How long to rifle an iron barrel?

[4v50 Gary]

How long does it take in the pre-industrial age to rifle an iron barrel?

How much more does it cost as compared to a musket barrel?

 

[Malamute]

Don't know the answer on a large scale,...but have you seen this?

 

[shunka]

http://toadhallrifleshop.com/barrel-seminar-2010/
"Once again, the Yeller Tom Cat Forge held a free barrel welding seminar weekend. This year a 40 inch rifle barrel was forged to completion. "

forged the iron skelp in one day, welded it shut in another day
he didn't say how long to ream, but did say they rifled it on thursday:
"On Thursday, as in the past, a rifle barrel was rifled. It only took 300 passes to get it completed. "
So they get it done in "a day".

it all depends on how strong you are, how hard your barrel is, and how deep you want the grooves.

over here you can see how it's done.

so, if we extrapolate it took this fellow about 1 minute per 10 passes, index,and wipe the chips.

lets say we want 8 grooves that's 8 minutes for 10 passes. times 30 for 300 passes = ~ 240 minutes
without stopping - so ,around 4 hours.

add settup , index and change the depth of the cutter, and hone at the end, you could call it around 6 hours without an apprentice. A production shop would be using apprentices and turning them out a lot faster.

How much more cost? All you pay the apprentice is bed & board, so it comes down to
what other paying job ( like making nails) you could set him to.

yhs
shunka

 

[BCRider]

Even way back in the early days of rifled barrels I'm sure that production companies were using powered methods of drawing the rifling cutters through the bores and took far less time to cut the rifling by being able to take heavier cuts than could be pulled through by a single laborer.

 

[4v50 Gary]

OK, about a day's labor then. I suspected it was that much but wanted confirmation.

Years ago I got to play with the Norm Brockway sine bar rifling machine at Friendship. My uncle and I spent an hour on it before relinquishing it to others. TSJC still has a sine bar rifling machine, but it's not set up.

 

[shunka]

Even way back in the early days of rifled barrels I'm sure that production companies were using powered methods of drawing the rifling cutters through the bores and took far less time to cut the rifling by being able to take heavier cuts than could be pulled through by a single laborer.

Well sir, that is a valid point, but since Gary Asked:
"How long does it take in the pre-industrial age to rifle an iron barrel?" (emphasis mine) that's how I answered.
Also, it is important to remember that Apprentices were cheap, and Machinery was costly.

once even water-powered machinery was in place, the entire game changed. Then things changed from "one craftsman creating an entire product"
to " piece work" and "specialization". The development of "mechanization of processes" at Springfield Armory took place gradually according to Hounshell from ~ 1815- ~ 1840.

I highly recommend
"American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932"
By David Hounshell

For a more detailed look at mass production and how the men in charge of Springfield Armory changed the
way business was done in the Armory from "one man building one gun up until 1802 " to "a division of labor"

"in 1802 Henry Morgan took charge as superintendent and promptly institued a series of what
no doubt seemed like radical changes... by splitting the workers into four main divisons: barrrelmakers and forge men;
filers; stockers and assemblers; and grinders and polishers. "

These changes were not taken well by the workforce....

Machinery and use proper uniform guages was introduced over time, first uniform guages,
and teaching of the proper use of hardened gauges for true parts interchangability and "duplicating lathes"and specialised sequential machines
designed to carry out only one single step before moving the part to the next stage.

musket barrel turning machines ( 1818, by Blanchard)
then stockmaking lathes ( 1819, by Blanchard) ,
then inletting machines ( by 1822, also Blanchard)
Thus the mind-numbing assembly line was set in motion.

Regarding large scale production rifling machines Hounshell writes:
"Cyrus Buckland also designed a large number of machines between 1840 and 1852; some were only improvements
on Blanchard's stocking machines but others were more original, such as the self-acting rifling machine."

To grasp an idea of production volume,
the Springfield Model 1812 Musket ( .69 caliber smoothbore flintlock) was produced in a quantity of almost 30,000 between the 3 years between 1814 and 1816

while the Model 1803 Harpers Ferry Flintolock Rifle had only a total of 15,703 manufactured in the 7 years from 1814-1820.

in contrast, Springfield Armory produced 265,129 Model 1861 Rifled Muskets between January 1, 1861 and December 31, 1863

yhs
shunka

 

[58limited]

I have a Pennsylvania-style .50 cal made by a local man. He started making these rifles back in the late 1940s and originally drilled and rifled his own barrels before good commercial barrels finally became available. Based on his library research (remember, this was before long before the internet, even before TV really caught on), he duplicated the manual rifling jig used 200 years ago (looks similar to the one in the video above but made of wood) and he told me that it took about 300 passes for each groove (six grooves). He had to slightly adjust (tighten) the jig after each pass, it took him a couple of weeks to do the rifling in my rifle - he spent a hour or two after work each day working on it.

 

[J-Bar]

A quick scan through Foxfire volume 5 turned up a reference to "several hours". I did not spot any other mention of the time required. Sorry it's not more specific.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I would think another wild card would be the type of tool steel available for the cutter. Modern high speed tool steel and other alloys will hold an edge for quite a few cuts, I would think that an ordinary carbon steel cutter would dull pretty quickly resulting in a lot of honing, grinding, and re-positioning of the cutter. Having to take thinner cuts would also tend to dull the bit faster as would a lower than optimal cutting speed. Having been trained in the use of "modern" machine tools and cutting bit options in the early 1970's increased my respect for those who practiced the metal working trades prior to the industrial revolution or in areas where electricity or water power was not readily available.

 

[midland man]

excellent videos!!