backbencher

Been running ML Cad 3.40 for a couple of years now, have generally figured it out. Is there a parts update? Looking for a small plate with a hole through it, ie, a 2x2 plate or tile. A 2x3 or 4x2 would work, but the only one I'm finding in the parts library is a 4x6 or a 4x4 round. I might be able to make it work w/ the 2x3 w/ round end, but a 2x2 would look better. I also remember an old (70's) 4x5 plate w/ hole that's not in the parts database. Is ML Cad a dead end & I should move to another platform? B/c of my work, I don't feel safe running LDD - nothing against the product, just don't want any legal entanglements.

They're back up.

toysnbricks

Is anyone selling the offbrand bricks in a marketplace by brick, a la BrickLink or BrickOwl? I've got about $20 worth of bricks in my rifle stock kit, would love to be able to cut costs & thereby prices.

Anyone else having a problem, or is it just me?

Got written up in an Outdoor blog: http://www.alloutdoor.com/2015/05/29/lego-butt-stock-ar-mil-spec-buffer-tube/

Rgr, thanks. However, they're not my pics - I just have permission to link to them.

Post Kragelizing, showing the lack of seepage due to the electrical tape: image

Warning - many pictures of American owned firearms. And alcohol. Short story - I designed a rifle stock out of plastic bricks. Sent a kit to my friend, who built it according to the online instructions, and KRAGLED it. Starting here: http://www.ar15.com/...ge=70#i52994572 image image image image image Complete: image Interior after Kragleizing, before 2-part epoxy, showing 3 of the 8 steel reinforcement rods: image The eight 10-24 (English) steel reinforcement rods: image The gap between the upper and lower parts, through which epoxy can seep: image image His solution to 2-part epoxy seepage - electrical tape: image And yes, I have HammerHammer's gracious permission to post nefarious pictures.

Spoke w/ a BATFE agent today @ the gun show, and he was of the opinion it may indeed be possible to have an illegal configuration of Lego in the US. So if you have .17" caliber firearms in your house, don't build what I posted above. He suggested I write Tech Branch to be sure, so I'll have to flesh out some designs in MLCAD and then write a rather lengthy letter. It would be amusing to have the same federal agency who raided the Branch Davidian church in Waco take up regulating children's toys.

In most European countries, they're apparently sold over the counter. And in the US, apparently "permanently affixed" air rifle suppressors are legal. I will probably have to write BATFE's Tech Branch before Kragelizing, lest they declare all Technic bricks w/ holes unregistered suppressor parts and attempt to seize them. A .17" HM2/Aguila/PMC round would fit through the holes, and if stoutly constructed and well-Kragelized, might hold up for a few shots. It's a $200 tax to build one's own suppressor @ home, but I hardly want to pay that much to fire a few shots out of a pistol I don't even own. I have no doubt that a .17" HMR round would grenade the thing.

I met a policeman today, and as he noticed my plastic brick rifle stock, he remarked that he knew of an actual suppressor made of Lego. He was apparently referencing this satirical video: It occured to me that the 4.5mm pellet (.177" in the US) would just clear through a Technic brick, which could serve as a baffle. So, while Lego won't hold up to actual firearm use, it should allow the silent killing of squirrels, which might be just the mystery meat Lord Business is looking for come next Tuesday...

Cheers, OP. Looks like there's some very useful utilities on this site. Glad I stumbled in here. ETA: May be a problem w/ my firewall, but the Java app failed to download the database on startup. I had to go to SourceForge, into the Files, and download the parts database myself. When it started after that, it downloaded the parts updates fine. However, I am getting an error: Unable to get updates Reason:javax.xml.stream.XML StreamException: ParseError at [row,col]:[1,3] Message: The markup in the document preceding the root element must be well-formed. I'm running Windows 7 64 bit on an HP ProBook, w/ Java 1.8_031, updating to 8 40 now. ETA2: Updated to 8.40, getting the same error when I launch BrickUtils.

