AusVarmint

Sorry, I should have taken progress photos, never really thought about it. Will do from now on.

[IMG] http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/sa/ ... 5.un51.jpg[ /IMG]

Tex.

That would be an interesting colour scheme actually....

Hmmmmm Base plate for a bench rest stand ??

Camel wrote:Hmmmmm Base plate for a bench rest stand ??

I reckon you're on the money. What else has 3 legs and needs to be bolted down flat.

Tex.

and the 4th hole is for the ammo holder?

Correct. A makeover coming for my caldwell fire control. The base sucks, the top sucks and the internals need a good cleanup and smoothup, but will be fine with some TLC. Just cant afford a SEB or Farley at the moment. The 4th hole is for the post on the height adjustment and keeps the joystick in the center of the plate.

Just about finished.

Drilled at tapped the M10 holes on each corner, have fitted 120mm stainless bolts and have ordered some custom machined ally F class feet for it. 12mm steel is a bastard to tap with the correct size hole, I went half a mm larger just to make it easy.

Ive purchased a farley billet box top and custom bag for it on hope that it would fit onto the existing top. Otherwise I would have had to make a plate. It fits in perfectly. Just had to hold it over one side so there was a mm or so clearance from the post when the joystick is over at the 3 oclock position. Had to do a run around town to find the correct tap to fix it in, when I got that ($24 for a HSS tap thank you very much) I put it in the mill and drilled the holes then tapped them. Screwed everything together and reckon it looks good.

Im in the process of getting a quote for the base to get hydro dipped in a black zombie/skull pattern to finish it off and make it look good. Will probably give the green firecontrol body a coat of matte black too so it all fits in.

Wardy is machining up a knurled handle for the post height adjustment, and there is also a knurled ally knob going on the coaxial joystick shaft too. Should see those this weekend.

So yeah the farley firecontrol, farwell, caldley or whatever it is, should be done soon. Best of all it can go lower than the original rest, higher than the original rest and is lighter, not that horrible green colour and is able to take a decent front bag. All this so far has cost about $250, plus the rest was $350-400 a couple of years back. A custom paint job to finish it and Im still a fair way in ahead in comparison to buying a farley straight up.

Looking good mate, well done, I need to do something to mine too.

Nice job

Will the base be heavy enough Brad?

I was going to go heavier but the pussies at the laser cutters couldn't do it.

Im actually trying to lose a little weight off the rest. They are bloody heavy to cart around and we often have shoots where you park your car in the morning and have to tote all our gear from 300-1000yds. So far, I see no real disadvantage at going lighter. With a set of f class feet in the ground and proper rifle setup there is no way the rest will move before the rifle does. If it were benchrest then ok I can see an arguement that there is no carting around of gear, but I still think its more than heavy enough to hold still. Contemplated going ally but there wasnt any available locally. Then decided to go 16mm steel and after looking at it decided 12mm was a better choice.

Speaking of bigger, I wonder what limit you have with the overall footprint?

If wheel chair disabled shooters are any indication something the size of card playing table should be legal on the mound...maybe not 12mm thick though

Footprint wise its wider than the original fire control base, but not as long. Triangle measures 330mm on each side and 300mm on the base. Nice and easy to cart around size. Could have gone larger, but then weight would have been up.