Ross MkIII restoration project

If anyone has a forged nosecap they will loan me or rent to me, I know a retired machinist / foundry man who says he can probably investment cast them for around $100 a piece. I would be happy to provide reasonable security if you a worried you may not get it back ;)

I've had some experience with having gun parts investment (lost wax) cast.
The easiest and cheapest way to make dies for the waxes is to use an original part as a master, and mould the die parts from it. The die would require a number of pieces, to allow the waxes to be pulled.
There is a real problem with shrinkage. The waxes shrink, as does the steel when cast. The reproduction part may not fit.
Making aluminum dies for a piece like the nosecap is not going to be cheap. How many castings would have to be sold to amortize the cost of the machined die set?
There is also the issue of finding a foundry that will do steel castings in small quantities.
 
I think getting the various nose caps digitally scanned is the way to go. The 3D picture gets stored for all time on many computers. Then it's just a matter of 3D printing in any one of thousands of different locations. Just email the 3D file.

3D printing technology is advancing by leaps and bounds.

The problem is, Ross has at least 5 different nosecap patterns I can think of, and I'm probably missing some.
A MkIII forged nosecap is only going to be right for later Mk III's.

And, I recall Stoggie saying there is a fair bit of variation even among the same models...for example, the Mk III stocks are not simple drop ins. They pretty much need to be fitted to the action.

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Yes there is a lot of size difference in the parts. I try to leave as little fitting to be done as I can, but certain parts are almost always different, especially mid bands. The actions seem to be relatively close, and I haven't had any complaints of parts not fitting yet, although I fit the biggest mid band I have on them every time. I've been offering different fore end tips as well to try and eleviate the problem as much as I can. But tooling does wear and machines do go out of adjustment, and when there is a war on its not going to stop production.
 
I have a nose cap sitting on the counter in the shop......

I still have the complete rifle it belongs to, so it's very important I do not lose this thing. But it's already off the rifle and I may be willing to lend it out if it will help out with restoration efforts.
 
That's good info regarding shrinkage of investment castings, tiriaq. I'll ask my friend if he has any ideas on this. As far as all the different nose caps I kind of figured beggars can't be choosers, if we're making new fore ends anyway, we can fit them for whatever nose cap we can make or find. Maybe not 100% correct, but the rifle won't be original any more anyways. I don't see how it could be feasible to make a lot of different patterns.
 
Well, i talked to my freind today, and he says he knows how to compensate for the shrinkage of the metal when he makes the mould. I'm willing to give this a go if someone can provide a good pattern nose cap. I would like some idea how many people want one. Which pattern gets made will depend on what we can find to copy, i guess. As far as pricing i propose this: whoever supplies the pattern will get it back plus one copy, i will keep one for a rifle i have, and the rest will sell for cost plus shipping to the buyer. My friend has worked as a gunsmith as well, so he's familiar with what we want, in fact years ago he had some Ross parts, but got rid of them all, back when it was still "just junk". Anyways, if anyone has any more suggestions or insight, let me know, I guess we won't know anything for certain until we find a nosecap to copy.

ps I hope this doesn't violate any forum rules, sorry if it does.
 
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