Well after you have a half dozen or so ARs you have to start thinking of something you haven't done before.
I bought the first components in December 2016 and completed the build this month.
Had a 3+ year delay because I wasn't able to source a particular skeleton lower that went OOS for good.
During COVID I got off my ass and ended up making a router jig to skeltonize a cheap poverty pony lower from the parts bin.
I estimate the handguard at 100+ hours and everything else at another 100+.
Not proud of those hour counts but just throwing it out there if people are wondering.



Handguard is clad in heavy gauge copper sheeting, stainless perforated sheet, 1/8" brass bar stock, and real copper rivets.
  Ending up buying a sheet metal shearing tool, slip roller, and pneumatic riveter.
  Had to fab up a custom bucking bar to reach the rivets on the inside of handguard.
  Where the bars overlap they are not butted together but rather half-lapped by plowing with a router and a jig I made.
  Used a spreadsheet on most of the pieces because you have to factor in the material thickness and how it deforms through slip roller.
  Metal sheeting is bent/curved with the slip roller to be formed around a Nordic plain jane 2" tube.
  Had to pre-plan all the rivot placements to avoid the open slots on the Nordic tube underneath.
16" midlength gas nitride barrel.



I was planning on having the lengthwise brass band on the bottom of the rail (to be out of sight) but then decided when assembling to put it on the
top side because it looked pretty good. If I would have known that from the start I could have avoided having the seams visible on the top side
of the circular bands.   Was fortunate enough that seams looked acceptable enough to be top and center.



Assorted build materials and rivets. 20ga copper sheeting. 22ga stainless perforated.
Brass bands get drilled prior to going through slip roller.
First pass of vapored copper sheet was too blue and too susceptible to being rubbed off.



Was trying to figure out how to modify an MG42 hider but the diameter was just so large that I don't think it would have transitioned nicely.
A Krink can with a welded extension wrapped in 12ga romex got a decent effect with substantial less effort.



Hand made aluminum "exhaust port" frame with.  Held in place with drilled and tapped 2-56 hold-downs to the receiver.
  The port screen is cut from an Amazon 5$ sink strainer and distressed.
Custom hand routed skelton lower
Antique clock gears sourced from France on Ebay.
Pewter 1911 grips from Adams engraving.
  Big debate with wifey on grips. Bought the 1911 grip thinking that I was going to put on some distressed wood panels.
  Stumbled upon the pewter grips and thought the engraved panels might be a good match with Victorian steampunk.
  May get some cheap Ebay wood panels and experiment.
1x4 scoped clad in 12ga romex, red bell wire, and amonia+salt etched copper plate.
  The romex copper wire wrap was a pain because it kept wanting to unwind until I started heating the wire with a blowtorch before
  bending it plus soldering a seam on the bottom side. Of coarse made that wrap on a sacrificial pipe and let it cool before sliding onto scope.
  Similar problem with red wire which I resolved with a clear epoxy seam on it's bottom side.
  I wanted to avoid ugly screw type clamps and ended up with low-profile Oetiker type from McMaster. Lots of other assorted hardware from McMaster.
  Clamp the oetiker tight enough to hold without crushing the scope.
One final task is to refinish the bipod into steampunk style and truncate the pic rail so that it's covered by the bipod QD connector.
Krylon Fusion Textured Hammered Copper (2 coats) over standard Anderson base black receiver
  Follow that with Krylon High Heat black
  Follow that with variety of scotch brite pads (green/brown/gray) to take off the black at selected areas
  The hammered textured copper captures the black and causes the pitted effect
  I have no idea how well it's going to hold up but this isn't a brush gun.
  Krylon Champagne Bromze for the switch gear and small parts.



I discovered that the damn 1911 grip frame (Indian Creek) places the grip panel too close to the safety so you have to hack up the
grip panels. That caused a bunch of cuss words about having to dremel a set of $50 panels. Also the frame wasn't drilled
for 1911 standard bushings but rather a simple 6-32 bolt which didn't work with panels. I had to get a very fine pitched tap (0.236-60 TPI)
to make the holes for standard bushings. I should have returned that frame to Indian Creek but by that time I had already painted them.

Project was on hold for 3 years as I tried to source a skeletonized lower receiver that went OOS.
Ended up making a router jig and method to make some  evenly spaced 1/4" wide plows.
I might repaint the magazine release bar in the bronze color.
The serial number and manufacturer rollmark hides (mostly) underneath the exhaust port.
The ALG trigger dry fires as normal despite the gears inside.  I thinned the inside gears down a bit.



Amonia vapor etched copper sheeting. Took a few tries with the salting and etch times to get the blue that I wanted.
The remainder of the original black paint on the scope just knocked down with some rough sandpaper and scotch brite.



Padauk wood inserted into a Luth MBR stock.
Brass rod and Brass knurled nuts for hold down.
Nod to Red Ryder with functional brass compass.
Functional steampunky watch from Ebay with custom copper clamps.



