• Hey All! Lately there has been more and more scammers on the forum board. They register and replies to members requests for guns and/or parts or other things. The reply contains a gmail or hotmail address or similar ”anonymous” email addresses which they want you to reply to. DO NOT ANSWER ANY STRANGE MESSAGES! They often state something like this: ”Hello! Saw your post about purchasing a stock for a Safari. KnuckleheadBob has one. Email him at: [email protected]” If you receive any strange messages: Check the status of whoever message you. If they have no posts and signed up the same day or very recently, stay away. Same goes for other members they might refer to. Check them too and if they are long standing members, PM them and ask if the message is legit. Most likely it’s not. Then use the report function in each message or post so I can kick them out! Beware of anything that might seem fishy! And again, for all of you who registered your personal name as username, please contact me so I can change it to a more anonymous username. You’d be surprised of how much one can find out about a person from just a username on a forum such ad our! All the best! And be safe! Jim

Reproduction Sako L and A series parts...

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

tilleyman

Well-Known Member
I've currently got a shot-out .22/250 L579 stripped down to the last part ready for rebarrelling to a 7mm-08.

The sight hood thread got me thinking, so I spent a chilly Saturday 3D CAD modelling up some L and A series components that potentially could be of interest to SCC forum members.
I have tried to very accurately reproduce them down to the last detail, I'm trying to gauge demand if I get a small run made of various bits.

Cost will of course depend on volume, but here's a taste of what potentially could be made up.
Any interest...?

Front sight hoods Angled or Square:
Sako front sight hoods gloss.JPG

Action Screws:
Sako action screws gloss.JPG

Cross bolt (L579 L61R)
Sako crossbolt gloss.JPG
 
Having reproduced parts would be great. There is strong demand for sight hoods since they are easily lost (or some owners remove them) and many Sakos offered for sale lack them. Sight blades would be the next most often asked-for part.

Action screws are already available from a couple of sources, while it is not often that crossbolts are missing or require replacement, so the volume in those two parts might not be sufficient to justify making them.

Other parts I most often hear of people seeking are bolt stops (or mostly just ejector blades) and magazine parts like the spring and follower. Bolt guides and the clips that hold bolt guides on are also in demand.
 
tilleyman, very appreciated reach out for potential access to hard to find quality parts. When I buy or "stock up" on items, who the seller or supplier is dictates my purchases as there are some who I will not give them my business, period. If the reproduction parts are of good quality, i.e., sight hoods, I would buy 10 of each although only needing 2-3 since 10 years from now I or someone might need one. Stonecreek suggestions are solid and can serve as a guide for filling a needed niche. Quality magazines for some models are needed and many aftermarket items are quality poor. Thank you.
 
Another source for repo hoods would be great as long as they have the spring tension to fit nice and tight. I agree with Stonecreek that sight blades would be another great addition. Sako blade dovetails are narrower and like unicorns to find.
 
Bolt stop screws would also be on the list. I ordered up some SS jobberdoos. Will put them into service and use a paint stick to color the heads.

rick
 
Having reproduced parts would be great. There is strong demand for sight hoods since they are easily lost (or some owners remove them) and many Sakos offered for sale lack them. Sight blades would be the next most often asked-for part.

Action screws are already available from a couple of sources, while it is not often that crossbolts are missing or require replacement, so the volume in those two parts might not be sufficient to justify making them.

Other parts I most often hear of people seeking are bolt stops (or mostly just ejector blades) and magazine parts like the spring and follower. Bolt guides and the clips that hold bolt guides on are also in demand.

OK thanks for the feedback guys... magazine springs are easy, followers not so much as Sako obviously used special tooling for some of the fine undercut slots where the spring attaches. Not sure if they were made as 'cartridge family' or unique. Brno ZKK's actually had specific followers per cartridge... a 7x57mm follower was subtly different to a .270W follower... more important I guess with a true Mauser style controlled feed vs Sako.
I have started 3D modelling the bolt stop from my L579... quite tricky to reverse engineer a vintage investment casting that was then machined using jigs and fixtures in those pre-CNC days. Need to determine what is just inaccurate original casting vs required features and where the pivot centres and index points are established for modern CNC production.
I will also model the bolt stop housing screws and the bolt stop spring, maybe offer a repair kit.
Bolt guides are a surprisingly complex design with finely machined undercuts that must have required quite a bit of special tooling and jigs. At this stage I think I will concentrate on the bolt guide mounting rings as they are shared across models and will be straight forward to have made up.
Regarding front sight blades, did they come in a variety of widths as well as heights?
Work in progress!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ERP
As for front sight blades, they are much narrower (muzzle to bolt) than any US blade. Less than half of the standard 3/8". Even much smaller than the European dimensions. I did measure my L57 at one time and it was so hard to get my caliper in there I was not 100% confident with the measurement. As for height, I'm sure there were differences but you could always make them taller than usual. They could always be filed down to zero in the sights. Width would pretty much be standard.
 
