Snakeoil
Well-Known Member
For some time I have been thinking about making my own scope blocks. They are cheap enough to buy so I'm not talking standard. I'm talking about those unique situations like a rifle with holes already drilled for a mount, but in the wrong place for a Unertl or Lyman. The challenge is cutting the "smile" in the dovetail block to accept the clamping screw. I thought Brownell's or one or those gunsmith supply shops would sell the cutter, but no luck. I suspect that the guys that make and sell the blocks make their own cutters.
So, I had no pokers in the fire today. Got an email from a friend who is looking for a extended block for a military rifle. It was all the incentive I needed. Found a piece of scrap aluminum in my junk metal box and milled it so I had a block to work with. Only dovetail cutter I have is for doing female dovetails and I'm not going to use it experimenting, even with a aluminum. So, I took the time to grind a fly cutter that would cut the male dovetail profile for the test block. With that done, I grabbed an old 1/4 end mill from a bucket of end mills somebody gave me years ago. I hand ground it to what I thought it should be and made a test cut. Did not come out bad, did some more grinding on the end mill and the cut got better. Then, I decided to grab another old end mill and make another cutter, using what I learned from the first try. The 2nd one came out better after a few more trips to the grinding wheel.
Here is the test block with a number of smiles cut into it. Looking at the varioius blocks I have on my rifles, no two smiles are identical. So mine is a combination of the various dimensions I took from those other blocks.
All of these will do the job, but I'm still not happy with them. I need to get new wheels for my bench grinder. I actually have another grinder that is identical to the one I have used for years. I need to put it on a pedestal and put two new wheels on it and keep it exclusively for tool grinding. That's another good winter therapy project.
So, I had no pokers in the fire today. Got an email from a friend who is looking for a extended block for a military rifle. It was all the incentive I needed. Found a piece of scrap aluminum in my junk metal box and milled it so I had a block to work with. Only dovetail cutter I have is for doing female dovetails and I'm not going to use it experimenting, even with a aluminum. So, I took the time to grind a fly cutter that would cut the male dovetail profile for the test block. With that done, I grabbed an old 1/4 end mill from a bucket of end mills somebody gave me years ago. I hand ground it to what I thought it should be and made a test cut. Did not come out bad, did some more grinding on the end mill and the cut got better. Then, I decided to grab another old end mill and make another cutter, using what I learned from the first try. The 2nd one came out better after a few more trips to the grinding wheel.
Here is the test block with a number of smiles cut into it. Looking at the varioius blocks I have on my rifles, no two smiles are identical. So mine is a combination of the various dimensions I took from those other blocks.
All of these will do the job, but I'm still not happy with them. I need to get new wheels for my bench grinder. I actually have another grinder that is identical to the one I have used for years. I need to put it on a pedestal and put two new wheels on it and keep it exclusively for tool grinding. That's another good winter therapy project.