The perforated sheeting allows the Padauk to peek through.
Gauge face from VintageWire with a custom gauge face insert by me.





Hand drilled standard ejection door
Gear is mounted to ambi safety so it rotates when safety is rotated.
Custom exhaust port again from raw aluminum stock.
Pricey $35 skeleton trigger guard (M&S Precision)






20 and 30 round matching mags.
Thinking about a leather wrap on the 30rd to introduce another material into the build.
Maybe laser etch the leather with a logo







I want to give credit to Youtuber Fire Mountain Outdoors for steampunk idea, the Luth stock, and paint solution.
By the way, it weighs in at 13.2 pounds

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                       BUILD DETAILS
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Copper wrap in flat form. Stagger the overlapping tabs at the seam so each tab will ultimately get hit by a rivet.



Undereneath the copper seam overalp is another thinner copper sheet.
On top of that I temporarily secured in place lengths of solder as pictured below.
I then slip rolled the primary copper cheet and wrapped it around the tube, secured temporarily with screw clamps, and then
blowtorched the seam and thus ended up with a soldered seam that is reinforced by the underlying sheet of copper.



Finished soldered seam. Each of the tabs is hit by a rivet so the wrap is riveted on both ends of the seam.
The tab width is slightly less then the width of the brass bar so the tabs are hidden.



Prepping stainless wrap. It also has interlocking tabs and help by rivets. No underlying support like the copper piece.
Probably would been better to weld in place but my welding skills are somewhat lacking.



Lots of test fittings with temporary screw clamps
I don't have any pictures of the riveting and bucking bar. Take my word it was a major PITA.



Salt plus amonia vapor copper sheeting for scope wrap.



Various attempts to get the right amount of blue.
Fabbing up copper romex wraps on flash hider and scope body.
Krink unit has a steel extension so that I could get the copper coils to extend underneth the handguard and get a bull barrel effect.
Copper coils wrapped on a pipe mandrel and soldered on bottom to help keep the coils in place.
If I had to do it again the copper wrap on scope would maybe be swapped out with a leather wrap with visible sticthing.



2-56 tapping of lower receiver to attach exhaust port bolts.
Slots in receiver are made with a custom jig that I made for router. 1/4" slot width




Prepping scope.
Copper wrap ready to be slipped on.



Besides the Oetiker clamps holding copper sheet in place I also used some very thin VHB (very high bond) double sided tape.

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Eta: WOW!!

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I'm..... speechless.

Sweet! Even has a compass in the stock and a thing that tells time!

EPIC! well done.

Steampunk!

Nice! Any plans for the bipod?

Edit, can see it.

Aboslutely gorgeous, hell of a job.

Sorry, but I had to steal the pic to show people what a fantastic steampunkish thing you have built - proper attribution was done. Truly excellent, sir.

Well done.  The hours prove dedication.  The results speak for themselves.    

More details?  More pics.  Progress pics?

Labor of love.  Well done.

I like it, I really like it.

Missing a fold out damascus kukri bayonet.

IN for range report.

Edit: Excellent work by the way.

Damn that's gorgeous. Belongs in a movie.

Very impressive work!

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That's absolutely gorgeous and amazing looking but how does it function, also does it hold up well after being fired?

Nice job!!!

Finished it around Christmas time.
Haven't shot it yet to see what falls off or loosens up.
Since it weighs about 13 pounds the recoil will be dampened quite a bit.

Its bad ass!!!!!  It will only look better once the copper gets some patina on it

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Dude, that is amazing.  Love steampunk

Hopefully you’ll keep us updated on how it ages and how it looks with a few years of age on the metal.

Impressive, I like it OP - fantastic attention to detail.

Stunning!

Make it out of bones.

That's some nice work.

dude.. thats badass

Thats actually pretty cool.

Round over the top forward edge of the 1911 slabs, that overhang looks like crap. Why can't you take any pride in your work?

Seriously, nice job, makes me want to roam the wastelands.

How well does it group?

One thought it Looks 2050 Sanford and Son
 Lamont goes wasteland.    Cool as can be.  
 
   Great vision you saw to completion.  

   Hand that to someone in low light/ dark that would know the form, for the most part and turn on the light.  

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Holy shit

It does stick out like a sore thumb.
I'm thinking about moving to some distressed wood panels.
Going to see if I like the wood ones better before hacking those pewter grips. Maybe I can resell the pewter ones.

Did you machine out the serial number and manufacturers data?

That is awesome

Amazing.  Your craftsmanship and attention to detail are top notch.

Nope, it's hiding underneath the exhaust port cover.

The bullet counter! Where can I get one?!?

That's too cool for school!! Great attention to detail.

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I hear these guys would like to talk to you about a business venture.....

Holy shit, that is awesome!

Dude. Wow.