New adapter design to mount a "red dot" (reflector/reflex) sight to a spotting scope (1 Viewer)

Hauksen · Oct 15, 2020

New adapter design to mount a "red dot" (reflector/reflex) sight to a spotting scope

Hi everyone,

Here's a new 3D-printable adapter design to mount a "red dot" (reflector/reflex) sight to a spotting scope:

As pictured, it fits a Kowa 883. Mounting works by means of a 4 mm bungee cord with cord stops on one side and a loop over the "hook" on the other side.

(The design is parametric, so it could easily be adjusted to fit any other scope with a cylindrical barrel part.)

This mount works with the stay-on case, fitting on the scope barrel part visible between dew cap in fully forward position and the stay-on case if that's pushed towards the eyepiece a bit more than usual.

If the bungee cord is tightened properly, the sight seems fairly stable. For transporting the scope, the idea is to remove the sight each time it's packed for transport.

Testing in the field will hopefully reveal how repeatable the sight alignment with the scope's sight axis is.

Thanks to forum member Jaywalk for the cross-inspiration!

Regards,

Henning

Canip · Oct 16, 2020

Splendid design idea! This gives me some food for thought.
Canip

Jaywalk · Oct 17, 2020

Hauksen said:
Hi everyone,

Here's a new 3D-printable adapter design to mount a "red dot" (reflector/reflex) sight to a spotting scope:

View attachment 739940

As pictured, it fits a Kowa 883. Mounting works by means of a 4 mm bungee cord with cord stops on one side and a loop over the "hook" on the other side.

(The design is parametric, so it could easily be adjusted to fit any other scope with a cylindrical barrel part.)

This mount works with the stay-on case, fitting on the scope barrel part visible between dew cap in fully forward position and the stay-on case if that's pushed towards the eyepiece a bit more than usual.

If the bungee cord is tightened properly, the sight seems fairly stable. For transporting the scope, the idea is to remove the sight each time it's packed for transport.

Testing in the field will hopefully reveal how repeatable the sight alignment with the scope's sight axis is.

Thanks to forum member Jaywalk for the cross-inspiration!

Regards,

Henning

That's a fine design. Thanks for the credit, but I don't recall my part in that - I suspect it was all your idea, or, perhaps, helped by someone else.

Hauksen · Oct 17, 2020

Hi Canip,

Canip said:
Splendid design idea! This gives me some food for thought.

Glad you like it!

I plan on sharing the design with source code and everything on thingiverse.com, as soon as they have their technical difficulties sorted out.

In the meantime, if you have ideas on how to improve or modify the design, I'd be happy to hear these!

Regards,

Henning

Hauksen · Oct 17, 2020

Hi Jaywalk

Jaywalk said:
That's a fine design. Thanks for the credit, but I don't recall my part in that - I suspect it was all your idea, or, perhaps, helped by someone else.

You introduced me to the "cradle" concept, and basically, this adapter is an upside-down cradle

I had always intended to come up with some kind of excenter lever quick release system for the adapter, but this is much more elegant, with hardly any moving parts!

Regards,

Henning

Ratal · Oct 17, 2020

I looked at this, and was wondering - Could you do a hollow core to the upright pillar, with an extending inner pllar that raises up and is then secured in place? A very posh version of the cable tie sight with a more permanent nature perhaps?

wllmspd · Oct 17, 2020

You could do pretty much anything.
Do you have a preferred print orientation for this design as I can see some overhangs and some features might be stronger in certain orientations?
Thanks for the new design.

PeterW

Hauksen · Oct 17, 2020

Hi Ratal,

Ratal said:
I looked at this, and was wondering - Could you do a hollow core to the upright pillar, with an extending inner pllar that raises up and is then secured in place? A very posh version of the cable tie sight with a more permanent nature perhaps?

A telescoping sight post, in principle? Should be possible, but I think a folding sight post would be more compact in the stowed position and more rigid in the upward position.

The main challenge really is that the only good surface for mating the adapter and the telescope is only accessible when the lens cover is opened and the dew cap extended. Thus the idea to have an easily removable adapter.

If the stay-on case weren't so restrictive, this would be a lot more straight forward.

Regards,

Henning

Hauksen · Oct 17, 2020

Hi Peter,

wllmspd said:
You could do pretty much anything.
Do you have a preferred print orientation for this design as I can see some overhangs and some features might be stronger in certain orientations?

I printed this lying flat, with minimum supports to ensure good printing of the loop-side recesses and the slots in the NATO rail.

That should result in the strongest print, I guess.

I initially printed a prototype without the internal crossbracing to cut down printing time, but that was a bit too flexible to give me confidence regarding repeatable alignment.

I printed in PETG though, which unlike PLA should spring back into its original shape pretty well, so maybe I was overly pessimistic there

Regards,

Henning

Jaywalk · Oct 18, 2020

Hauksen said:
Hi everyone,

Here's a new 3D-printable adapter design to mount a "red dot" (reflector/reflex) sight to a spotting scope:

View attachment 739940

As pictured, it fits a Kowa 883. Mounting works by means of a 4 mm bungee cord with cord stops on one side and a loop over the "hook" on the other side.

