So if you’ve read the “About” page, you may have noticed that I claimed that we here at Forgotten Weapons are building (and selling) neat old guns. Well, the various folks here have all built guns from kits to one extent or another, but we are just beginning to get on track building on a more serious level. The shop we use was in a bit of disarray, and we’ve been spending a lot of time rebuilding and rearranging it into a really top-notch facility. I’ll be posting a shop tour video in a couple of weeks – something along the lines of the tour of Red Jacket posted on the Discovery Channel web site, but much more impressive. And with so much less drama. 🙂
In fact, we will be posting video content before too much longer, as we get some real projects up and running. No bogus deadlines or shady mustachioed clients, and lots of technical content. We love what we’re doing, and we to share it and encourage other interested folks to try their hands at it.
But I digress. The news today is that we are starting to plan out the first project. We are going to be building a handful of semiauto DP light machine guns. This won’t be a commercial enterprise – you can already buy a nice semi DP made by Wiselite, and we don’t have enough parts to make very many. This is a project to break in the new shop, and to get us each a DP – who wouldn’t want a DP? Besides being fun to shoot with pan magazines, they will serve as testbeds for the RP46 belt-fed conversions we will be making and selling later on.
We’re going to be rewelding these (instead of making new receivers from scratch), so the important parts are overlapping receiver sections (including intact barrel sockets), intact shrouds, and intact barrels. We laid out what we have, to plan what we can build.
We’ve got six good front receiver sections, six shrouds, 5 good barrels (plus a couple demilled ones), and six center receiver sections with intact locking recesses. Rear receiver sections will be a bit trickier – some have matching pieces, some are overlapping, and a couple will need to be welded to partial center sections and then cut square and welded a second time onto intact center sections. The trick is to match up pieces from the various types of demil cuts made on the different batches of kits that were imported. Intact barrels are fairly rare for the DPs, so we may need to come up with a creative way to salvage the interrupted threads from a demilled one and fit them onto a new barrel turned to the correct profile.
We’re going to make a mix of DP28 and DPM guns, so we need to work out (or copy) an acceptable semiauto fire control system for both models. The DPM has a recoil spring running behind the bolt that will make it a bit trickier unless we use DP-28 spring assemblies in both versions. Which might be the simplest solution.
Anyway, the first step is putting together a jig for rewelding the receivers. I’ll post more information on how we’re doing that in a week or two when we’ve made some progress on it (there is still a lot of work to be done on the shop – the EDM and all three lathes still need to be hooked up, and the welding area finished). Stay tuned for more updates as the project progresses!
Love the thought of building one of these. Looking forward to the next installment.
This sounded like a great winter project, so I ordered a DPM kit. It arrived today and I was impressed with the overall condition but, the receiver was demilled a bit too much. As with most remainig sets the front receiver section with the barrel jacket threads was torched into useless junk. The barrel also was drilled 3 times but would be great for a dummy build. The search for a good barrel and some more demilled receivers to match up is my next quest. Looking forward to your progress report.
Unfortunately, intact DP barrels are pretty hard to find now. The receivers cut through the barrel threads and be used with a good jig and careful cleaning, or they can be built as fixed-barrel guns without the quick-detach capability.
You might try Military Gun Supply to see if they will sell you a center receiver section not torched through the locking recesses.
I was wondering if you could help me out with a build that I’ll be making(DPM). The question I have is how would one go about making a DPM semi auto?(did you guys find out how?) If you can send links/pictures on how to make a DPM semi auto that would help out a lot.
Thanks for your time.
Donaven Davidson
Sorry, Donaven, but the DP/DPM build wound up on our back burner, and we haven’t done anything further on it yet. I would suggest looking at the forums on Weapons Guild.
ok thanks, Ill look into that. If not I think I know how to make it semi, I’ll know if/when I get the parts
Hello, do you still have any DPM shrouds. if you want to sell one i would be happy to buy one off you. i have sent my kit so SMG but they don’t make barrel shrouds for the DPM and I’ve looked everywhere for them. if you know anyone else who has any spare shrouds then please contact me
Really interested in this build is it still on a halt?
Yes, it is.
My DP28 has been completed for a number of years now, so if we were able to locate enough information on the conversion (rather than coming up with an all new design), and we are able to come up with the funds, I’m sure we can create a prototype to verify that it works as intended, and then determine if the design cannot be improved, as a DIY Kit to convert the DP28 and/or DPM to belt fed. for the purpose of building the kits, and selling them on Weaponeer.net
I am trying to get my dp28 built into a semi but am in need of receiver sections. Any suggestions? also looking for building plans or a company that will take my kit and build it. I have all the parts but my receiver was horribly torch cut. Could really use the advice.
I need a barrel and the end piece the barrel is twisted into. That would complete my display. Would you be able to get me in contact with these parts? Thanks S.D. Head
i also need a front part of the receiver where the barrel threads into, if you dont need one of them ill buy one off of you
On the PPSH 43 prototype, where is the receiver cut? Is it near the mag well?
One is 199, the other 100, what’s the big price difference.
I’m searching for the Magazine well (length) dimensions of the DP27 or DP28. I’ve seen the print that’s on the internet, but is shows the dimension to the dust cover, not necessarily the well length