m134/gau-17 minigun
- Thread starter Freeman25
- Start date
The barrels turn clockwise as seen from the muzzle end. The electric motor drives the barrel rotor, the barrel rotor drives the delinker. The disintigrating belt links are ejected from the delinker, the fired shells are ejected from the rotor housing between the motor and delinker.
Edit: Here's a diagram of the operating cycle I did in about 10 minutes. Please don't laugh.
This is from the breech end of the gun. It should be noted that an original General Electric mount has the gun mounted as seen in the picture. The new Dillon Aero mounts have the gun turned on it's side, as if you were to rotate this diagam 90 degrees clockwise.
The delinker pulls the feed belt in and wraps it around a spindle containing a group of six ramming piston things that push the cartridges forward, out of the belt, and throws them into the gun. It's timed to the rotor assembly so that the cartridges are thrown directly into the bolt paths. If it isn't timed correctly, it pushes them against the barriers between the bolt paths, jamming the gun and breaking the delinker.
As the bolts approach the top of the rotation, a camming track built into the rotor housing forces them forward to the closed position. At top of the rotation the bolts are fully closed and the cartridges are fired. As they come down the other side the bolts are drawn back, extracting the fired shells so they can be ejected at the bottom.
Edit: Here's a diagram of the operating cycle I did in about 10 minutes. Please don't laugh.
This is from the breech end of the gun. It should be noted that an original General Electric mount has the gun mounted as seen in the picture. The new Dillon Aero mounts have the gun turned on it's side, as if you were to rotate this diagam 90 degrees clockwise.The delinker pulls the feed belt in and wraps it around a spindle containing a group of six ramming piston things that push the cartridges forward, out of the belt, and throws them into the gun. It's timed to the rotor assembly so that the cartridges are thrown directly into the bolt paths. If it isn't timed correctly, it pushes them against the barriers between the bolt paths, jamming the gun and breaking the delinker.
As the bolts approach the top of the rotation, a camming track built into the rotor housing forces them forward to the closed position. At top of the rotation the bolts are fully closed and the cartridges are fired. As they come down the other side the bolts are drawn back, extracting the fired shells so they can be ejected at the bottom.
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Normally it would be powered from the electrical system of a running vehicle, however I'm told that it can run off of a 28vDC battery that weighed 60-something pounds. Then there's the weight of the gun, the massive amout of ammo it consumes, the mount the gun goes on, etc. I wouldn't exactly call that mobile, except maybe on a truck or something.
Control box
More detailed pictures of a minigun you will never find...granted a different one but a lot the same...
http://www.subgunvideos.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Charlie&page=1
More detailed pictures of a minigun you will never find...granted a different one but a lot the same...
http://www.subgunvideos.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=Charlie&page=1
Yes, there is. One. I think there are something like 7 or 8 Miniguns out on Form 4, and a while back one of them was modified to be fired off-hand from the waist by a Hollywood gunsmith. Rate of fire was reduced to 1600 rounds per minute (from the normal 2000/4000.) This was the gun that was used in The Predator and Terminator 2. The M-134 was never manufactured like that, that custom gun is one-of-a-kind. It was never even supposed to be used like that. It's a sixty pound gun that generates massive amounts of recoil when firing real ammo (as opposed to movie blanks.)
As CaspA has said, you could put a real M134 in that sort of frame, but it would probably seriously injure the operator if they fired it like that.
Just to give you an idea of the thrust the M134 puts out...
A friend of mine has a minigun (actually two...one is for sale IF you have a LE love letter, an SOT and about $60,000) - anyway, his gun is mounted to a modified M63 mount with a bicycle seat for the operator. I estimate the mount at about 80-90 lbs. My friend is a fairly big guy - about 200-210 lbs. The minigun weighs about another 20 lbs. Figure about 300 lbs sans ammo, battery, control system, feed chute, etc. He set the weapon up on a spot of ground covered with rough gravel. With less than a 50rds in a test belt, the force of the weapon pushed the weight of the entire mount (with him sitting in it) across hard gravel backwards approximately one foot...and again, that was less than 50rds in a single burst pushing about 300 lbs. against a very high friction surface.
What do you think the same short burst would do a 175-200 lb man firing from the hip?
Just to give you an idea of the thrust the M134 puts out...
A friend of mine has a minigun (actually two...one is for sale IF you have a LE love letter, an SOT and about $60,000) - anyway, his gun is mounted to a modified M63 mount with a bicycle seat for the operator. I estimate the mount at about 80-90 lbs. My friend is a fairly big guy - about 200-210 lbs. The minigun weighs about another 20 lbs. Figure about 300 lbs sans ammo, battery, control system, feed chute, etc. He set the weapon up on a spot of ground covered with rough gravel. With less than a 50rds in a test belt, the force of the weapon pushed the weight of the entire mount (with him sitting in it) across hard gravel backwards approximately one foot...and again, that was less than 50rds in a single burst pushing about 300 lbs. against a very high friction surface.
What do you think the same short burst would do a 175-200 lb man firing from the hip?
CobrayCommando
Moderator
Use blackpowder instead of cordite and you would be the human squid!
It seems that the m134 operates like an oversized gatling gun. The firing pins ride the cam block up and than drop through a slot at the top and slam home and fire the round. Its just not top fed and hand cranked. I wonder if dillion would build some rich guy a minigun...but instead of a motor a hand crank, so it would be legal 
Dillon will not sell miniguns (even post-samples to SOTs with LE love letters) or parts. If you know the right people, however, you can secure the parts you need - Dillon doesn't make all the parts, but rather subcontracts out some of the sub-assemblies.
If you've got the hankering for a hand-cranked minigun, Brass Cartridge is working on a rimfire version, both in a handcranked version, and post-sample version. IIRC, the hand-cranked version was suppossed to be priced at about $10k when it become available.
If you've got the hankering for a hand-cranked minigun, Brass Cartridge is working on a rimfire version, both in a handcranked version, and post-sample version. IIRC, the hand-cranked version was suppossed to be priced at about $10k when it become available.