Suomi Drum / M11 (RO) Conversion

[strobro32]

That sounds like a good idea. Those rounds will weigh less than AL ones and probably last longer.

Did you survive the relatives?

[medphys]

Did you survive the relatives?

Yeah, but it sucks sitting around for 3 hours knowing that you have loads of work to do at home, not including the gun projects.

[MrM4]

Something tells me that Matt has been into the Opossum Slobber.

Hell no, my supplier aint been keepin up. Something about High corn prices and a shortage of possume fat is slowing down production.....

[medphys]

True or not..... I'm going to think that my Zip Tie idea contributed the most to everyone's success.... Yup...... All me.

I'll give you that, and thank you for it! It saved me plenty of time since I had a whole bag of them in the garage.

[Jmacken37]

Hell no, my supplier aint been keepin up. Something about High corn prices and a shortage of possume fat is slowing down production.....

Fuc&%er! Can't count on some folks.

Shoot, your supplier is like a crack dealer. Gives you the first few hits for free and then waits till you're good and strung out before he comes in with the "real price". I know that pricks gonna try and charge me an arm and a leg at UT8...of course I'll pony up...

When I do, if anyone gets any great ideas about RD and a picture with the cute lil' goat, will someone else remind me that that's a bad idea?

Jake

[MrM4]

I thought we all agreeded not to ever speak of Dave and the Goat again?

[medphys]

Since the dummy rounds are around $2.50 each, I didn't feel like spending more on the rounds than I did on the drum so here is what I did.

First, I cut down some fiberglass driveway markers that I had laying around in the garage (you could use dowel rods too) to about an inch long. I then used JB Weld to glue them into sized and deprimed 9mm shell casings and used the dremel tool to form the end of the round to a bullet shape.

They're not pretty, but they work.

[strobro32]

I've run across a few more websites that did this project. It seems like many of them just used aluminum, brass, copper or plastic tubing for the dummy rounds.

I think those will probably work.

What kind of cable are thinking about? I saw one where they used guitar strings.

[trek45]

I've run across a few more websites that did this project. It seems like many of them just used aluminum, brass, copper or plastic tubing for the dummy rounds.

I think those will probably work.

What kind of cable are thinking about? I saw one where they used guitar strings.

I have 2 C&S drums (MP5 & M11), and they use nice aluminum dummy rounds. But I have another no-name MP5 drum that just uses aluminum tubing. I actually had to replace the cable in that drum because it frayed, so I used the same cable that's in the C&S drums:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

It took me a long time to track that cable down - it's 7 strands of 7-stranded cable. I wasn't as much concerned about the strength as I was the durability. C&S just used some kind of stop sleep crimped onto the end of the cable, but I used a shortened roll pin for the same effect.

The cable I replaced was regular stranded cable (ie had fewer, bigger strands) and the strands frayed because they didn't like being bent around so much. The 7x7 can take the abuse better.

The cable I linked to on Amazon is out of stock, it was $2.17/10 feet when I got it last year.

I also used these washers for spacers between the rounds:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._ya_os_product

They were $3.13/100 when I bought them last year.

[medphys]

What kind of cable are thinking about? I saw one where they used guitar strings.

I'm going to keep them loose for now until I get a chance to do some serious testing. We have a subgun match next month so I'll get to use it 3 or 4 times to see if it holds up to the abuse.

[medphys]

Final pics of the project. I'll post a video of a full mag dump as soon as I get a chance (hopefully tomorrow).

Hopefully others will have learned from our progress and won't hesitate to build your own. It may take a bit of time and elbow grease, but WOW, is it cool to have your own working drum (even if it only holds 71 )

[kaen3e]

jake,matt, ssshhhhhhh

[Vegas SMG]

I've run across a few more websites that did this project. It seems like many of them just used aluminum, brass, copper or plastic tubing for the dummy rounds.

I think those will probably work.

Vector used at least four different dummy rounds and there may have been a fifth one I've forgotten about. Copper tubing, orange plastic dummy rounds, de primed Swedish practice ammo, and the last version used solid aluminum dummy rounds that looked exactly like the ones C&S used in their drums.

Nice job guys!

[strobro32]

That looks great! Either they gave you a much better looking drum than me or you've been refinishing.

What finish is that?

[medphys]

Rustolium

[strobro32]

You sly dog. Very garage.

If I make another one, I will hot blue before adding the plastic ties.

[strobro32]

This may be a good time to start experimenting with some of the new bake-on gun spray finishes. I think the strips and glue can survive 150 degrees.

[medphys]

This may be a good time to start experimenting with some of the new bake-on gun spray finishes. I think the strips and glue can survive 150 degrees.

That's a good idea. Maybe I have an excuse to buy a small sandblaster and oven now...



And, FWIW, I welded my tower on after I had the zip ties glued on (I used JB Weld). Although I didn't weld directly on the metal where they are attached, the ties and glue did not seem affected by the heat. They are still firmly attached.



Another interesting thing I did to help it feed better was to adjust the magazine catch so that it was held higher up into the magwell. Most of my RO mags have some play in this area and they tend to drop down out of the magwell about 1 or 2mm after they are inserted. The feeding isn't affected by this on the standard mags because the feed angle is so high. Since the feed angle on the drum tower isn't as agressive, I welded and then filed the upper inside of the mag catch so the the feed lips just barely pass under the notches on the underside of the bolt.

[Nate7667]

First i have looked at this thread since sometime last week

WELL DONE GENTLEMEN!!!

[gfunk]

is centerfire still the best deal on these mags?