Muzzle loader barrels

[modwerdna]

Muzzle loader barrels?
I have made 3 muzzle loaders out of pre bored and rifled 4130 blanks with great success and want to make my own blanks. I have a lathe for the boring and honing process and want to construct a turntable with guide press to rifle with a carbide cutter- but after that should I harden and temper them or just leave them as is? I will probably purchase some round stock in 4140 or 4130 chrome moly, and use the oil quench mode if necessary- muzzle loaders operate at very low pressure so I am wondering if the hardening process is really necessary, and how hard the steel needs to be if ?- I plan to retain at least a 1/4" wall thickness if not 3/16, and have at least a 5/8 threaded by 1" breechplug. Some of the round stock is available already prehardened, but that might be rough on the lathe and press- Also some one gave me some drive shafts from a truck sander gearbox - they are 1 1/2 diameter - but what kind of steel do you think they might be? I thought about cutting of a 1" piece and seeing if it will harden to at least drill or scratch resistant? I was thinking of trying a .50 muzzle loader barrel out of one, -- and yes I proof test every thing I build with a remote rest and string fire trigger with at least a 3x charge.

 

[[email protected]]

Muzzleloading barrels should be dead soft, not hardend. You need a whole
lot more information on about what you want to do.

 

[StrawHat]

On one of the muzzle loading forum, there is quite a bit of info an building a rifling bench and how to use it. It is not an electricly powered one but the kind that produces good results. Muzzle loading barrels, actually most rifle barrels, are not hardened. Cecil Brooks rifled a lot of his barrels and said it usually took him about 40 hours to do it. As much fun as that sounds, when I was younger I might have done it but now, I buy my barrels. Good luck with your choice and check those other fora.

 

[damoc]

i would realy like to know how they produced a good rifle barrel back in the
"olden days" if anyone has any links to someone recreating that old tech i would be very interested.

what has always fascinated me was how they could bore a straight barrel
in the first place let alone rifle it. i know the scatterguns were normally
of a "damascus" twisted welded tube construction and that i think i could
recreate but how did they ever bore a 36 cal rifle barrel?

 

[modwerdna]

good response

well That's what I thought - no need for hardening - My idea is to tack-weld a helical guide bar at the right pitch to the outside of a blank - construct a tapered roller bearing turntable/ holding chuck(1" trailer hub and bearings)- use either a file or carbide insert into a drill rod (specially sharpened/ground masonry bit?) with guide fingers to follow my helical guide bar, and press it through 2 groves at a time, maybe making 2 cutters, one for the first 5 thousandths, and the next for the final 5 (10 total groove depth)- challenges I can see will be holding the cutter still while the barrel rotates, and indexing to do 4 groves total.


I have always had another idea as well.....just for fun...

Damascus(London) twist aren't bad if they are in good shape, I sold one to a guy who shoots them regularly, what if they were set at the right twist to be rifling pitch (1 turn in 62 etc) and formed around a polygonal shape, then arc welded with modern equipment and some good 70 psi rod? , you probable could form a twisted mandrel out of a square stock milled to be polygonal.... or something.. just some wild imaginations!

 

[TheRodDoc]

Damoc,

Making mountian rifles

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/popular/13/index.htm

 

[damoc]

Damoc,

Making mountian rifles

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/popular/13/index.htm

thanks im reading that now already learned a few things

 

[shunka]

Over here at toad hall rifle works he has been building flintlocks and barrels from scratch fro many years. His website should get you started on everything you need to know about rifling them:
http://toadhallrifleshop.com/

 

[alsask]

4130 chrome moly is around 90,000 psi tensile strength in its normalized condition. Way better steel than a lot of high end centerfire rifles use. For black powder I would leave it alone after machining.

The axle you are talking about would be some sort of nickel alloy steel most likely, if it was made after the 1950's. You can buy deep hole drill bits for doing what you propose. Go talk to your local machine shop and chances are you could get it drilled and finish reamed for less than the cost of a bit.

Then you only have to rifle it and lap the bore.

The reason for lapping it is 4130 is not "free machining" steel like some of the stuff commonly used for barrels. To make free machining steel they add either lead or sulphur [sometimes both] which are detrimental to strength but make it a lot cheaper to manufacture.