Rosch Works SL-1 integrated sight/light

**jerrysimons** · 09-30-13, 01:05

http://roschworks.com/#2749

I first saw this light/sight setup in the BCM Keymod rail thread in a picture of one of Mike Pannone's rifles, http://www.defensereview.com/bravo-c...lutions-photo/

They just went up for sale. I have one coming to me and will post up a mini review soon.

Many have mentioned the perfect application for the benifits of a 12 o'clock light without the draw back of a reduced sight radius as an integrated sight into the light body. Tango down was headed in the right direction with their FFA-01 http://www.militarymorons.com/weapon...tics3.html#ffa
but it looks like Rosch Works has finally pulled it off.
Being a lumen junkie myself, I am well familiar with Malkoff Devices, they make some solid lights.

Any one you super slick beta testers out there already run one of these?

**Amur** · 09-30-13, 11:11

I want one...might order one real soon.

**351322** · 09-30-13, 11:18

They are not available for purchase on the website. Where did you order yours, and what is the price?

**jerrysimons** · 09-30-13, 11:32

Originally Posted by 351322

They are not available for purchase on the website. Where did you order yours, and what is the price?

Well, they were up for a short time early this morning, as was announced on Friday, for $230. I bought one and was not charged additional shipping. I am guessing they had some bugs in their site since they have pulled the store page and are saying a few more days. Hope my order went through!

Check out the technical page for a PDF of how to zero the sight.

**Todd762** · 10-01-13, 06:46

Looks nice and I read how to zero it, which sounds pretty simple. It should be a practical quality light and mount combo.

**rfscheer** · 10-01-13, 20:07

Hi all,

Some of you may remember me from NGA talking about the X7, but these days it's all about ROSCH Works and our new product the SL1.

I noticed this thread causing some hits on our website and thought you might have some questions.

The online store is up now. We did have a last-minute glitch with the shopping cart not correctly assigning shipping charges, so we decided to add $5 to the price and include "free" shipping.

**ZoneOne** · 10-04-13, 17:24

I wish my meager cop salary would let me afford one. It looks great and from what I'm reading well worth the money.

Looks like a very ergonomic setup too. I can finally keep my pistol lights where they belong (on my pistols)

Really looking forward to some user reviews with photos.

**jerrysimons** · 10-04-13, 23:19

My SL1 came today

My initial impressions. Hopefully I get some comparison pics up soon.

Overall I am pleased.

-- I measured the SL1 at 3.3oz with battery.
.1oz over speced weight but still the lightest light/sight combo I have seen.

--The light as mounted is very low profile. Using my APL as a point of reference and this post on light height, I would judge the SL1 light body to be about as high as the WML, which is exceptional, leaving mostly only the sight tower in the sight picture of a T1 on lower 1/3rd mount.

--The light activation internals consist of a spring for a positive contact that pushes the battery down onto the negative contact plate in the tail cap, which is directly connected to the tail cap push button. The plate is always in contact with the battery negative connection by the raised portion at its center, but the circuit is not completed until the button is pressed, pushing the whole assembly including the battery forward to allow the lower portion of the plate to then make contact with the light body where the circuit board is connected in the light head (not all monentary only tail cap switchs are designed this way, if I am not mistaken Surefire has a patent that must be worked around).

All this explanation to say,

1. The battery is appropriately dampened from movement under recoil by the positive contact spring. An important feature for a weapon light so the battery does not bash against a fixed positive contact point on the circuit board in other designs that could eventually knock it loose.

2. The switch is stiff and could use some refinement but it it works.
When the button is pressed there is a lot of mass, relatively, to move against the spring tension of the positive contact. Therefore the button is a little stiff. The stiffness can be mitigated by the fact that the distance of the press to activation is adjustable depending on how much you loosen the tail cap off of fully tight/constant on. 1/4" twist loose makes for quite a short press. Eventually you can lock out the light by loosening the tail cap about 1 full turn.

3. The light can be activated by hitting the bezel against a hard surface.
This is due to the way the switch is designed to move the battery and contact plate forward against the light body. Hitting it against a hard surface temporarily does this until the positive contact spring pushes the assembly back, thus the light will flicker. Locking out the tailcap prevents th light from activating at all. Now really I don't think this will be a problem in most real world scenarios as recoil impulse is in the opposite direction. I suppose if some clandestine operator were stalking about at night without the tail cap locked out and dropped his rifle on it muzzle, his position could be made when the light flickers but lets get real.

--The finish is excellent, the Cerakote over anodizing is really a nice touch.

-- The beam is more spill than throw, which many find preferable for HD/CQB.
Compared to an APL the SL1 has slightly more spill but not too much so. The reflector is textured whereas the APL reflector is smooth. The hotspot fades nicely into the spill beam at close quarters and does not have a high, distracting contrast, disallowing you from making full use of the beam spread.

-- The tint of my SL1s LED is slightly purple (yours may be green, blue or neutral white).
The Cree XPG2 are cutting edge emitters in terms of output and efficiency but unfortunately the way they are sourced means you can end up with a variety of slight tints, Folks over on Candle Power Forum call this the "tint lottery". Many will pay a premium for verified neutral white tinted emitters. Unfortunately of all tints commonly seen, a slight purple is the one I abhor most. It is not a deal breaker for me but it is incredibly annoying. Unless the tint is really heavy it shouldn't be distracting when used as a weapon light.

I look forward to get this thing mounted and sighted in, it is going to have a home on my forthcoming Ultralight Noveske HD carbine (just waiting on BCM keymod

).

Questions for rfscheer
-Does the lighthead screw off? I see the thread in the cross sectional photo but can't seem to unscrew it. Thread locker?
-The product page mentions Malkoff replacement lightheads, anymore info?
-Which parts are steel and which parts are aluminum?

Thanks!

**rfscheer** · 10-05-13, 00:19

Originally Posted by jerrysimons

My SL1 came today

Questions for rfscheer
-Does the lighthead screw off? I see the thread in the cross sectional photo but can't seem to unscrew it. Thread locker?
-The product page mentions Malkoff replacement lightheads, anymore info?
-Which parts are steel and which parts are aluminum?

Thanks!

Wow! Impressive curiosity.

Yes, the lighthead screws off. The o-ring and thread design lock it in tight. You won't break it.

We don't yet have Malkoff stocked with lightheads but in the next month or so, we're planning that Gene will be offering both SL1's and spares on his site.

The rail clamp hex bolt, sightpost hex bolt and nut and sightpost are 41L30 steel, moderately hardened after machining & melonited. We do all the machining on the hardware. Note that the female rail clamp threads are set in the 7075 T6 aluminum left rail clamp section. Our tests indicated steel wasn't necessary there.

With regard to color of the light, we gave that almost zero weighting. Instead we went for absolute maximum efficiency of lumens/watt or total lumens-hours per battery charge. You are correct that many on candlepower forums would not view this color range with affection and I'm aware of that, but let's see how well you think it lights up a threat/target.

The force to close the switch is intended to be similar to your trigger pull. Yes, that's much heavier than many digital switches and some on other weapon lights. Our view on that is the switch is always near your support thumb and it should never go on until you mean it.

I've been looking at clicky switches and we may come out with a tailcap that has such a switch because so many think that's what they want. The problem with these is they are finicky, requiring miniscule force to turn on constantly and feather-touch to turn on momentarily. You can train enough so that most of the time you won't trigger it to constant on but in a high-stress, real-consequences situation, this type of fine skill training may not work well for you. I know that many will disagree, and a clicky is inevitable because of that, but I'm just explaining why the design choices were what they were. On the other hand, if it takes more than 4lbs to close the switch, then that's too much.