I'm running ML Cad 3.4, and as I'm designing MOCs that have real world functions and have to interface to existing objects, it's very difficult to draw, model, fit, rebuild, and redraw. If I could import a correctly dimensioned CAD file into ML CAD, it would be much easier to see which bricks fit correctly, and the resulting angles of the object. Any ideas, tips?

Folks, Had this Feinstein stock prototype on display @ GT Distributors in Dallas, TX. When I went to refill the business card holder today, the stock was missing, and the staff of GT Distributors does not have it. This was a prototype, and as such, does not have the necessary steel reinforcing rods of the production stock: If you see someone with the prototype on their rifle, or, God forbid, their shotgun, urge them not to shoot it, and pass the information along to http://www.gtdist.com/ or me at www.FeinsteinGewehrWerke.com I am offering a production Mk 8 rifle stock kit for the return of the Mk 5C prototype. You may email me at GHBowling@FeinsteinGewehrWerke.com Gig 'em, Gregory Bowling Managing Member of Mischief Feinstein Gewehr Werke, LLC

And a superglued LEGO Rubik's cube: "

Here's someone who partially glued his candy machine to keep the candy & money inside: "

I use 2-part epoxy as gap filler, super glue seems to work well enough to bond the bricks themselves - if the glue holds when the brick shears, I figure that's good enough.

That's well stated. In my case, I'm using plastic bricks for several reasons: - they're readily available to a consumer across the world, unlike certain other materials and manufacturing processes - they appeal to children, which is important for my initial kit, as it's a kid length rifle stock - they're essentially unbannable and unregulatable, unlike other manufacturining processes - many people are familiar with how the bricks go together, having played with them as children What surprised me when I began this project is that while there is a large AFOL community on the web, the largest part of the community remains at play. I've seen a few useful MOCs, and doubtless there are many more - the artificial leg perhaps being the most useful, and unglued; but by and large, there is very limited knowledge of how to reinforce bricks to use in useful MOCs. I discovered the correct size of reinforcing rods on my own, for example, not from some LEGO reinforcement FAQ. I wasn't particularly surprised by the resistance to using bricks as useful parts on a firearm, given the large European community of AFOL, and the number of anti-gunners in the US. However, while one may not be interested in my rifle stock project or the follow-on, I think the knowledge that plastic bricks, properly glued and reinforced, can take magnum shotgun recoil is significant, and can certainly be used in useful MOCs.

Why do you think there's such a cultural resistance to glue in the AFOL community? LEGO even used the Kragle as an evil super-weapon in the LEGO movie. But there's no laws against gluing LEGO - purely a cultural norm among AFOLers. Is it the expense of buying more bricks? Seen as cheating when MOCing?

I've found using the cheap super glue works well if you put just a dot on the top of the bump. Depending on what's attaching to what, I may put a line of glue on the surface in between the bumps - though you have to be careful not to get too close to the edge, so it doesn't seep out.

Yes - no one makes an affordable thumbhole stock for ARs, and it's not particularly easy to make an AR thumbhole stock out of wood, due to needing to bore out the receiver extension hole so deeply. Wanting to reinforce an ABS plastic lower receiver, I've set out to build a thumbhole rifle stock out of plastic bricks. I've been sidetracked along the way to making a kit for children to build a child length stock, so their dad's rifle will fit them better, and they can participate in building a significant gun part that actually fits them. Now that I've reinforced the plastic bricks with metal rods, I'm rather confident that plastic bricks will suit for my purpose - my last test was with 24 rounds of 12 ga 3"(76mm) magnum 00 buckshot, before my shoulder elected to stop the test.

In answer to Captain Picard's question, and your assertion, I found my plastic brick rifle stock didn't hold together when I fired it, unless I used Kragle. And when I tested the new version on a 12 ga shotgun, I found that even some of the bricks sheared under the recoil. That's when I went to metal inserts.

The Feinstein Project is an attempt to make a working semi-automatic AR lower receiver out of plastic bricks and other easily accessible materials. Feinstein Gewehr Werke, LLC, manufactures and retails plastic brick AR rifle stocks.