(The design is parametric, so it could easily be adjusted to fit any other scope with a cylindrical barrel part.)

This mount works with the stay-on case, fitting on the scope barrel part visible between dew cap in fully forward position and the stay-on case if that's pushed towards the eyepiece a bit more than usual.

If the bungee cord is tightened properly, the sight seems fairly stable. For transporting the scope, the idea is to remove the sight each time it's packed for transport.

Testing in the field will hopefully reveal how repeatable the sight alignment with the scope's sight axis is.

Thanks to forum member Jaywalk for the cross-inspiration!

Regards,

Henning

How would the strength be affected by skeletonizing the sloped sides and the internal cross-bracing? I'm thinking about price per gram of material again.

Hauksen · Oct 18, 2020

Hi,

Jaywalk said:
How would the strength be affected by skeletonizing the sloped sides and the internal cross-bracing? I'm thinking about price per gram of material again.

Strength would probably be pretty much the same, and for the final version, I'm actually thinking of doing just that. (Using my own printer, price is about 0.02 EUR/g, so I don't spend too much time on weight optimization before the design is final.)

However, even already now, it uses a lot less material than the precursor version which is skeletonized in all 3 axes:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3002868

Regards,

Henning

fazalmajid · Oct 21, 2020

Nice! I have a Nikon DF-M1 dot-sight I could mount onto my Meopta Meostar S2 82 HD. I have an angled eyepiece, however. How do you deal with that, just have the spur the sight is mounted upon high enough to clear the eyepiece?

Hauksen · Oct 22, 2020

Hi,

fazalmajid said:
I have an angled eyepiece, however. How do you deal with that, just have the spur the sight is mounted upon high enough to clear the eyepiece?

Exactly ... this is responsible for the slightly "Eiffel tower-ish" look of the design

Regards,

Henning

Hauksen · Oct 25, 2020

Hi again,

Here as an update two shots of the finished adapter:

Regards,

Henning

jkingrph · Dec 21, 2020

I had posted early this year about this idea, and was thinking about using a big piece of aluminum angle to make a mount that would fit between my qd plate and the scope and on which my reflex sight would be mounted. It would be the most solid mount but will require a lot of work, cutting and drilling to make. I tried the zip tie method and it just does not work for me. Yesterday I had a brainstorm and zip tied a piece of picatinny rail to my scope over my stay on scope cover and can see where it can work. As is the red dot points too high and is too close to the scope, so today I ordered a 20 MOA Picatinny rail and a small 1" riser block and some 6" stainless pipe clamps. I think the angle in the 20 MOA rail will counter the taper of the scope body. I also worked a piece of what looks like 3/8 closed cell foam packing material into the stay on case to take out some of the slack. Should have the pieces that I ordered for the mount in Wed or Thur. Just playing with it late yesterday on my straight body scope even with it not pointing exactly at the point the scope was aimed, i could get to my target quicker, I think it will be a definite help on my angle body scope.

jkingrph · Dec 22, 2020

Hauksen said:
Hi,

Strength would probably be pretty much the same, and for the final version, I'm actually thinking of doing just that. (Using my own printer, price is about 0.02 EUR/g, so I don't spend too much time on weight optimization before the design is final.)

However, even already now, it uses a lot less material than the precursor version which is skeletonized in all 3 axes:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3002868

Regards,

Henning

I like that blue colored one in the attachment. Might I suggest on the bottom where the split is , make those clamping lugs a little larger and one side square to the screws/bolts so a thumbscrew can be used. Now if someone could just sell them for a TSN82sv and a TSN 664 I would be all over them.

I never thought about clamping on to the dew cap. Makes me think, I might fire up my drill press and band saw and make one out of wood. attach a piece of aluminum Picatinny rail to the top.

Hauksen · Dec 28, 2020

Hi Jeff,

jkingrph said:
I like that blue colored one in the attachment. Might I suggest on the bottom where the split is , make those clamping lugs a little larger and one side square to the screws/bolts so a thumbscrew can be used.

That's a pretty good idea, I might update the design accordingly!

jkingrph said:
Now if someone could just sell them for a TSN82sv and a TSN 664 I would be all over them.

If you'd state the diameter and width of the clamping surface, I could fairly easily create a version of my design that fits these two scopes.

jkingrph said:
I never thought about clamping on to the dew cap.

The dew cap at least on the TSN883 has some slight (and, for its normal use, beneficial) "wiggle", so it's not really suited for mounting a sight. The adapter actually mounts on the scope barrel where it becomes visible if you extend the dew cap to the fully forward position. As it fits snugly, it just looks as if it were mounted on the dew cap, but that's unintentionally deceptive.

Regards,

Henning

New adapter design to mount a "red dot" (reflector/reflex) sight to a spotting scope (1 Viewer)

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