Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "L96A1 Behind the Scenes: Manufacturing Catastrophes and Exploding Rifles" video.

Pylon: "Its not like its a missle." Pylon: "But I'm sure we can make it explode anyway".
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That system was already present on the Villar Perosa, the first SMG ever manufactured.
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Practically a Scotti action, but without the slide closing on the bolt face and preventing it to rotate by itself. However, as a matter of fact, an angle of those bolt lugs IS cut at 45 degree to facilitate closing. Pylon probably "only" extended that cut.
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@hendriktonisson2915 Sterling Armament Company was already in the way of going bankrupt in 1985, a thing it did in 1988, and the things it produced in the previous decades really didn't require any precision machining.
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@hendriktonisson2915 Number of pieces involved has little to do with precision machining. The AR18 had been specifically designed to be a cheap stamped steel rifle easy to produce even in low-tech facilities.
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For the same reason the SA80 had been designed by a group of not-firearm engineers. There was not a gun manufacturer with that kind of capacity in the UK in 1985. Royal Small Arms Factory had already been privatised and was about to be closed. They should have the rifles made overseas.
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@hendriktonisson2915 The AR-18 bolt requires a 19th century kind of machining precision (and not even among the best of 19th century. It requires a "Moisin Nagant" level of machining precision), nothing more.
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In the mid '80 industry had switched to metric for designs for decades. To submit blueprints in imperial was really backward, especially coming from young engineers. That partly explains the mistakes (even if we don't know how big they really were). To have to convert was no more common.
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For the metric issue, It's not "Pylon". Any industrial design in 1985 was long made in metric. Not only in UK, but in the US too. To submit blueprints in imperial was incredibly backward. Especially coming from young engineers. For the rest, that's why you prefer to have firearm companies to built firearms. Because for the guys that work in firearms companies all those charateristics are their bread and butter. They doesn't need to be instructed on the importance of all those things.
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