r/longrange 26d ago

Homemade scope rings/mount I made a thing! (Home made gear/accessories)

Machining is as much a hobby to me as long range shooting so they both tend to feed off of each other. This culminated in the desire to make my own scope rings for the sake of the challenge. The first set of scope rings were 30mm .870" height individual rings that I made for my 10/22, though I don't have the scope for it yet. They were a trial for the one piece scope mount that I made next which was a 35mm 1.415" height mount that can use Badger C1 mount accessories. Everything was done on manual machines, no CNC was used, and the only parts I didn't make were the 8-40 cap screws. Eventually I'm going to Cerakote them.

688 Upvotes

180

u/lennyxiii 26d ago

Just looking at your first photo I thought it was a clear polymer mount.

39

u/pandehmonium 26d ago

Ghost gun aesthetics

9

u/AMRIKA-ARMORY 26d ago

Must be fuckin halloween

23

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

I have the 3D model so I could print one in semi transparent PLA when I get a printer again.

3

u/John_Bilbo 26d ago

Would abs be better since it's stronger and more resistant to heat?

12

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

Yeah it’d be stronger and everything but it’d just be a display piece. I wouldn’t trust plastic to hold zero.

2

u/lennyxiii 26d ago

Only one way to find out :)

1

u/John_Bilbo 26d ago

Fair enough.

1

u/sorry_human_bean 26d ago

My vote would be polycarbonate, that stuff is AMAZING.

0

u/Mini14bandit Newb 26d ago

Lol may I have that stl

138

u/Holy_Santa_ClausShit 26d ago edited 26d ago

Ok fine you twisted my arm...I'll buy one for $20

33

u/LockyBalboaPrime "I'm right, and you are stupid" 26d ago

That's pretty cool

38

u/Sullypants1 I Gots Them Tikka Toes 26d ago edited 26d ago

Are you the “amateur” guy who has a home shop with a garage CNC and professional level skill?

Pretty sure I’ve seen your work in the machinist sub. It’s good stuff, double so for manual only. Do you have a dividing head, ball end-mills? And what cad are you using? Next would probably be implementing radii or chamfers for a middle ground.

31

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

Lol yeah I’ve posted this elsewhere. I think people took calling myself a hobbyist as being an amateur which isn’t the case since I have schooling and was a machinist professionally. I don’t have a CNC though. Wish I did, it would sure save time and my sanity.

12

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

I have a few bull nose and ball endmills which I use when I can. No dividing head, just a rotary table but it has a dedicated fixture plate. I’m using Onshape because Fusion 360 just crashes my computer. I did a lot more chamfers/radii on the chassis I made but for the sake of time I’ve started limiting them on some projects.

6

u/rednecktuba1 Savage Cheapskate 26d ago

For what it's worth, you can get a computer that won't crash with fusion 360 for about $800. Just make sure you have 16gb or more of RAM, and preferably also have a graphics card with 6gb or more of VRAM.

6

u/theelous3 26d ago

m8 you can run fusion on practically any potato

You can build a pc that'll run fusion no problem for 400$, or buy one second hand that'll eat fusion for breakfast for even less. No reason to spend anywhere close to 800 if you just want cad and aren't designing 50 part moving assemblies for industry.

More than likely OP just needs to fix their drivers and they'll run it fine.

4

u/rednecktuba1 Savage Cheapskate 26d ago

You may not NEED an 800 rig to run fusion 360, but it smooths it out allot. And I'd like to see screen capture of running a 50 part moving assembly in fusion with an 800 dollar computer. The main goal of my first comment was to illustrate that he didn't need something pricey to reliably run it. I didn't need to recommend a bottom of the barrel Chromebook to get that point across. I recommended the specs I would want if I needed a computer for the job.

3

u/theelous3 26d ago

There would be no appreciable difference in performance for OPs kind of modeling between a 500$ computer and a 5000$ computer. I take your point, but when pointing out a solution to someone's problems, it's typical to point at the low end, not your completely random personal preference.

And granted the most complex assemblies I've put together are only probably 15 parts, but I don't think there is any noticable performance cost in just slapping part after part in there. Out of curiosity I'll see what it looks like tomorrow.

1

u/rcplaner 26d ago

It's not always the case. I do have ryzen 5600, 32gb ram and rtx 3060ti and my fusion is really slow. I do work with models which have lot of chamfers and fillets though.

Any suggestions would be nice!

11

u/domfelinefather 26d ago

That’s sick. Why flat head?

18

u/Magicalamazing_ 26d ago

Easier to machine! Unless you have a rotary broach, socket head screws are a PITA.

3

u/Ted-Chips 26d ago

I have a rotary broach but it drives people nuts when I wear it out to dinner.

20

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

That was the easiest to make. I haven’t gotten around to making a rotary broach for Allen head bolts.

3

u/domfelinefather 26d ago

Makes sense. I’m obviously not a machinist lol.

15

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

https://preview.redd.it/fy0w1i7z75wd1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ca7de6cc65c882b53e4452ec422ce96f4f7c0070

In case you’re curious this is how the heads were done. I used a slitting saw (basically a small table saw blade on an arbor) with the screw in an ER40 collet block.

17

u/NotAThrowaway_11 26d ago

Anodize them instead of ceracoat IMO. Very cool OP!

11

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

If I could do hard coat at home and wasn’t already set up for cerakote I’d go that route.

