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I know this is getting boring but have just bored out a .443" hole in my last bit of 4140 steel shaft and rifling it to a 1-18" twist, it`s a hard job but some one has to do it. ;). It will be 27" long, 1-1/4" od and may be good for heavy lead slugs at 200m ?.
Yeah be perfect for 500+gn slugs doug
Are you going to rebarrel the sharps?
I have a couple of Different 500gn Moulds you can borrow to try
Still gotta get that 490 round ball Mould to you
Hopefully catch up soon
Ha ha "boring" I will never tire of seeing your cool projects, keep posting pics please.
keep up the great work.
OK OK, Here`s a close up and personal look at the rifling system, first pic is the rear end where the cutter is pulled through the barrel. You can see the sine bar and slider assembly and the crank with chain loop that pulls the lathe bed slider along. The top of the chain loop is bolted to the slider and goes back and forwards driving the rifling cutter rod.
Attachment 95525
Now the rifling cutter head has been pulled through and you can see shavings by the cutter.
Attachment 95526.
To go back the cutter is lowered by pushing the adjustment nut, Arrowed, back out, this lowers the cutter down for going back. There`s a ramp inside the head for raising the cutter up and down.Attachment 95527.
That should take you awhile to finger it out. :wtfsmilie:
Aren't vehicle axles made of similar steel? Reckon they might be useful to practise on? I chuck a few away
I've heard of halfshafts being used.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tommy
I suppose with the right set up they could be used, but I think they are hardened so no good for cut rifling and the time it takes I don`t need to practice. Maybe after I wear out the Sharps barrel Ill make a new one, it`s in the to hard basket at the mo. This one will go to a new home as it`s hard to get large calibre blank barrels in NZ without exporting them, lots of $$$$. The rifling cutter is adjusted very finely so it just shaves a fine swarf at number one grove, then all the rest are cut at the same setting, six in all and then the cutter is raised a snig and away you go again, pile of fine swarf.
Attachment 95551,
The r/head is cranked back to the breech end, it hits a stop to raise the cutter and away you go again.
Attachment 95552,
Bump, cutters up.
Attachment 95553
At the back of the lathe is the setup for rifling register of the six groves, a bracket with a arm is bolted in place and the arm has a pin that locates and locks in a round disc with the evenly spaced holes. Starting at number one each grove is cut till no more swarf comes out, then on to the next one.
Attachment 95580
When the cutter comes out the swarf is removed and cutting fluid is applied for the next cut and a supply of lubricating fluid is on hand for the operator. :beer::beer:
Attachment 95581
Having been to your man cave and seen your set up, your one clever buggar HB
You know I`ll have to agree with you, I`m slowly improving my system and thought the fast twist would cause problems ,but no and I`ll have to say this is the best barrel I have done. I`m very tempted to replace my Sharps barrel with it or being a nice guy sell it for a NZ Hogziller killer project for someone as being a clever bugger I can make another one. A crappy pic of the bore.
Attachment 95644, 1-18" Twist.
And yes there`s always something that goes' wrong, the oil pump I got from my son`s Kanga is no good, so Tommy, (or any one) you don`t happen to have a S U V power steering pump laying around. I've got a Nissan car one that I get 200psi ,so another one should be 400+psi range, that is what I want.
Hi Homebrew.
If I followed your process correctly, wouldn't your 6 th groove not as deep as the first one if you take into account cutter wear?
When I used to regularly visit Border barrels in Scotland, I think that his Pratt and Whitney rifling machine was indexing the barrel at each pass of the cutter, and after 1 or 2 full revolution the cutter was self setting out for the next set of passes. That way the wear is even on all the grooves .
By the way, if you happened to wear out a .458" barrel, don't throw it away, just rebore it to the next caliber ,(475 or 50) and rerifle it.
There are two or three companies in the USA who offer reborring and filling services.
Well no, my state of the art cutters are made from T C tipped saw blades and as I`m hand cranking slowly through the barrel with my top of the range C N C set up there`s no wear on the cutter. My system for cutting is, remove chips, glug of brew for operator, cutting lube on cutter, wind through, another brew shot for operkator, crunk it brak , knok ouf ships, a shot of cutting oil for the operratee asd a slug of brew on the slutter. :roll:, So the`s nothing thass caun posy ges wroung.
Yes I`m very pleased how this barrel came out, drilled hole was a nice straight .443" and only .010" runout at the muzzle end. Cut rifled it to .457", so .007" deep rifling and now lead lapping with diamond paste. The way I do this is to drive a bullet into the bore then screw it onto my lapping rod, the head is drilled with two small holes and paste is squeezed in. Bore is oiled and rod is pushed into the bore, a brass rod is used to expand the lead bullet by tapping it with hammer, this presses it into the rifling and squeezes the diamond paste out of the holes and Lapps the bore. Well it`s my arms that are pushing it up and down, very dry work!!!, fiizzzit, gluggg. Ahhh.
Attachment 95807, Lapping rod in.
Attachment 95808, If it`s black it`s doing the job.
Legend. In fact such a legend that Richy Mcaw says you're a legend.
Ricky`s the man, but if he say`s so right , I`m a legend, clever bugger and all the bits in-between. Production has ground to a halt, hope fully I've got dibs on a steering pump, looks like I`m one short, but as long as there is T R D me, no problem.
Attachment 95889, My pump assembly
so???? you could make a two groove barrel (like a long tom) simply by only cutting rifling on say 1 and 4??? or a three groove ?????? it would cut down your machining time and give a greater grip on projectile.......
No, I would feel weird looking up a barrel with only two groves, there`s something about six groves spiralling off in a barrel that says it`s a barrel.
