why unfluted cylinders?

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thunderbyrd

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i traded for a SW 686 + with an unfluted cylinder last week. my dad, who is more a shotgun guy than a handgun guy, asked, "why doesn't it have the grooves on it?" and i realized i don't know. is it easier/cheaper to manufacture? does it make it "shoot better"? is the intention to add a bit of weight?

i do think it kinda makes it look meaner, more aggressive. also, it looks like a hammer.
 
Tallinar said:
In some chamberings, it’s done to help the cylinder retain strength.
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No, this is not true. The thinnest part of any chamber is never at the flutes thus adding that material back never makes them stronger.

Its almost all stylistic there is almost no functional reasons to have an unfluted cylinder and several good reason to flute a cylinder.

Unfluted cylinder are also butt ugly and you should be ashamed if you own one.

That last statement may be opinion...
 
mcb said:
No, this is not true. The thinnest part of any chamber is never at the flutes thus adding that material back never makes them stronger.

Its almost all stylistic there is almost no functional reasons to have an unfluted cylinder and several good reason to flute a cylinder.

Unfluted cylinder are also butt ugly and you should be ashamed if you own one.

That last statement may be opinion...
Click to expand...
i like mine and am not ashamed of it. but aside from looks what are good reasons for fluted?
 
Flute aeds coolin so they gunz shoot straighter longerer......
Unfluting, ya know putting the metel back, keeps heat in making powder burn hotter given u mo POWAH!........


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.................:rofl:





I just realized every revolver ive owned has been unfluted.
 
mcb said:
No, this is not true. The thinnest part of any chamber is never at the flutes thus adding that material back never makes them stronger.

Its almost all stylistic there is almost no functional reasons to have an unfluted cylinder and several good reason to flute a cylinder.

Unfluted cylinder are also butt ugly and you should be ashamed if you own one.

That last statement may be opinion...
Click to expand...
You just hurt my 60's feelings!!! Do you have any idea how much counseling costs!!!!????? Now the other 60 is blushing and wants your number......... She's a bit of a tart.
 
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thunderbyrd said:
i like mine and am not ashamed of it. but aside from looks what are good reasons for fluted?
Click to expand...
Reduction in weight in an important location. If you are shooting lot of fast double action reducing the weight and more importantly the mass moment of inertia of the cylinder is important to make the lock works last longer. Everytime you pull the double action trigger fast the pawl has to accelerate all the cylinders mass and the cylinder stop has to stop that mass. The flutes are on the outside surface farther from the axle of rotation and thought the mass seem small it has a fairly large effect on the cylinder total mass moment of inertia.
 
mcb said:
No, this is not true. The thinnest part of any chamber is never at the flutes thus adding that material back never makes them stronger.
Click to expand...

I guess I stand corrected. I do understand that any strength added by refraining from fluting is trivial at best, and immaterial compared to the thinnest point of weakness being the bolt cut, but it still does add weight, as I mentioned, which can be desirable.

Aesthetically, I think fluting on my Single Ten cylinder would look positively ridiculous.
 
I can give y'all one reason for non-fluted cylinders:

I was shooting a .45 Colt Ruger on the range and had just reloaded the revolver.I was cradling the revolver in the palm of my left hand. As I was bringing the gun up to firing position I began cocking the hammer. There was suddenly a sharp pain as the flesh at the base of my thumb (left hand) was pinched between the cyhlinder flute and top strap of the revolver.

Bob Wright
 
Unfluted cylinders give you the wrong impression that they are stronger than the fluted ones, while there's really no difference - simply put, a marketing trick based on old urban myths that can be traced back to Colt and their model 1860 revolver. Also, they hide the ugliness of fluted cylinders with too much chambers - 8, 10, 12...

BobWright said:
On early cap-and-ball revolvers, the flutes ran full length of the cylinder, notably an 1860 Colt Army. This aided in getting a grip to assist rotation of a powder fouled cylinder.
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Not a real difference compared to half flutes... But full flutes are rather good at trapping the bolt if the timing is off and it's dropping early, making the revolver quite harder to operate.
 
On the topic of strength, it would seem to me that cylinders with an odd number of chamberings like the S&W 686+ are actually stronger due to the fact that the bolt cuts exist in between chambers rather than along them.
 
Heritage Rough Rider revolver .22 s,l,lr cylinder has flutes. HRR .22 wmr (magnum) cylinder does not.
That's a visual clue what cylinder is in the gun.

Unfluted cylinders add a bit of weight in magnum centerfire revolvers.
Unfluted cylinders look retro to me.
 
I would say unfluted cylinders add a touch of class and interest to the limited number of them which are typically produced.

Not that I am into the “look at me look at me” culture that have developed over the last few decades but an unfluted cylinder, especially on a S&W or Ruger GP100 or Redhawk would tell anyone in the know that a particular revolver is of limited production and may garner a bit of extra interest at the handgun range.
 
Tallinar said:
On the topic of strength, it would seem to me that cylinders with an odd number of chamberings like the S&W 686+ are actually stronger due to the fact that the bolt cuts exist in between chambers rather than along them.
Click to expand...
This is very true. The stop notch due to is typical sharp corners in the bottom and location is definitely a stress concentration. In exploded revolver cylinder you can often see signs that the fractures started at the stop notches. It's also why Ruger offsets their cylinder stop notches to make them not be directly over the thinnest part of the wall, chamber to OD.
 
The outside wall being the weak point is an old and ubiquitous myth. It's not a simple hoop stress case. The weak point is the web between chambers. It's simple to offset the bolt notch. Colt and Dan Wesson do so. Both Colt and S&W demonstrated this by cutting a slot through the entire length of the cylinder wall and firing it. You can find the Colt example discussed in one of Hatcher's books. The Taurus Raging Bull in 454 and the S&W 500 have five chambers to get a thicker web.
 
thunderbyrd said:
and i al;so think it's cheaper to make.
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I’m surprised nobody else mentioned this. If you’ve got six chambers, that’s six machining operations you have saved. It’s also possibly the locating of said chambers. Time is money, and wear and tear on machine tooling is money. Those ball-nose mills don’t grow on trees or last forever!
 
The thing that gets me about unfluted cylinders is it takes less work to make them yet the gun companies seem to charge more for them.

I read somewhere that unfluted cylinders add weight to help balance the gun (emits a coughing sound that sounds incredibly like the words bull spit)
 
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