The Folding Stock

One of the main pieces needed to make the Blaster Rifle authentic looking is the folding stock. This item was mainly keep folder up under the gun in the Star Wars movies, but creating one that unfolds gives the gun that little something extra. The whole folding stock is made out if 1/2 inch wide flat iron. Most hardware storees keep flat iron in stock for small repair items that farmers need. A rivet gun is a very welcome tool when creating the Folding stock.

The main arm of the folding stock reaches from the back of the pistol grip to the front of the gun.

Here is a mechanical illustration of the folding stock and how it connects together.


The stock assembled. Notice that the shoulder plate of the stock has two rivets on one end that pop into holes on the main folding stock support arms.

Bend two metal bars to curve in when they clear the pistol grip in the front, these make the folding stock support arms. The bends will allow you to fold the stock up under the blaster body correctly.

You'll need to rivet a second metal bar to each main folding stock support arms. This will allow the folding stock to unfold into the firing position. Make sure these bars extend .5 inches past the ends of the support arms. The shoulder plate needs to connect outside the reach of the support arms to unfold properly.


Here's the shoulder plate fabricated out of sheet metal.


The folding stock completed.

You'll need to round off the corners of the metal bars in order not to hurt yourself when unfolding the stock. Use caution if you use a bench grinder to smooth out the corners.

Here's a close up of the connectivity of the shoulder rest and smaller metal bar for the folding stock.

The folding stock unfolded.


You'll need to make a clip to keep the folding stock secured underneath the blaster body. Without this, the weight of the stock will be resting against your hand... and that's not comfortable. :)

We drilled a hole through the pistol grip to attach the folding stock to the blaster.

We used a regular NUT and BOLT to secure the folding stock to the pistol grip. This allows us to disassemble the stock for repairs or changes to the folding stock design. We placed a small washer between the stock and the wooden pistolgrip in order to minimize the rubbing off of the pistol grips paint as the stock is folded and unfolded.