Monday, September 14, 2020

I admit to cheating.

I've mentioned a few times that I've had to draw all the parts for my PSG-None from scratch.  So, how do I do that and get reasonably accurate parts without having any actual PSG-1 parts to measure?  Simple, I cheat.  Solidworks has a feature that allows you to import a picture as a sketch, the Sketch Picture command.  What I do is find the most direct side shot of the object that I want to copy, import it into Solidworks, then scale it to the appropriate size.  For this project, I used the two rear takedown pin holes as my scaling guide, because I can directly measure the distance between those holes on the parts I have.  I just made a sketch with some points the correct distance apart, and scaled the image so it matched.

Then it's just a matter of creating 3D objects using the 2D picture as a guide.  Something to watch out for is if the object in the picture is tipped or has some lens distortion.  In this case, the gun in the picture was photographed at a slightly upward angle instead of a direct side shot, so the stock especially has some noticeable distortion because it's tall and straight.  You have to account for that in your sketching, and fudge as necessary.  Here's what my new parts look like overlaid on the picture I used as a guide.


I tried to be as accurate as I could, but still had to use some artistic license because I don't have real parts to measure.  I spent hours scouring the internet for reference photos and did the best I could without having parts in hand, and they look nice but these are in no way interchangeable with real PSG-1 parts(nor are they really intended to be, if you want a real clone buy real parts).  I also had to make some changes to work with my CETME parts kit, most notably in the handguard so that it would fit with the CETME trunion and cocking tube.  I took a lot of liberties on that one...  Here are what the parts look like without the guide picture in the way.  Just have to print them out and then wait until I get the receiver together to see how they fit.



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