I recently picked up a Steiner Military 3-12x50 rifle scope and was searching around for a sun shade. Long Story Short: I cant find a factory sunshade (in stock) so I'm going to make a custom one. Ill get photos of my progress later today.
- Thread starter Awag1000
- Start date
I measured the outside diameter of the scope so I can get a baseline for how large this shade is going to be. Im making a slip over shade design (much like the Buttler Creek scope caps). The outside diameter is ~2.274" 
my material of choice is Carbon Fiber Fabric using an epoxy/resin binder. (because it looks cool and is super light weight)
my material of choice is Carbon Fiber Fabric using an epoxy/resin binder. (because it looks cool and is super light weight)
I managed to find an Aluminum tube that is close to the diameter of the scope so I cut a section off and cleaned up the edges.
Hitting those Feeds and speeds Just perfectly.
mandrel is complete, on to the Mixing of Epoxy!
mandrel is complete, on to the Mixing of Epoxy!
Got the Carbon fabric laid with the Epoxy. Now into a vacuum sealer to pull out majority of the air bubbles and cure.
Bad News: had to cut a relief in the fabric because stupid me forgot that the epoxy shrinks more than the aluminum does and it got stuck on there.
Good News: It is fixable, since this isn"t a load bearing object I cleaned it up and wrapped another layer of fabric over it making it look 100x better.
you're probably thinking "what the hell is this kid doing?" quite frankly I don't even know. Ive done some carbon fiber work before and had good results. EX:
this is an upper hand guard I made for my Romanian PM63
Just got done wrapping the final layer.
now I just have to play the waiting game.
now I just have to play the waiting game.
I didn't measure the shrinkage but normally with my other CF projects it takes some effort but the product normally pops right off nice and clean. Since this a thinner product I didnt want to force it and have an uneven break/ crack (similar to the end shown in the picture) so I decided to make a "straight" cut relief and it popped right off. The carbon fabric and epoxy I buy from a guy not far from me. https://carbonkevlarsupply.com/
I'll be 100% honest, this is probably the most ugly thing I have made with carbon fiber, But it does its job. It fits tight enough around the outside of the scope to not come off under recoil but easy enough to take off with no issues.
yeah, it weighs 1/2 oz though. stupid light.
It's looking a lot better than the projects I didn't get to today!!! I bet it keeps the glare down too, thanks for sharing
For my NF ATACR I just drilled a hole in a throw away scope cap. I snap it on when looking towards the sun. Clear as day and doesn’t look like a chunk of drain pipe attached to my scope...
Much better option that the old cardboard shades
