Humvee (HMMWV) Turret - full rotation with gun mount

[MinnesotaDave]

Local gun store wanted a hatch, I offered to make "a little more" than a hatch

The turret rotates 360 degrees and the gun mount is modular so it can be modified as needed.

All completely designed on the fly, as I built, no plans.

It's all for his advertising purposes, 4th July parades and such.

....But I did also make a mount for the real .50 cal so it can be fired from up there at the gun store's range

(I was under a tight schedule and finished with two back-to-back 20 hr days with a torn meniscus for the local parade)







The little helper is 2


Some help from my sweetie

[MinnesotaDave]

Drill bit and scribe through a drilled hole in the end...it's how professionals do it - lol.






Great Dane shop dog


Another professional scribe - lol

[MinnesotaDave]

Everything is 1/4" plate. Thank god for mag drills and ironworkers





Some 3am side panel bending...




The inner roof plate. Floor mounted bars will also be mounted to this. They will bolt through the factory tie down points in the floor.

[labparamour]

Nice work. It looks great!

Now, when ya gonna get that knee taken care of? Hope that turns out just as well.

Darryl

[MinnesotaDave]

Those angle irons bolt through the inner roof plate and take out the 2" bow that was in the roof.
They are also the attachment points for the road tie downs.


Here you can see the 4 plates bolted that are the upper mounts for the floor braces.


The floor braces. Two independent side braces and the rear one is a "V"

[MinnesotaDave]

Travel lock tie downs.


Figuring out how to make a gun mount at 2am of delivery day




The black mount is for the aluminum cast .50 cal.
The components shown are for the real mount.
I machined a 6 degree internal taper in the cylinder. It started life as a solid 1.5" round.
The tip of that pin bolt has 3 tapers on it. 5 deg, 10 deg and 15 deg.
Then I used a file with the lathe running to dress them together.
The South Bend 16" and 10" heavy both got work on this project.


The square tube got a 3/4" locating hole for the nut. I turned half of the nut down round to locate.
The interior tapered cylinder got a 3/16" hole to support the pin.

[MinnesotaDave]

Last set of pictures

I beveled with the lathe.


Tacked up...hate the look of the nut for the pin bolt...


Fixed it...and added a lock nut.


Done.


and Done!
This mount fits the real .50 cal.

[MinnesotaDave]

Oops... forgot a couple.
The aluminum rain hatch has an inner steel piece too.
Just using what was on hand.


The baby says "it's so bright out here" - lol

[M J D]

I saw some pics earlier, but they didn't really give justice to how elaborate the pieces really are. Nice job and I'm sure the dude you built it for is more than happy how it turned out. Did you ever get your cam lock fixed for the Chuck?

[scsmith42]

Wow - helluva project Dave!

I imagine that shooting that .50 cal is fun but at 5 bucks a round it's not too fun....

Thanks for bringing us along with you on the build.

Scott

[MinnesotaDave]

Nice work. It looks great!

Now, when ya gonna get that knee taken care of? Hope that turns out just as well.

Darryl

Thanks! VA doctor said to give it a few months and see if it heals naturally. Surgery is an option after that.
I actually tore it the day before I started the build...although I have no idea how. Just woke up that way.
She said it wouldn't take much with my poor knee condition.

I saw some pics earlier, but they didn't really give justice to how elaborate the pieces really are. Nice job and I'm sure the dude you built it for is more than happy how it turned out. Did you ever get your cam lock fixed for the Chuck?

Thanks! He seemed pretty pleased
I have not ordered a new cam lock yet. Still not caught up....as usual

Wow - helluva project Dave!

I imagine that shooting that .50 cal is fun but at 5 bucks a round it's not too fun....

Thanks for bringing us along with you on the build.

Scott

Thanks! It turned out pretty good.
Every part was a one-time, one-off, has to work to stay on schedule, design as you build, type thing.

I'll try and convince him that I should be able to shoot it for free for a few rounds

He also has a Browning 1919 that uses the same 6 degree taper mount

[Bls repair]

Very nice Dave

[sapperb]

You got mad skills Brah... Love me some "Ma Deuce"..Fired one many times, In Iraq and Afghanistan....

