hooks to make them all in once piece with the endcap.
After sanding the bondo around the parts smooth, I used a small grinding bit on a Dremel tool to give the locking hooks the right shape.
After the locking hooks were finished, this is what they looked like from almost every angle.
To get the folding stock to lock into the endcap, I made two thick metal parts that will slide into the locking hooks of the endcap.

These were made out of 2 millimeter thick aluminum and were glued onto the inside of the folding stock arms.

Here you can see I've drawn the shapes of the parts onto the sheet metal.
The parts were cut out using a tin-cutter and a rotten apple.
Since they say super-glue can hold together stuff with a force of 1000 kilograms, I just super-glued the parts onto the inside of the folding stock arms.

All though these don't look like the original parts of the Sterling sub-machine guns, I wouldn't be able to make them look like the originals if I wanted them to be usable anyway.
The folding stock could now be locked in the backwards position by the endcap.
For the ring on the back of the endcap, I used a 3 millimeter thick metal rod that I bent to the right ring shape in a vise.
And there you have the finished ring for the endcap.