India Photos ~ RMPS

[Quinnf]

I was just thinking the same thing. 

It's one thing to make crappy product when you have good tools. 
It's another to make crappy product when you're limited by your tools. 
It's still another to make something that is actually useful when you're working under primitive conditions. 

Quinn

[Doug]

Atul said something intersting in an email to me....

Graphite used to cover casting flaws....

On the one hand its nice to know the foundery has some to adjust the carbon content provided of course they are actualy reading the content an doing soem testing before the pour.

These guys don't look loke they are doing any of that.

I am some where torn between depressed by the fact this is how so many parts are made and scared.

This kind of work criples and kills, and this kind of product has the same potential.

Doug

[mobile_bob]

many years ago, i picked up a us news and world report
it was when the russians were doing battle in afganistan

the article was about the problems they had on the ground, and the resourcefulnes of the afgan people

on one page it had a picture of an afgan blacksmith who having been given a russian rifle
had built every piece of the gun, (actually many pieces to make many rifles) all over a small pit on the ground
and with a hand vise and files. the story went that his pieces would fit any of the original guns and could be assembled into working weapons

it was quite an achievement.

would i fire one? probably if i was faced with trying to defend myself, and was faced with either throwing a rock or use the replica weapon.

it still seams a bit amazing to me, that given the circumstances, conditions, pay rate etc, that the indians build an engine that not only runs
but seems to work adequately for many people.
bob g

[Doug]

I'm sure its true because I saw a story like that on the news too. They even showed them case hardening parts in clay pot.

Would I fire a gun like that?

I own a SKS, I probably have....

Doug

[hotater]

The Kyber Pass gunmakers are quite the bunch.  I've seen a filmed 'tour' of four centers of trade in that area and have owned four "Kyber copies".  It's amazing work powered by nothing but muscle power and done under the most primitive of conditions.

It's interesting to note that the Kyber guns are *copies* of existing models.  Even the screw holes for attachments never adopted in the original guns are present in the copies.

Gunmaker riddle---  You know why Kyber guns never have aluminum parts?

The kid pedaling the lathe can't go fast enough to machine it!

All the machinery I saw in the film was powered by one or more younsters on stationary bikes.   I'm sure by now there're engines and slack belt drives, at the least.

Stone age, Bronze age, Iron age, to Industrial revolution.  They're making progress.  As with progress before them, it's the switching from human and animal power to fossil fuels that allow it to happen.

If we didn't burn oil, what WOULD we do with it??

[michigandon]

I know it's them trying to sell their wares and all, but if you go view the slidewhows over @ the Field Marshall website, their factory appears to be just a wee bit more 20th century than the one shown in the beginning of this thread. 

[mobile_bob]

yes but if you look critically at their pictures you will see that they are carefully staged

for instance a guy using a depth guage that clearly has no clue how to use it.

they will put on their best face as anyone would for a commercial, but the real work is done in the dirt.

about 25 years ago, i went into a IH truck dealer in kansas, front end show room, parts dept very typical and what you would expect
for a modern shop

go back to the shop and i found it to be a cave , dimmly lit, looked like it had been on fire several times, and the back half of the shop was
a "DIRT" floor,, and yes they were doing inframe overhauls back there...

you can be sure that if a commercial was made, you would never see the shop and the dirt floor.

bob g