Rifling machine

[judgment_arms]

Well although it’s not a 100% success, it does indeed work.

It consists of:

A piece of 1 inch PVC pipe as a die (note: die is not the appropriate word I just can’t recall the right term at the moment.)

A short piece of 1 ¼ inch pipe with a bolt in it as a barring/guide block

A piece of wood with a channel cut through it for part of a barrel clamp. (Originally used to keep the strap from biting in to the “good” wood on a pallet of lumber.)

A few short lengths of perforated strapping, used as clamps for the barrel and guide block, didn’t work.

¾ inch oak dowel for a cutter rod.

Part of a screw for a cutter.


Cost: squat, I had all the parts lying around.
Construction time: two days working 2-4 hours in the evening.

Will rifle a barrel up to 25 inches long, with a rate of twist of 1 in 102, theoretically 1 in 102 is the perfect rate of twist for paintballs.



Well after procrastinating for only a year or two the other day I finally decided to stop say I’m going to build a rifling machine and do it.
On deciding that I went out to the barn and grabbed a 2X4 commenced whittling it down to a 1 ½ inch dowel rod, from which I planed to make the die by cutting the reverse of the rifling in to the out side.
After I got the 2X4 whittled down (took over 4 hours) to the dowel it occurred to me that it would be infinitely easer to put the channel in a piece of pipe, a procedure I’d done many times, so I laid out the pattern on a piece of pipe and in les than 30 minutes I had a nice looking die.

Then came the cutter head, my first thought was to bend something up from metal strapping I got as far as trying to figure out how to attach it to the cutting rod, may plan being to use a small screw, the only problem was how to keep the screw from scratching the bore… “Oh, hay, I could just forget the sheet metal thing and use the screw!”.

So what’s the moral of this story? All that’s complex is not useful, all that is useful is simple. Or, keep it simple stupid…

Anyway, the only problem is the clamps won’t hold the barrel or the guide block, but other than that it works.


How it works:
First you clam in the barrel, then you adjust the screw to were it’ll just barely cut and then push the cutter rod in. the cutter rod rotates with the die, which has the blank of the rifling cut in it.
Run the cutter rod though the barrel till it stops cutting, then turn the screw in just a tad.
Continue till the grove reaches the desired depth then unclamp the barrel and rotate it 90* and start the process over.
You do that 4 times and viola you got your self a rifled barrel.




Now one more thing:
Once I get the bugs worked out would any body like to buy a rifled barrel? If I can get enough people interested I’ll make a bigger one, capable of rifling a barrel up to 8 feet long, maybe 9.

Would any of the following interest you?
1.5 inch rifled for slugs 5 inches long
2 inch rifled for 5 inch long slugs
.50 for .50dia round ball
.75 for .75dia round ball
Or is there some other size?

Well thanks for your time here’s some pictures.

[ShowNoMercy]

I would buy a rifled barrel, how long do you think you can make a 2 inch barrel?

[judgment_arms]

I would buy a rifled barrel, how long do you think you can make a 2 inch barrel?

Like I said, up to 9 feet or 108 inches.
How long of a projectile do you plan on shooting 90% of the time?

[ShowNoMercy]

A caulk tube with fins. So thats maybe a foot and some odd inches?

[ALIHISGREAT]

can we get a down the barrel pic to see the rifling? looks like a good design though, how deep are the grooves?

[judgment_arms]

ShowNoMercy, Well if I get enough people that want a barrel like that I’ll sell you one, you see I need to get enough people on one caliber with one rate of twist to pay for the machine, but after the first run I’ll take custom orders. , unless you only want a short barrel, in which case I can cut one for you on my current machine, but do to size limitations max barrel length will still be 25 inches.

ALIHISGREAT, unfortunately none of the down-the-bore pictures came out.
And the groves can be as deep or shallow as needed, I think I could cut all the way through.

[ShowNoMercy]

Lol well I think having a rifled 25 inch barrel wouldn't serve me any good so I will anxiously await the new improvements. Do you have any estimate of how much you are charging?

[judgment_arms]

Sorry I edited to much out of my previous post the first time, but I fixed it, there’s now more information there.

As for the price, $1.50-$2.50 U.S. a foot plus shipping, ~$5 U.S. a foot for a custom run (I’ll let you know when I start doing custom runs), give or take I’ll have to look at the price of pipe.
I’ll get some precise numbers in a few minutes.

[judgment_arms]

Okay here’s a basic guide for prices:

2” will be $2.00U.S. a foot
1 ½” will be $1.50U.S. a foot
¾” will be $1.00U.S. a foot
½” will be $0.50 a foot
As for custom runs I’ll I won’t be able to do that for awhile

[VH_man]

ANY possibility of rifling copper????? like any at all???

All of my high-accuracy cannons have a copper barrel. Rifling a copper barrel would make my day................

Anyway, I might actually attempt at building one of these, just with some mildy stronger materials so that i can rifle copper, unless you can do it. Id rather pay for it than spend the time to make it because im a lazy american.........

[judgment_arms]

Don’t know, never tried, but if were talking half inch round ball (marbles)provided I get enough people that want that (PVC or Copper) then I’ll give it a try… heck I think I’ll test it out and see if it’ll cut with the one I got.
I’ll probable need a different cutter but… rifled copper, hum...

[Ragnarok]

Interesting, how did you make your "die" consistent in the first place?

Also, as best I know, the rate of rifling is dependent on muzzle velocity? In that case, how is it possible to say that it's 1 in 102" when you simply can't know what velocity any given launcher will be firing a projectile at?

[judgment_arms]

How’d I make the “die” consistent, I made two rings of paper strung a piece of wire between them. Taped one ring down and twisted the other a quarter turn, the two rings were 25.5 inches apart making the rate of twist .25 in 25.5 inches or 1 in 102 inches.
Then I traced the line made by the wire and cut it out.

...Also, as best I know, the rate of rifling is dependent on muzzle velocity? In that case, how is it possible to say that it's 1 in 102" when you simply can't know what velocity any given launcher will be firing a projectile at?

If it is that’s news to me, in my two years of research I’ve always heard that rate of twist is the pitch of the rifling, and not dependent on velocity. but thing again I could be seriously mistaken.

[rna_duelers]

I'm was working on making my die for 15mm copper,and this has done it for me I'm going to finish it.

Your method is a single cut method if I am correct?Mine is going to be a cutting die method,I'll keep you posted on how it's going.

[judgment_arms]

Okay,
Rna_Duelers, I suppose you could call it that, technically it’s simply called “cut rifling”.
I’m not sure what you mean buy “cutting die”, you mean button rifling?

VH_Man, yes, I can indeed rifle copper, just went out and tried it, but it will cost more than PVC.

Any more inquires about barrels should be posted in the thread I’m about to start, I’ll post a link to it once I get it started.

Here’s the link: Rifled barrels for sale, maybe