ross m10 front band question / alternate ideas ?

Do any of you have or have friends with a 3D printer? I would imagine a nosecap could be printed from some kind of dark grey or black plastic. It wouldn't likely be as strong as metal but I doubt any of you were planning on a bayonet charge any time soon.
 
could this piece perhaps be cast in aluminum or zamak? sand cast or better yet, lost wax? if someone has an original they would trust me with to pull a pattern from, i`d be willing to give it a try. i do have a fairly decent small home foundry setup, just have not done it in a awhile.
 
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I think it's all a matter of price.

They can be made but they will either cost a fortune due to special equipment (think 3D scanner and 3D printer) or cost a fortune due to the time consuming manufacturing process to do them by hand.

I had a chat with a fellow I bought a Ross rifle from, who said a machine shop could do it but would require broaches to cut the internal square corners. I would like to think a shaper could do the work, but again it's a slow process.
 
I'd want something blueable. I was looking online the other day and Harbour Freight has a cheap TIG set up with a great rating for about $400. If each of us bought our own and hand made a small run for ourselves and sold off the rest it would be like getting a free TIG and a few completed Ross restorations. Just sayin'.

The MkI caps and MkIII caps do not look tough at all to reproduce. They have no covered in front plate. You would need a lathe to make mandrels on, a torch to heat the metal for shaping a TIG to join the parts and a set of hand files to do the finishing. They would be time consuming but as Loyer and Despoeterizer have shown this is something that is doable for anyone willing to put in the time. I am willing to, I've got a lot on the go with the stock building already though and was really hoping someone else would pick up the slack and make nosecaps.
 
someone give me some measurements and a few scaled pictures and i will see what comes out the other end, be it a welded up piece as in an earlier post, or a cast aluminum or zamak piece. Zamak can be made to take a blackend finish, i did it once, but will have to work on the formula again. maybe tweaking that can get it a blueing colour. i enjoy doing this kind of stuff, but i have no original to make a copy from. no promises

if anyone tries a weld-up, do not use galvanized pipe as suggested, it will emit zinc fumes while being welded, and can/will make you very sick(metal fume fever)
 
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ssapach said:
I think it's all a matter of price.

They can be made but they will either cost a fortune due to special equipment (think 3D scanner and 3D printer) or cost a fortune due to the time consuming manufacturing process to do them by hand.

I had a chat with a fellow I bought a Ross rifle from, who said a machine shop could do it but would require broaches to cut the internal square corners. I would like to think a shaper could do the work, but again it's a slow process.
Click to expand...

Yep - basically I think they didn't want the job. Gave a high quote and massive batch price, so it probably can be done more cheaply, but you need to find a shop that wants to do it instead of the guys who just want to churn out the same stuff over and over again.



If we're spending the energy making reproductions they may as well be iron based like the originals. I'd sooner make my own and weld it together than take one made out of aluminium or other materials. Not to poo-poo infidellegwelder's idea, just doesn't appeal to me considering the rarity and value of these guns.
 
Hey guys, I've also been working on this project for almost a year.

To get then made It comes down to cost. So I'm going to have to do a run of them myself, and as a sheetmetal worker I should be able to do it as long as the dies turn out right.

I can make them one at a time by hand but that will take way longer then a fair price would pay. Also anything hand made has a sloppier tolerance then something stamped or milled. Me as a seller I'll have to make nose caps that fix every rifle. I can't expected to have rifles sent to me and then I'll fit the part to the gun.

Have a friend working on the dies right now, but it will take some time to see if we can mass produce them. I want to make exact steel reproductions that can be blued.

Anyhow, I'll keep those interested posted.
 
I made another Ross Mk 3 front barrel band and revised it based on process learned from the earlier prototypes. By thinning the pipe using a 1" band sander (for hours), the front band became much thinner, lighter and closer to the real cast band dimensions and also allowed my bayonet lug to be mounted closer to the axis of the barrel and thus keep the bayonet pointed out straight. Also, with a thinner band, the wooden stock could be inletted so it resulted in a flush band/stock surface.

I would still rather have an original Ross front band but until then, this will suffice.



 
I had to bite on this topic as well. Took a nose cap off and started measuring it out. I wonder if anyone has an actual factory drawing with measurements of such a piece?

Anyways, I wonder what anyone else's thoughts are on stamping 2 separate pieces and welding them together? The lower, larger side of the cap has long edges that sort of make using a piece of pipe a little more difficult. But if you were to bend a piece of 1/8" flat bar, it could possibly work.

I got excited and started making a die for the press to bend the steel. I'm honestly just winging it here with dimensions off the nose cap I took off one of my rifles, so it might not be perfect.

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Need to make a rounded ram now and see how well I can bend a piece of flat bar. I suspect this die might spread out with use, so if this were to actually work I'd have to make the die out of a larger chunk of steel. This was 2" x 3" bar stock I had, but I'm hoping it should hold for a couple trials.

I'm hoping I can track down some pipe for the smaller side and then weld it to the bent piece, sling mount and bayonet lug could be welded on later of course.

Throw out the criticism folks, but don't expect results from me in any sort of super speedy fashion. I'm just messing around with this on the side when I have some free time.
 
Looks good to me - that's been my plan for a long time. Got started on a lower die then moved away from my equipment again :p

Should certainly be doable in any case.
 
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