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The GRT-III manufacturing process
described here will give you a pretty good idea
of just how involved in making the GRT-III
trigger is.
The GRT-III Trigger, though in
appearance seems to be quite simple, is a very
complex, intricate and precisely machined part.
Below is an overview of the manufacturing
process (with pictures above) in a nutshell so
that you may see what is fundamentally involved
and just why it is so effective, efficient and
such a success. Some of the manufacturing
processes, procedures and measurements are vague
with intent. The GRT-III manufacturing process
would be extremely difficult to duplicate.
Make a Trigger Prototype:
Of course you need a prototype
design to start out with. This provides the
basic design and configuration.
Make a basic Dimensional Drawing:
From that prototype, an initial
dimensional drawing needs to be made and a
measurement point of reference is determined.
This point of reference is used to determine any
and all of the other points of measurements used
in and for the CNC machine programming.
The triggers are cut from
Aluminum bar stock ¼ inch by 2 inch by 8ft. The
stock is cut down to the desired lengths to fit
the jig. The prototype jig, used for testing and
design, is designed to hold and cut a single
trigger while this Master jig is designed to
hold and cut 8 triggers at a time.
Building a basic CNC program to
cut out trigger (the beginning of the Master
program).
The Master program consists of
many phases or sub-programs. As each phase of
the milling process is set up and tested and
approved, it is then added to the master program
in the proper sequence of the manufacturing
process.
Making the jigs is and must be
extremely precise and is complex and time
consuming process as is developing the program
for the CNC machine and very expensive to say
the least. It takes the sales just to pay for
this aspect of the manufacturing costs. And…if
any error are made, it is very costly, usually a
total loss.
Make a 1st stage
prototype mounting hole setup jig and test:
Build the program for the 8 place
1st stage mounting hole setup
Make permanent 8 place 1st
machining stage mounting hole setup jig:
In order to be able to mill out
something it has to be able to be held securely
and exactly in place each and every time, time
after time. There is no room for error here or
anywhere else in the milling operations.
Preparing the plate for cutting:
This jig is used to perform the
operation of drilling out 16 precisely located
holes, 2 in each trigger of two different
precise diameters in the raw material. This is
done in four passes on the CNC machine, one for
each size hole per trigger and then each hole is
reamed with a precision reamer to an exact
diameter within five 10,000th of an
inch.
The part is then removed from the
jig and all 16 holes per side, both sides, for a
total of 32 holes, are slightly chamfered by
hand to remove sharp edges. It can now be
mounted in the Master jig and be fitted
precisely and held in place.
Make a Prototype 2nd
stage cutout Jig and test
Make two permanent 8 place 2nd
stage Jig (Master Jigs)
Build program for 2nd
machining stage setup
Build chamfer pass program side
“A” , and incorporate sub program into Master
CNC program
This jig is used to mount the
plates that we drilled the mounting holes into
for cutting out the trigger itself. Once mounted
using 16 screws, the CNC machine cuts the 8
triggers out using three passes per trigger. The
first pass is the cutout, the second pass is the
rough cut and the final pass is the finish cut.
That is a total of 24 cuts per jig. Then, the 8
triggers are partially chamfered on side A where
the finger sets. That is a total of 32 passes on
the jig for just this phase of the operation.
Every time the finished stage of
the mounted material is removed from the jig,
the jig is thoroughly cleaned prior to mounting
new material as is the new plate going in. One
tiny piece of trash on the surface of either
piece can easily ruin that piece.
Build chamfer pass program side
“B” add sub program to Master CNC program
Build finger pad cuts program,
four individual operations, side “B” and
incorporate sub-program into Master CNC program
The cut out triggers are complete
on side A. The jig is removed from the CNC
machine, the 16 mounting screws are removed from
the triggers and the triggers removed from the
jig. They are then inverted and turned 180
degrees and re-mounted with the screws to the
jig and reinstalled in the CNC machine to finish
side B.
Side B of the trigger is now
chamfered and the four individually cut lines
for the finger pad are now cut into the trigger.
That makes 5 cuts in 8 triggers for 40 more
cuts.
The triggers are now removed from
the jigs and the basic roughed in trigger is now
complete but far from finished. From this point,
it goes into several semi-manual phases of
manufacturing.
Next, the triggers are each
individually milled one at a time in four passes
on a computer controlled milling machine. The
trigger is mounted into a jig and the lever slot
is now be machined in to a specified depth and
width. Based on one master jig of triggers,
that’s 40 cut/passes.
Milling and drilling in the
adjustment stages:
A slight flat surface is milled
in the slightly curved area of the trigger where
the 1st stage adjustment will be
drilled later in the process. This flat surface
keeps the drill/tap bit from canting due to the
drilling angle and breaking later.
The recessed hole for the 2nd
stage adjustment screw is drilled to a specified
depth. The hole for the adjustment screw itself
is drill/tapped and must be drilled accurately
within a very close tolerance.
Next the 1st stage
hole is drilled for tapping. The final tapping
for the 1st stage adjustment screw is
done later after the trigger is anodized.
For all intent and purposes, the
machining part of the GRT-III trigger is now
complete.
Holy smokes….
What this boils down to is that
there are over 210 cutting, milling, drilling
and tapping operations per each master jig of
triggers or more than 26 operations per trigger
to this point. That does not include the
installation and removal of the 16 mounting
screws per jig each time during the loading and
unloading of the jigs for the different stages
of operations as they progress.
Then a number of the triggers at
a time are placed into a tumbler along with
thousands of small stainless steel ball bearings
and tumbled for about twenty minutes to smooth
out any remaining sharp edges. Now the trigger
blades are individually sanded by hand on a
sanding wheel, finished on on the sides to
remove the majority of any small scratch marks.
washed and prepared to be sent out to be
anodized. The GRT-III trigger blades are now
anodized for color, as well as resistance to
wear and corrosion.
After returning from being
anodized, the final step is mounting each of the
triggers individually into a jig for the tapping
of the 1st stage adjustment hole. The
manufacturing process is now finally complete.
It is now prepared for final
assembly. The tension spring for the 2nd
stage adjustment is cut from a length of stock
wire and the 2nd stage stainless
adjustment screw and tension spring are then
installed. The Allen head 1st stage
adjustment screw is installed and seated with
care to its approximate proper depth.
And finally, it’s tested and
prepared to ship.
Each and every GRT-III trigger is
now placed into a Gamo trigger housing where it
is tested and both the 1st and 2nd
stages are adjusted to a point that would be
acceptable to almost all shooters making it a
true drop in modification. It is removed then
from the trigger housing, placed in a poly bag
with the .050 Allen tool and readied to be sent
to its proud new owner.
When ordered, it then is placed
into a bubble wrap envelope, address label
printed out, sealed, stamped and taken to the
post office and mailed out.
There you are…as simple as
that…and all of that for a mere $28.50 plus
postage and handling....lol…
Thank you
Click
above on Charlie for contact
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