[SlowBlues]

Awesome build! The owner should get a t-shirt cannon to put in the mount and use for advertising. also, I see the whole fam got in on that one - good times and memories. Kids love big military or off road vehicles, probably looks like a big rolling jungle gym to them lol.

Sorry to hear about the knee (though looks like it didn't slow you down too much), hopefully it heals up quickly on it's own. Be sure to mind your diet to give your body to fuel and nutrients to repair and rebuild, a steady diet of 7018 with some 6010 for breakfast should do it!

[M J D]

Now all you need to do is start a 4 or 5 page thread describing how to turn a taper , with plenty of drama thrown in. I just mounted up the new 3 jaw Chuck and checked it. Used a new reamer with a long straight shank, since it was ground, just over 1 thousandth run-out about 4" from the Chuck. Can't complain about that. Good to see yougetting plenty of use out of that 16" lathe.

[Don52]

I really enjoy your step-by-step pictures including techniques for how you do things. Thanks for taking the time to put together this excellent post.

-Don

[farmersammm]

Pretty nice.

Let's ya appreciate the fact that the HMMVV's are falling apart as fast as they can fix them. They've added so much stuff that the suspensions, and drivetrains, are failing at a rapid rate. Anyways, that's what I recall reading some time back.

[MinnesotaDave]

Very nice Dave

Thanks

You got mad skills Brah... Love me some "Ma Deuce"..Fired one many times, In Iraq and Afghanistan....

Thank you and thank you for serving as well

Awesome build! The owner should get a t-shirt cannon to put in the mount and use for advertising. also, I see the whole fam got in on that one - good times and memories. Kids love big military or off road vehicles, probably looks like a big rolling jungle gym to them lol.

Sorry to hear about the knee (though looks like it didn't slow you down too much), hopefully it heals up quickly on it's own. Be sure to mind your diet to give your body to fuel and nutrients to repair and rebuild, a steady diet of 7018 with some 6010 for breakfast should do it!

Thanks
Him and his wife have 7 kids - they used it for a playground immediately

7018 was right after actually.
They picked it up on the way to the 4th of July parade.
I took a nap.
Then started in on some bobcat lift arm welding - by 3am I was done, showered and asleep

[Sandy]

By golly that was one heck of a task to take on with that short notice. You pulled it off tho. Looks great. Good execution on the gun mount. That would have been a weeks job for me.

[MinnesotaDave]

Now all you need to do is start a 4 or 5 page thread describing how to turn a taper , with plenty of drama thrown in. I just mounted up the new 3 jaw Chuck and checked it. Used a new reamer with a long straight shank, since it was ground, just over 1 thousandth run-out about 4" from the Chuck. Can't complain about that. Good to see yougetting plenty of use out of that 16" lathe.

That's pretty darn close for a 3 jaw. Nice job on the backing plate

Taper: I did some measuring of the part I was given.
Did some trig, came out to 6 degrees.
Set up compound for 6 degrees.
Tapered until outer diameter was correct.
Take part out of 4 jaw.
I did have to make an adapter so I could use the quick change from the 10" on the 16" to use my boring bar....the horror...the drama

I really enjoy your step-by-step pictures including techniques for how you do things. Thanks for taking the time to put together this excellent post.

-Don

Thanks Don - it was an interesting build and as usual, I learned a lot.

Pretty nice.

Let's ya appreciate the fact that the HMMVV's are falling apart as fast as they can fix them. They've added so much stuff that the suspensions, and drivetrains, are failing at a rapid rate. Anyways, that's what I recall reading some time back.

Thanks

[MinnesotaDave]

By golly that was one heck of a task to take on with that short notice. You pulled it off tho. Looks great. Good execution on the gun mount. That would have been a weeks job for me.

Thank you Sandy - it was pretty daunting to design and build everything quickly.

And since I worked about 40 hours the last two days, I'd say almost impossible - lol.

[robson1015]

Really nice work ! Cool project

[Munkul]

you mean you made that out of regular steel and not high strength AR plate?

Very cool job... I suppose the main bonus for you is that whenever someone asks the gunshop "who built that for you?" they'll point them straight to your door... indirect advertising

[Fast Leroy]

Very cool! Hope that knee gets better.

[farmshop]

Cool build. Nice to see another person on the site that just goes with it too many times things get over thought and over complicated when all you need to do is start building