I know it`s hard work but someone has to do it, think of all the poor guys looking for a 45-70 barrel, Pssst, my oil pumps are up and running so guess what I`m doing. Now this one I plan to have a bore of .450", so the reaming is done, rifled .004" deep to .458" and it will be chambered, yep you guessed it; .45-70,
Attachment 100516, muzzle end, rifling cutting.
Attachment 100517, breech end, rifling register for six of the best.
Attachment 100518, New improved two pumps, put out 400psi. spits out the chips nicely .
I was slowly cutting the six grove rifling and I`m making this one on speck , there must be some looking for a 27" 45-70 barrel. Well I get this email from a guy, "Hi, I like your barrels, can I order one", he had build a rolling block action so needed a barrel, so it`s wrapped up ready to go to it`s new life. I hope it shoots straight.
you plan on making other barrels like 5R 6.5mm
No Mucko, I've only got three gun drills, they drill holes of , .420", .443", and .500". Its ok drilling holes this size with the setup I have but if you go to smaller holes you need a lot more oil pressure and it`s to hard to make a rifling cutter head for the small sizes. It takes me about 12/13 days to finish a barrel. My homebrew supply is getting low so no more barrels till I put down a few kits, one must get the priorities right, :beer:
Brew ya old bugger ,kotuku here,hows that howitzer barrel coming on???GSPF informs me jan 14 is opening of a special parrie season in our area so keen to bowl a couple .just shifted house so have a few nuts bolts waikato cans etcetc to drop down the barrel and hopefully knock em out.
bloody good to see youre staying out of here indoors hair,secret to many a happy marriage according to my better half!!
Merry Xmas to you and yours and all forum users .stay safe and may santys sack contain a loud one for ya!!
Hi Mate, hope the move went ok, you can get rid of a lot of stuff when you move and find a lot. Good luck with the parrie`s , hope you are practicing a lot, if not here is a way to get close up and personal. Pic #1.
Now here`s the latest and greatest duck terminator, just poke it up in the sky and let fly, your bound to hit something. Cheers, have a good xmas.Attachment 101249, Close range stuff.
Attachment 101250, Long range stuffer upper.
So for all you guys and girls admiring how much of a legend homebrew is (and this includes myself). After this I will be up to 5 posts and add some pics. Micky Duck brought the barrel and asked his good mate ( Me ) if I could chamber and machine to fit as an insert in a single barrel 12g he has. How bad could it go I thought. So into work and onto the lathe I went as time, family life, Xmas/new year, actual work, hunting etc allowed I slowly removed metal to get what we were after.
Here is the barrel being chambered in lathe
Attachment 104224
This is the completed barrel machined to fit down the 12g barrel.
Attachment 104225
Close up of chamber end.
Attachment 104226
Barrel fitted into 12g.
Attachment 104223
And best of all it actually works. Now to find some live animals.
https://youtu.be/Edi9RNXpp0c
Nice job! How much extra weight does it add?
Didn't actually weigh it, @Micky Duck might be able to chuck it on some scales one day. The thing is that the bore is about 11.5mm and to fit down the 12 guage it had to be just under 18.5mm so the wall thickness of barrel is only 3.5mm. About the same as a bit of 1/2" schedule 40 pipe.
the weight is ok....sort of brings it up to a heavy barreled bolt action..the balance is great and the weight is in a good place,balance point is between the hands and it carries one handed nicely....we were managing to hit a 4" square piece of wood at 20 yards last weekend....so it should be good for 40-50yards on a deer.
Hi guys, just checking my thread, I`ve just seen this, bloody good stuff Rumpy. Sorry about all the machining you had to do but I dear say Micky will be keeping your beer supply up for a while. If you keep those slugs at 1,100 /1,300 fps should be ok and no leading and its a easy cartridge to load, I haven`t any loading dies for it but no problem, Doug.
Buy the way, how is the muzzle end fitted, a nice tight sliding fit. If its a bit lose would bugger up the accuracy for you.
tighter than a tight thing mate....the sleave slips in dry ,but put a little oil on outside and its a push fit. it will ONLY fit in the astra...any other barrel is too tight.
Great stuff, keep practicing with a good load so you know there it`s hitting say at 50m`s then go and find some goats/deer. I want to see one of my barrels doing the deed .
I worked with a packhouse engineer who saved every Chrysler Valiant torsion bar he could get his hands on. These might make good barrel steel? Just a question though - who would bore and ream a 30 cal barrel out to 338 for me? I'm planning to convert the old 30-06 to 338-06. Will make a rifling machine as part of the project.
Hi All ,it always makes me smile when i see and hear guys doing this sort of stuff ,keeping the old skills alive
by the way how often does the your drink get mixed up with the gun oil
it might work rather well the other way around ,like reducing the squeaks in your joints as you age and every time you shoot the barrel gets hot you get a fresh smell
of your home brew Cheers to all
still havent managed a deer..... its taken a few wallabies now...this season will be the one.... somehow lol. with help from another forum good fella I BELIVE I might be doing better now have a bit more knowledge on BP loads.Quote:
Originally Posted by homebrew.357
Looks like a Subaru multirib pulley on the bench
Extremely impressive work sir.
What is the minimum barrel thickness required to bore out an existing barrel to .45cal? I have a shot out Ross rifle that I’d love to make shoot again, I wonder can it be bored to .45? The expensive of rebarreling is too high, but boring out would be a good solution.
Barrel wall thickness 2.3mm so a lot less than you would expectQuote:
Originally Posted by -BW-
Very different process boring, reaming and cut rifling an existing barrel
That is less that I thought.Quote:
Originally Posted by akaroa1
Are you saying it can only be done on certain types of machinery? Or it’s more difficult? Id really like to explore the options.