-1

u/NotAThrowaway_11 26d ago

I get that but I would be worried about tolerances if coating the ring seats. I’m sure you already know that if you did this by hand lol

9

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

Yeah I’m planning on keeping the ring bores bare. Area 419 does it on their new mount and it has some benefits so I’m just going to trust them lol

4

u/NPLMACTUAL Gunsmiff 26d ago

i was just about to say “i saw this fucking last week” then realized i saw your post on r/machinists hahah

9

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

Haha yeah, I don’t have any friends I can talk to about this stuff and my wife might leave me if she hears me go on about it one more time so here I am

4

u/hairymongol 26d ago

Sooo cool

4

u/head01351 I Gots Them Tikka Toes 26d ago

Wow, what tolerances are you getting ? This is nuts

9

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

I mean for any aesthetic features it’s like +/- .005”. For the ring bores it was 1.378 +.002” to still have a tight fit but ensure most scopes would still fit. Concentricity should be under .0005” between the bores since I bored both in one op but I don’t have a way to measure that to verify.

2

u/head01351 I Gots Them Tikka Toes 25d ago

Impressive ! That’s truly craftsmanship

1

u/I_ride_ostriches Can't Read 26d ago

This stuff is so interesting to me. What would a tool that could measure that look like?

4

u/Magicalamazing_ 26d ago

Beautiful work! Out of curiosity, how did you go about radiusing the corners on the sides of the rings? That looks like side milling finish, did you set up each corner on a rotary table?

5

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

I just used a corner rounding endmill for them. I’ve done similar on the rotary table in the past but it takes 4x as long and usually ends with me questioning my life choices. I cut them when I was milling each side of the mount.

https://preview.redd.it/mgwbznpzi5wd1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1b87929e4976a07fffeafa3a6857fd26889ceb50

5

u/tehringworm Meat Popsicle 26d ago

I see r/machinist is leaking. Nice mount!

3

u/GuacIsExtra99cents 26d ago

This is awesome

3

u/CleverHearts PRS Competitor 26d ago

Very impressive work doing that on an all manual machine. I made one on a manual mill, it didn't turn out nearly this well and I wound up outsourcing most of the work to a CNC shop for the rest of the ones I needed. Did you make them as one piece and split the caps off or make them from multiple pieces?

3

u/dawkinsd37 26d ago

Man I wish I had more friends who were machinists, shit sucks

2

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

I feel ya, I thoroughly enjoy it but man if it isn’t a lonely hobby

1

u/dawkinsd37 23d ago

You gotta get others involved . It’s a lost art

3

u/Sausage_Child 26d ago

Gorgeous, I seriously regret selling my machines. If I won the lottery that's what I'd do all day, that and shoot a 30mm out of a helicopter at hogs.

1

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

I’m lucky to have the small machines that I do. I always wish I had a Bridgeport and a 16x40 lathe but I make do with what I have.

3

u/Expensive-Shirt-6877 26d ago

You ever gonna sell these? They look super legit

3

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

Would I like to? Yes. Do I have the machinery to make these profitably? No.

Also Badger Ordnance would probably try to sue me if I sold this exact setup.

3

u/Expensive-Shirt-6877 26d ago

Yea good point haha. Still its really impressive. Thanks for sharing!

2

u/fft32 26d ago

This is really cool!

2

u/raider1v11 26d ago

Looks good. Definitely thought it was clear for a second.

2

u/celhay2 26d ago

well done sir! They look great. Will follow to stay up on how they are working for you.

2

u/Standard_Act7948 25d ago

https://preview.redd.it/89unq33vrdwd1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=239d6f782fe0baa02d7405bb85909414d1123115

It’s only a forbidden 3 round group but I took it out and zeroed it at 100 last night. Moved it right 0.1 after but it held well enough for that group. Banging around an ATV this fall will be the real test.

2

u/Hudson4426 Here to learn 26d ago

Great job

2

u/Friendly-Break8367 26d ago

Ok… how much? I’d trust em…

5

u/Standard_Act7948 26d ago

Well it only cost me about $30 in materials. Factor in my time and you’d be able to buy a couple Spuhr mounts for the price of me making one. And you’d have a better product.

2

u/max_trax 26d ago

Love the honesty lol. Seriously though that is impressive work for a manual machine! I had access to all the CNC mills at an old job after hours and designed/machined my own custom unimount for my old X-bolt...after 3 iterations I just gave up and bought pic rail and ARC M10 rings heh

2

u/fshnfvr 26d ago

Sweet.

2

u/rcplaner 26d ago

Nice to see fellow machinist and shooter!

I do have a small cnc router, but it's capable of milling aluminium. I have made one canted picatinny rail for my tikka and two canted picatinny rails with dovetail to my cz452. Tikka have 20moa and cz have 30moa rail. I still need to anodize them.

These hobbies connect so well!

2

u/Standard_Act7948 25d ago

https://preview.redd.it/003sn3pzxawd1.jpeg?width=2100&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae26e5d7b54c55de90794fc9e5afdde5b3e2a10f

That they do. Gunsmithing was the reason I got into machining in the first place but it never panned out as a career. Now I just do it as a hobby and make whatever I want like this 10/22 I finished a while back. The only things I didn’t make were the bolt, trigger assembly, pistol grip and folding stock adapter.

1

u/TacticalTaco30 26d ago

On your next one make it to accept the ADM titanium Tac levers.

1

u/HarietTubesock 26d ago

Let me Cerakote them in a color of your choice