Hope you enjoy the video. This is the best way to verify your work.

[youtu.be]

Gary

THE BARREL IS NOT ATTACHED ON THE END WHERE THE VIDEO STARTS AND ENDS! Its only clamped in the headstock Chuck.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2016 11:58PM by barnespneumatic.

BTW - different alloys respond to PULLING in different manners. Different Calibers respond differently. The depth of the rifling effects the PULL. The twist rate has an effect.
The barrel THICKNESS is a factor. If you don't mind 12 pound barrels, then there should be little need to straighten.

When a barrel has been pulled and needs to be "Straightened" - it won't have some gentle arc to correct ..... oh no .... it will be bent in a spiral manner. Like a HELIX. So; you don't straighten end to end. You straighten INCH TO INCH.

Still think my guns are expensive. Haha. Riiiigghht.

Thanks
Gary

Gary,

So much work and techniques needed to build a barrel. That is just one part of the total airgun, maybe one of the most critical ones, but its still just one part of the total system.

I can only imagine that you need to complete a few more steps before the barrel is finished. I'm I right?

Thanks for sharing this information with us.

julio

Hello Julio,

You are right, my friend. Here is a list of things to do yet.

1). Cut to length
2). Lathe turn each end true
3). Ream the bore
4). Hone as needed
5). Thread breech end
6). Chamber the breech
7). Bolt or Loading port interface
8). Crown the Muzzle
9). Sand the barrel thoroughly
10). Blue the Barrel

I probably forgot something. It takes time, skill, and care to finish a fine rifle barrel.

Thanks Julio!
Gary

Gary that's all ?? Haha
How much extra length do you have on each barrel prior to cut to length ?
Are any just to messed up that you HAFTA recycle into a pistol or carbine barrel ?
Also when you true them on the lathe , do you pry with tool rest or steady rest or what ? I don't quite understand the video as I've never seen it done . Maybe your just spinning it to check with a run out gage . I've seen the flattening checked on marble slabs . A very valuable tool for milling and surface grinding .

Thanks
Kurt

Hi Kurt,

There's several inches of waste to each barrel.

No - nothing is recycled. It's good or it's a tomato stake.

Gary

Interesting setup you have there. Curious as to what that lathe was labeled as? I'm sure it wasn't marketed to a custom Airgun builder. It's interesting to me how machines are remade to fit the new user.

Hi Steve,

That lathe is a Clausing Brand Machine Lathe. Probably from the late 60's. Probably started life in a High School, etc.

It's been a good machine to me. I bought it around 20 yrs ago.

Gary

Looks like the barrel is running pretty darn true! We have had a couple clousing lathes from the 60s in our shop and I kid you not some of those older machines run much better then the new ones! I've turned down a couple 25 inch .45 cal 1 inch O.D blanks....Every time you'd get to the center of the barrel it would chatter like crazy, so I had to do it in sections, I'm sure their must be a better way. Here's a pic of a ridiculous set up I had to do because our CNC was down..those chunks of 4140 were 300 pounds! Transmission shafts for helicopter. Took forever..... forever........foreverrrr! Anyhow the Barrel looks great so much precise work goes into it nice job.

Matt



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2016 02:15PM by Matt b.

You would think a disc could be welded onto the end of a smaller diameter piece of stock instead of turning down such a large cylinder.I'm sure if you could, you would, I'm just surprised a proper weld won't do the job

Lon

Hey Lon,

Good eye, I've tig welded parts like that in the past..and then simply turned the weld down on the lathe to make it like one seamless piece of steel.. Your right in most cases this would be ideal. However this part when finished would be under huge stresses being spun at vary high rpms. The welding process also warps and adds stress to the metal... Evan after normalizing it, a heat treatment that takes the stress out of metals and alloys it still would not be as strong as one solid piece. Being that the parts were for vary expansive helicopters they are engineered to be as strong as possible..so no short cuts on this one.

