Bill,

All very relevant points. Thank you for your firsthand input.

I didn't see a posting of the barrells on your 21 but I'm probably not looking in the right place.

I can see that such a "communal" project would be quite complicated especially as soon you include any number of people. Along the lines of "a giraffe is a horse put together by a committee".

I agree with your statement on "Laser 3-D scanning is not good enough for the precision and accuracy necessary. You also cannot simply do the scan then program the CNC machine. You must first validate and verify the computer code and ........". This is my understanding as well. I thought it may be a shortcut to producing the intitial solid model. Even in the CAM process the generated G codes must be edited and later put through a simulation program in order to ensure that your machine will do what you want it too.

This is only what I've read. I have not completed any CNC machining.

For interest sake take a look at www.cncguns.com and look at his projects and the downloads. There are some very good cut by cut photos on this site. Perhaps not the best description of the whole process though. As I've already stated the Model Engineers Workshop article is the best description of the process that I've encountered.

While the particular firearms involved may not interest all of us it is certainly a great indication of what can be done. There's alot of shared information (solid models etc) on that site.......go to the "downloads" section.

I do understand, with the money and effort that you've put into your project, why you would not wish to "give it away".

Thanks for posting your project. Keep up the good work and please keep us "in the loop" so we can see your progress.