This past week, we got all the various tools mounted in the presses and tested. As expected, there were a few minor adjustments needed. (There always are with this kind of work.) These bits of fine tuning (mostly to the insert and floorplate tool) will be made over the next couple of days. We anticipate running the first 1,000 mag bodies, 10,000 inserts, and 10,000 floorplates next week. 🙂

 

This is the insert-floorplate tool in the press.

This is the “strip” that the tool above creates. (Toes not included.)

 

Here’s an overview of the coil going into the straightener and then into the press.

 

This 425-lb coil of steel will be 10,000 ZMAG inserts and floorplates in a week.

 

In this video, we’re testing the tool for stamping the insert and floorplate. You can see that we need to add a plastic “bridge” to the very end to keep the strip from rising up. This test was done in manual mode. Once we start this up in production mode, the press will be pushing out 53 inserts and 53 floorplates every minute! 🙂 To put that in perspective, the inserts and floorplates we need for the first batch of 1,000 mags will be stamped out in just 18 minutes.