Probably not.
Nostalgia?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Probably not.
Nostalgia?
The Revolution will not be televised.
I wonder why the line stayed while the x didn't.
Dunno... but perhaps the X was engraved (a separate step easily eliminated) and the vertical line was built into the forging?
Just hazarding a guess.
Still doesn't explain why the vertical line has existed for so much longer as I'm pretty sure the original parts for forging have worn out.
So what you"re saying is that the these guns have an appendix. It served a purpose at one time but now it's just there waiting to be removed....
Vince
When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. Thomas Jefferson
Consider for a moment the financial cost of removing that vertical line from all the engineering drawings, prints, forging dies, etc.
It was probably forgotten or deemed inconsequential.
The Revolution will not be televised.
By the same token, consider how many times over the last 50 years those drawings have been redone and or changed. Not to mention the fact that these "drawings" started out on paper and are now digitized. I would think that some point along the line some draftsman would have asked......"What is this line for and why am I drawing it" I do some computer modeling for a machine shop and I question "dumb stuff" in drawings. It has saved me, and the machinist, time in the long run.
Not to cast doubt on what the Oracle has said but something isn't quite right. I can understand the "+" being used for alignment because it will give you 2 planes of reference to better align in both the x and y axis. But a single line only gives a single plane of alignment. If the scope on your rifle only had one line how precise would your shooting be?
Vince
Last edited by EW1066; 07-20-10 at 14:02.
When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. Thomas Jefferson
Perhaps it's a fraction that holds all of the history & knowledge of the known universe in numeric form.
The Revolution will not be televised.
Any one else care to chime in with alternative explanations? I tend to believe the "relic of the past" explanation, but it still has some questionable aspects. What I'm looking for is a definitive source. Documentation would be ideal. Hearing from the ORACLE was good, but the world/internet is full of ORACLES (no offense to ORACLES intended).
Thanks again
Vince
When injustice becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. Thomas Jefferson
I designed machinery for 15 years, and many of the older items are still on Velum. I wouldn't doubt that Colt has never bothered to put the old uppers into a modern CAD system....it hasn't changed in decades, so why spend the money. Same with the dies...unless you could save a ton of money, it would cost more to revise the dies than it would be worth (even when replacing them)...the die makers would have to update all their stuff, change processes, etc.
The Colt customer service guy I spoke with had no clue. Tried to hunt down a guy he said was more knowledgeable than himself. The other guy wasn't around so he gave me the number to a company called Specialized Armament and said maybe they could help. I'll call them later and if they have no answer - I doubt that they will - I'll try calling around to a few forges.
Edit: The guy at Spec. Arm. could only offer a guess. He thinks that the 50's era machining process answer is a stretch and that it is a remnant of the forging process.
Called Cerro but apparently I could only get information about fusible alloys or brass forgings. A company in england, Bolton?, manages their aluminum forging now? This is what I understood from our conversation.
Called Cardinal but, unless you know the name of a person you're wanting to talk to, their automated answering system prevents getting through.
Called Alcoa but the person the operator forwarded me to was out of office.
If MisterWilson's answer is correct then my question is why didn't the mark on the lower receiver persist over the years? I've never seen a forged lower receiver with a mark like that on it. I don't know very much about the forging process. Forges like Cerro, Alcoa, Cardinal all use their own set of dies, right? What about forged lowers?
Last edited by organdonor; 07-21-10 at 16:26.
Bookmarks