As for front sight blades, they are much narrower (muzzle to bolt) than any US blade. Less than half of the standard 3/8". Even much smaller than the European dimensions. I did measure my L57 at one time and it was so hard to get my caliper in there I was not 100% confident with the measurement. As for height, I'm sure there were differences but you could always make them taller than usual. They could always be filed down to zero in the sights. Width would pretty much be standard.
I don't have a L46 front sight blade on hand to measure, much better to remove the blade to get accurate results, the dovetailed recess required can then be reverse engineered.
Really appreciate any SCC help to measure up a couple of thinner L46 style blades, ideally several to work out dimensional tolerances... any manufactured part will lie somewhere on a Bell Curve of acceptable tolerance.
Without the original Sako toleranced engineering drawings we really are flying blind, trying to determine the nominal dimension and likely ± tolerance.
Even major manufacturers have been caught out with 100,000 slightly incorrect parts that won't fit all assembly instances due to a simple tolerancing error...!

Quite a good overview article on GD&T for reverse engineering:
http://www.americanholt.com/blog/geometric-dimensioning-and-tolerancing-for-reverse-engineering/
 
Last edited:
I've currently got a shot-out .22/250 L579 stripped down to the last part ready for rebarrelling to a 7mm-08.

The sight hood thread got me thinking, so I spent a chilly Saturday 3D CAD modelling up some L and A series components that potentially could be of interest to SCC forum members.
I have tried to very accurately reproduce them down to the last detail, I'm trying to gauge demand if I get a small run made of various bits.

Cost will of course depend on volume, but here's a taste of what potentially could be made up.
Any interest...?

Front sight hoods Angled or Square:
View attachment 22998

Action Screws:
View attachment 22999

Cross bolt (L579 L61R)
View attachment 23000
I've currently got a shot-out .22/250 L579 stripped down to the last part ready for rebarrelling to a 7mm-08.

The sight hood thread got me thinking, so I spent a chilly Saturday 3D CAD modelling up some L and A series components that potentially could be of interest to SCC forum members.
I have tried to very accurately reproduce them down to the last detail, I'm trying to gauge demand if I get a small run made of various bits.

Cost will of course depend on volume, but here's a taste of what potentially could be made up.
Any interest...?

Front sight hoods Angled or Square:
View attachment 22998

Action Screws:
View attachment 22999

Cross bolt (L579 L61R)
View attachment 23000
 
Hi Mr. Tillyman,
Would be interested in tang end action screw aprox 1/32" ashorter than normal Please reply. How will I pay ? This is a great Idea you have. If I were younger I would buy up several junker Sakos & mine the parts (bolt assys Etc.) for samples I'd set up a distributorship for gunsmiths world wide giving the fact that current owners seem to turn a deaf ear to Sako owners needs.
 
Good morning Bucktote
Thanks for those words of encouragement, hopefully I can fill a niche not currently met by Sako... who seem only focused on their newer models!
Yet Beretta has spent some serious money on revamping the old Riihimaki HQ and celebrating Sako's 100th anniversary with some lavishly produced videos and the website often mentions Sako heritage and heirloom status. At least they still list exploded views and parts list PDFs for the L and A series models!
We can only hope that like Mercedes Benz, they realise every Sako still out there is an advertisement for the brand's enduring quality and accuracy. Sako will still have all the hand drafted engineering drawings and (maybe) some of the jigs, it would be quite easy for them to update certain 'consumable' vintage parts to suit their onsite CNC manufacturing facility. Correct tolerancing is the key!
Mercedes has a Classic centre in Fellbach where they can restore or repair pretty much any of their classic cars incl making small runs of long-unobtainable spare parts via modern rapid prototyping and CNC machining technology.
https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/classic/history/mercedes-classic-center-fellbach/

ANYWAY getting off topic a bit here... in answer to your original question, I have no plans to make action screws, as there are at least three current suppliers (Brownells and Midway showing out of stock) but Forster still has them listed at a very reasonable $7.50 a pair. At that price you can shorten them to your hearts content while keeping the originals unmolested :D
I have a couple of the Forster sets and they are well made incl the narrow euro-style slot.
https://www.midwestgunworks.com/page/mgwi/prod/S5940265
https://www.forsterproducts.com/product/trigger-guard-screws/
 
Last edited:
Thanks Tillyman,
Just ordered set of action screws from Forster Products. We have had 4 Mercedes s cars. Seems they got a little on the engineered obsolence side. Needed a solonoid for door unlock system. Can't buy it, need to buy both door handles ( inside & outside) - elect. harness and window/door assy. $600.00 plus $400. install. Got a X long Lexus instead. Go figure !!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top