Can a flash hider be made of aluminum?

[Elkins45]

Here's a dumb (but sincere) question for you: can a flash hider for an AR be made of aluminum? I just bought a 300 Blackout barrel for my AR and it came with a threaded muzzle but no flash hider. The 30 cal barrels obviously use a different flash hider than the standard 22 AR barrel. I recently bought myself an old metal lathe and I thought it might make a good learning project for me to make a flash hider for my new barrel.

I have some 4140 rod, but I also have a nice 1.2" diameter aluminum billet and I thought it might be nice to make my flash hider from something relatively light weight that also happens to be cheaper than my expensive steel drill rod. It doesn't seem like a flash hider would be exposed to all that much stress...but what do I know? I don't want the thing to grenade in front of my face but if I make it sufficiently thick I don't see why it couldn't handle the load.

Opinions? I might just end up using the aluminum piece to make a thread protector and not a hider/brake, because I know there wouldn't be any sort of issue with that other than making sure it doesn't come unscrewed.

 

[Black Butte]

It's not always a good idea to join dissimilar metals as they may have different electron affinities, resulting in galvanic corrosion when wet.

 

[Jim Watson]

Hard to see how an AR works at all, then, what with aluminum receiver and all manner of steel pins and screws.

 

[brickeyee]

It's not always a good idea to join dissimilar metals as they may have different electron affinities, resulting in galvanic corrosion when wet.

A wet gun is going to have a lot of other corrosion problems.

There is plenty of bare steel with little protection.

Aluminum would work, but it might be damaged faster than steel from the hot powder gases.

The wrong type might even be ignited, though the blast is very brief so it cannot heat the aluminum that quickly unless you had full auto.

 

[rcmodel]

Somebody sold a pinned-on barrel extension / flash hider made out of anodized aluminum several years ago.
I forget who, but it seemed to work just fine.

Probably not a good material for a Comp, but a typical flash hider isn't subjected to actual bore pressure because it gets much bigger then the bore at the end of the barrel.

rc

 

[Jim K]

Well, the side blast from a rifle can be pretty big, so I am not sure how well an aluminum flash hider would stand up. But it would be a learning experience trying it; if you do, let us know the result.

Jim

 

[Elkins45]

Well, here it is. I went ahead and used steel under the assumption it would be just as much work to use aluminum and why gamble I might have to do it all over again?

I know it's just a dumb threaded steel tube but the fact I made it myself is what matters to me. I probably only have $50 invested when you consider the reamer, stock and a 5/8-24 tap. Think of the money I saved over buying one for $30 from Midway

 

[Old Dog Man]

Flash hider

Well money isn't everything, making it yourself has a value also. Thing about it you've made one and can do it again in a different style. Al