Project: Ripper Rail

[vf-xx]

Yea I've been playing with the design a bit to see how it looks the best. But I do like having the rip milling being a mirror to that of the body. And I'm still trying to find a way to get rid of the step up but still having it look good with it. And I'll probably be milling the snatch grip off of the frame to match the contour of the rail taper, just not a fan of snatch grips.

And it will use a classic sear (even though honestly I have no idea on the difference yet)

Instead of a step, go for long taper.

[p8ntbal4me]

If you produce these in a small run,.. please consider me for your pre-order list.

I have a body and no rail to match it with

~ P8nt

[Sneaky Sir]

Yea I've hadquite a bit of interest in people wanting one. I'll see how the first one turns out and then figure out if it's doable or not.

[Sneaky Sir]

Well finally got some progress I can post up on these babies. Only two of them in construction though. As of right now, the bottom milling is complete, along with the top ULE milling. Next on the list is to put the body contour milling into the top so that I can mount these up, then onto the sides. Hoping to have another update for you guys later this week or next. And here is some eye candy, they are still rough finish, no nice polish yet.









And just to tease, this is what I'm making them for, in its current state:

[Madmarx]

It'll look even better all ano'd.
This is the only rail I've liked with it so far, but yours will be better.

[Sneaky Sir]

The thrasher's don't look bad at all when they're in a solid color anno IMO, when you splash or acidwash them I think it takes away from they're overall appeal on the marker.

Also got this:

Update 02/10/10:

Well I managed to run the inside radii on both of the rails, so I'm now able to mount everything together (except the foregrip, haven't decided on exact location for that yet). Finish wasn't quite as well as I wanted but a little polish and sanding work and she'll be all purdied up. I'll get ya guys some pics soon.

[TeamBob]

Your are building the gun i had in mind for my current build. Im settling for a t/l vert feed for now. I really want to put a chord on mine, but the lack of a rail that i think matchs and flows well is what stopping me. I really hope you can get some kinda production going on these. If so, please keep me in mind

[Sneaky Sir]

Well so far doing a production run for these is unlikely, unless in the near future I can redo the program to run off of existing AGD spec blanks, because making everything from scratch is extremely time consuming and not the best method for large runs.

[Raven001]

Have you given any consideration to mirroring the area forward of the feed tube to the back? By that I mean using the same pattern you use in the back only reversed.

[Sneaky Sir]

Alright guys and gals,
Got another update for ya. All of the top and bottom milling are now completed. These will both be AM/MM length rail. I also did a test run of the left hand side milling of the "rips" and I must say I am very pleased with the result. I intend to run the actual left and right hand side milling next week and plan to be done with the rip milling part by Wednesday on both rails. That would leave only one setup left to do which would be the front of the rail after I have the slope on it. I have been tossing around about five ideas for possible milling ideas. One would be like it is originally designed. The second would be an extruded, mirrored, and reversed pattern of rips like the back milling. The third would be just leave it blank. The forth idea would be the opposite of the second pattern, having similar rips to the back but instead of having extruded ones, they would be cavities cut into the rail. And the five idea is the one that has me the most excited. It would actually have no similarity to the other ideas. The plan with this one would be to create a little "flare" and personality to the rail. I think I would like to engrave the name "The Ripper" is a very fancy and catchy style emblem in that area. More of this to come as I design out the program for it. I think it would just set these rails apart from other ones.

Also, a production run of these is still in the works. The one thing I would need to make this a reality would be a sizeable interest and commitment (say 10-20 rails total sold) for making a purchase, and second, the most important consideration, would be I would need to locate a fair amount of AGD Spec Rail Blanks that would be compatible with this design. By using the blanks, that would cut my total machining time by a 1/3 and would also be a much better quality on the functional parts of the rail overall. Currently if I were to produce and sell the rails using this process, they would be close to the $300 range in price with all the tooling time because I have to make everything from scratch, which I think is pretty unreasonable amount. So I must ask, where can I locate roughly 25 AGD Spec Rail blanks priced so they won't break the bank, to make this a reality?

And now so I don't bore you with text, a little bit of porn...I mean rail pics









Here are some of the left side test milling (ignore the top ULE milling, the CNC decided it wanted to make my life hard for a while ):

[Sneaky Sir]

Couple more pics of it on a marker, yes they are fully functional currently








And my little mock-up of how it will look on the gun, its not quite lined up perfectly, just wanted to snap a quick shot for you guys:

[TeamBob]

looking good man. If ya could get the front of the rail to match the front of the body, i think that would be amazing. Keep up the good work. And looking forward to see the complete project

[p8ntbal4me]

Kinda looks like the further back the lines get,.. they dont match up with the body.

Am I not seeing it right?

~ P8nt

[Sneaky Sir]

No you are partially correct p8ntball
The rips are not quite exactly the correct length. They start out matching great and slowly there become slightly off for matching up. It is a very subtle difference though, and won't be as bad as it looks in the picture. The camera angle and also the fact I didn't have it quite lined up correctly to begin with is why it seems so bad there. And in the picture you can also not see the very small detail lines that begin each rip at the top, where they meet the body ones, so that is another reason why it looks offset.

[Sneaky Sir]

Ah! Can't believe I forgot to update this thread. I finished the version 1 Ripper Rails about a week and a half ago. Wasn't fully pleased with the work, so I completely redesigned the flow and shape of the rails, and also made the spacing correct. This week is Spring break, but once I get back, I plan to have a few of the Version 2 rails done by the end of next week. I plan to run 9-10 of them, and keeping 2 of them, and the rest will be up for sale, so keep your eyes pealed for them. Alright onto the Version 1 pics though:







As you can see here, both are completed. I did slightly mess up the rail on top, one of my parameters was messed up on the machine and caused it to cut too deep, so I actually took that one to the buffing wheel for a while to see what I could do with it. Overall it turned out pretty good, the only real difference between the top one and the bottom one is that the blemished one has flatter "rips" and also slightly rounder edges.



One on the left is the blemished one with a close-up of the rips.







A couple of pics of it on the body. As you can see the rips and some of the edges don't align properly, but I have fixed that problem in the Version 2 rails. Overall I think they look really nice regardless of the small misallignments. The only other problem I've found is that somethings you cannot slide the valve out normally from the body without removing the body, that is because the macro fitting coming out of the valve likes to hit the rail, but I've also fixed that problem in the Version 2 ones.

These rails also have been semi-polished, not quite to a mirror, but are at a nice matter finish. Also the front part on the Version 2 has been fattened up a little bit to better fit the body, and I have been running through a few test patterns of things to put on the front area where it is blank.

So what do you guys think?