rack an pinion recoil system.. anyone done this?

[jason41987]

hey.. i was just working on some rifle designs of mine.. and i got the idea for a rack and pinion recoil system, of which the pinion uses a torsion spring, and the rack is machined into the bolt carrier.. when the bolt carrier moves rearward it spins the spur/pinion gear tensioning the spring, then, when its rearward, the spring forces the rack to spin, throwing the carrier forward...

ive never seen this in small arms, but perhaps a larger piece of atillery, or a prototype somewhere used a similar setup?...

benefit would be a very, very compact recoil system, which could also allow the magazine of a bullpup design to be nearly full rearward

obviously, it would cost more, and consist of more parts.. but its more of a "is it even viable" kind of moments

 

[MachIVshooter]

I don't see how it would work with a torsion spring, unless you used a lot of gears, which would greatly complicate the machine and make tolerances and lubrication requirements a nightmare. A clockspring would work better, but I just don't think it could provide the kind of resistance and speed of tension release you need.

Possible? Sure. Pratical? Really don't think so. Typical compression-type coil springs are used almost exclusively in firearms for a reason.

 

[BCRider]

The last thing you want in a shock absorbing system is a pure spring. That's why the howitzers and other artillery pieces use shock absorbing cylinders where they are charged with pressure to include a gas based "spring".

If you want a better rifle recoil absorber then you want to be considering a unit that looks more like a gas pressure piston cylinder such as used for holding up car tailgates. But with a metered set of valves to control the oil movement.

 

[Ian]

That's pretty much how a Lewis gun works, although it has a flat wound-up clock spring instead of a torsion spring.

 

[briansmithwins]

Yep, I was thinking Lewis gun also.

OTOH, coil springs are cheap to make and very robust. Which would be why almost all self loading firearms use them.

BSW

 

[adelbridge]

The dwell would be slow and an engineering nightmare to time full auto.

 

[Bushpilot]

Sounds unnecessarily complicated and heavy. Doesn't actually address any real need or problem.

 

[jason41987]

hah... looked up schematics on the lewis gun and there it is... see, i figured someone had done it before, and i already mentioned the reasons coil springs are better, was just curious if someone actually used this setup before... i figured someone had tried it at some point

 

[treg]

Sounds like a project for Jim March, the FrankenBrowning BLR!

 

[briansmithwins]

Look up Col. G. Chin's 'The Machine Gun'. He has written a exhaustive history of the development of automatic firearms, both rifle caliber and auto-cannon.

You can find .pdf of the 5 volume set free.

BSW