Luger Carbine Front Sight Question

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Ron Wood

I guess you would say it is notched...it is a straight ramp with crossing grooves, kind of like some ribs on shotgun barrels...neither a stairway or saw blade.

Would they be V shaped grooves??? Or squared off U shaped grooves???

Shoot...Either of those shapes, I don't have a tool to cut grooves in a ramp...Steps maybe, but not grooves...If I had a shaper, that would be ideal...But I don't...

[DonVoigt]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

Would they be V shaped grooves??? Or squared off U shaped grooves???

Shoot...Either of those shapes, I don't have a tool to cut grooves in a ramp...Steps maybe, but not grooves...If I had a shaper, that would be ideal...But I don't...

Why not grind a keyway cutter to the dimension you want?

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by DonVoigt

Why not grind a keyway cutter to the dimension you want?

I have a 60º V-shaped keyway cutter, but I don't have any way to clamp the [integral] sight base/ramp to mill it...[pic]...

I also have squared-edge slitting saws if I wanted a thin square serrated bottom series of grooves, but same clamping problem...

I've held off milling the ramp angle until I know how I'll serrate it...

... ...

I suppose I could turn the ramp instead of milling it...and turn/serrate it with a threading bit...Like the Finnish Luger barrels...

Nah...

[sheepherder]

Several years ago [70's?...80's?] I did a 6" 9mm barrel with pressed in 3/8" dovetailed front sight (too wide but only cutter I had) and milled 'steps' in the back of the sight & ramp...Something like .020" up, .030" forward...Repeat...But that won't work on a long ramp...

Back then I had a decent mill [Bridgeport 2J] and it was easy...

[John Sabato]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

Shoot...Either of those shapes, I don't have a tool to cut grooves in a ramp...Steps maybe, but not grooves...If I had a shaper, that would be ideal...But I don't...

I can think of several ways you might do this...

You can simulate a shaper action using a milling vise clamped to the bed of your lathe and an appropriately shaped cutting bit using the automatic feed of the lead screw. It would take a long time, since manual feeding of the cutting tool would be required for each cut, but it is doable... Similar to the way you would cut an inside diameter keyway using only a lathe... I hope that is clear enough...

OR... you could make a hardened jig to clamp on the front sight base and use a small triangular Swiss needle file (or fine tooth metal saw) to make each "step"... I know it would be a long process, but hey... you are doing this for fun right?

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by John Sabato

You can simulate a shaper action using a milling vise clamped to the bed of your lathe and an appropriately shaped cutting bit using the automatic feed of the lead screw. It would take a long time, since manual feeding of the cutting tool would be required for each cut.

That is interesting, and I will file that away for future reference...Thank you!

OR... you could...use a small triangular Swiss needle file (or fine tooth metal saw) to make each "step"...

I guess you mean the groove/serration, not step, since cutting a squared step is a lot easier, but no, I'm not doing filing...

What I'm thinking now is to use a 4" long threaded M16 barrel chunk to hold the base/ramp upright in my vise and mill the grooves with the 60º keyway cutter...It'll be sharp points top & bottom, but I should be able to level & square the base/ramp and cut it...

Something like this, but with vise turned 90º and the ramp angled 180º straight up (after it is cut)...Possibly...

Or, if the front 'ramp' (ahead of the sight base w/dovetail) is wide enough, and the rear [serrated] ramp is short & low enough, possibly I can mill 'steps' like the P08...It's odd that the barrel/sight blueprint doesn't show measurements for the ramp serrations...