TF2 Heavy Gun Build: Part 1

The Heavy gun my uncle Joe and I built for PAX was a huge undertaking. This thing was a lot of “look at this thing I found, could we use it?”, trial and error, hot glue, and heavy duty drilling and cutting. I’ve gotten some requests for a step by step on how we did it, and I wish I could. However, we just didn’t document each step well enough to do that. It took about fifteen hours to make. However, I would hate to leave you in the dark completely and so, instead of doing nothing, I’m going to discuss what was used to build it, things we did, and a general explanation. Joe has a workshop full of power tools and a lot of experience building things, so I will admit this isn’t necessarily the easiest build ever. But damn does it look awesome.

Before we continue, huge shout out to Joe. This guy can build anything. I absolutely could not have done it without him. This was the most amazing prop anyone could ever ask for!

First of all, this guy from Instructables has a super amazing step by step tutorial on how he made his gun. Joe and I followed the barrel steps exactly. I suggest you start here. Be sure to adjust the overall barrel size relative to your own height. Here are some pictures below of the barrel in progress. Notice the barrel length has been reduced from the picture of me holding it to the final product below.

Our Modifications

Click to view full diagram.

After the barrel is when Joe and I started to deviate from the Instructables guy. Our hanger and handles are very different. First off, I made the diagram above. Click on it to view a larger version.

The hanger structure is made out of wood. The handle on top was harvested from a flooring trowel. We used a double sided lag bolt to attach the trowel to the wood.

This is a flooring trowel. It was about $3 from Home Depot.

This is a double sided lag bolt.

Here is a diagram of the measurements of our hanger. Click for larger picture.

This piece is a foundation strap. Joe used a rotary cutter to cut it to the size we needed, then used his bench vice, any hard surface he could find, a hammer, and vice grips to bend it into the shown shape. We then attached another trowel handle to the back, but this time with regular screws. The strap was then bolted onto the hanger, and bolted onto the end cap of the barrel.

This is a foundation strap. These are in the hardware section of Home Depot. There are lots of different kinds. You will have to use what is available to you.

This is a bench vice.

From there we bolted two angle braces to either side of the hanger. These will attach the ammo can to the barrel. The specific ones we used can be found here and are called “USP TDL5”. Joe also bent the short end of the brace at an angle so it would fit somewhat flush against the ammo can.

USP TDL5 angle brace.

At this point we added some embellishments. There are two oil filters on either side of the barrel. They are attached to it by two aluminum strips we cut and wrapped around the filters, then used pop rivets installed with a riveting gun to attach. You could also use screws instead, since not everyone has a riveting gun hanging around. The other embellishments are two pipe clamps. The pipe clamps can be found at Home Depot.

Pipe clamp

Here is the completed barrel with hanger and embellishments, ready to be attached to the ammo can. At this point I taped off the handles because I didn’t want paint on them, sanded everything I could, then spray painted four coats of Krylon black matte plastic spray paint.

In the next part of this build, I will talk about the ammo can and assembly. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask! I will provide more info or ask Joe. Good luck on your build!

Super Builder Joe!

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