Thanks for asking,

Matt

Ok, I'll admit it. As I read it, you were making something "out of" old helicopter trans shaft.

So; whatever this is, I suspect is isn't an Ultralight or a two seater!

Pretty stout work there. I'm sure those will be checked a few times before the part number is lasered on!

Gary

Hey Gary,

Those chunks of steel were ordered brand new from our supplier, being turned down to specific dimensions for customer.. my fault did not specify. Not to mention after I was done with them they hade many more milling and turning opps done to them. Your right, on the final inspection...there was a lot of paper work with that job! I was just happy to get them done, and out of the way...too heavy. Honestly makeing barrels would be much more interesting to do... Lots of time and knowledge to get them right I'd imagin tho.

P.S. Your suspicions would be correct, these were for much bigger helicopters with lots of accessories.

Thanks,
Matt

Hey Matt
The first one is always fun and then..... The JOB kicks in .
Looks like alota metal got removed .020 at a time !
My old south bend has the old flat leather belt and ifin I swipe too much it lets me know .

Thanks
Kurt

Hi Matt,

Wow.

300 pounds. You could have had a heck of a Bull Barrel there. You have an old Winchester Factory Rifling machine too? Smile. That's dedication. That will make a heck of a Before/After picture.

Thanks for posting!

Gary

Gary,

You'd need a pretty solid shooting stick for a bull barrel that size!! Haha...the old fashion rifleing machines with the spiral slots cut in the wood pusher rod are cool looking, some good pictures of them on Google images. Vary interesting process!

Thanks,
Matt

Hey Kurt,

Saw some pictures of those old south bends, pretty neat lathes! Would love to have one...Yup your right on the money about 15 to 20 thousands a pass, as the diameter got smaller I was able crank up the rpms to take heavier cuts...about 6 to 7 hours for each one, was up to my knees in chips...all I was really doing was roughing them into shape.. By no means precision work... not even in the same ballpark as makeing barrels.
Thanks
Matt

Matt
I was pretty lucky to upgrade from a small Logan to an Atlas , both with separate gears for adjusting to finally a South bend with all kinda crazy attachments . I didn't even know what some were till I looked in the catalogue / books it came with . The man I got it from called it a gun lathe because the center was drilled out to allow a barrel pass to the left of the chuck .
I wish I could have spent some time learning from him . He made a lot of guns and was always a fixture at the gun shows . He told me he bought it brand new in 1960 with every attachment they had and through out the years got a full collet set and probably 6 different chucks and to much to mention here but he did laugh after we loaded it up . I asked him why he was laughing and he told me that I PAYED more for it than he did ! Then i laughed too .

Thanks
Kurt

Kurt,
Awsome you got that gun lathe, haveing that thru hole on the chuck makes all the difference! Good to here you got all those attachments also more the marry, those things aren't cheap.! I'm sure all the things you can do with a lathe will out pay the cost of the machine in the long run...So I'd say it's still a good deal, might Evan go up in value as the older ones become more rare. Good find!

Matt

A guy up here bought an old machinists place to convert into a tire shop and inherited a lathe so big that nobody wanted to move it. It would swing a piece of work almost 24" wide before it would touch the ways, which were fifteen feet long. The hole through the biggest chuck was six inches, but the center of the headstock was bigger, maybe eight inches wide. They used to use it to machine and true propeller drive shafts for the fishing fleet. Apparently, a lot of them on the bigger boats used to be monel metal since it's so corrosion resistant, but I think most of them are stainless steel these days. It finally got hauled off to some collectors garage, took a lot of guys to move it.

Hi Sean,

Steve's been looking for a lathe like that. They were used to wind the clocks in town squares. You put the clock in the Chuck, insert and hold the key, then forward the clutch .... Slowly!! til tight.

Gary

Sound plausible.

Or...you could wind up a heck of a rubber band for a really, really big balsa wood airplane.