A New Way of Rifling PVC Barrels?

[mark.f]

So, just releasing my brain fart before it explodes.

Say you needed to make a rifled barrel. I'll not worry about optimal twist rates for the benefit of theoretical discussion.

Do you think it would be feasible to take a length of 2" SCH-80 (most probably conduit since that's what seems to be the cheapest), and a length of 1-1/2" SDR-26 or thinner (possibly SDR-31 or something like that). Then, you do the following.

Come and inch up from one side of the pipe, and make two or three 1/2" or 1/4" wide marks. Going off your twist rate, glue some pieces of string to these marks and wrap around the pipe. So, if you wanted a 1:60 twist rate, you would draw a line going all the way down 60", and wrap the string around once on it's way over there. Then, you would mark the line formed by the two pieces of string with marker, remove the string, and cut out the sections on either side of this strip. There will still be about an inch on either side of the cuts, so the pipe shouldn't collapse or deform severely. After this, the pipe is coated in some SLOW DRYING PVC cement, and sleeved into the 2" SCH-80. When it dries, cut off the ends of the pipe to remove the unrifled sections at the ends, and et voila: a rifled barrel.

It sounds doable, to me at least. What do you guys think?

[judgment_arms]

Never tried to sleeve PVC, so I don’t know about that part.

What I do know is it’s a very long, time consuming, possess to get a channel cut in PVC; it took me ~4-5 hours just to cut the 1-in-14 by 70 die for my rifling machine , and I only have to make one grove, not 4 or more.

That’s not to say it wouldn’t work, I’m just saying that it would be a pain in the butt to make.


I can probably buy the two pieces of pipe, sleeve 'em, and rifle it for you; and yes, I can cut a grove all the way through the inner pipe, if that’s what you want.

Then again, you may be the industrious type, and want to do it yourself, in which case I say: good luck to ya’, my friend.

[jrrdw]

I want to see a diagram/blue print of the tool you are discribing.

[JDP12]

yea i'm a bit confused as well... mspaint maybe??

[psycix]

He means that instead of cutting a groove in the pipe, cut over the whole pipe, and then sleeve it. Right?


Could be done, but would take alot of work.

[jimmy101]

Mark:

Sounds like it would work but might be kind of a PITA.

What about just buying thin sheet PVC stock and using that? I would think you could take, say, 1/8" thick by perhaps 1" wide sheet PVC, twist it into a coil and use that. The coil would be mostly air since you are only going for one turn in a couple feet. Two or more coils would be better but that gets into the PITA domain again.

If the stock is too stiff to form into a coil you could just pass it through a pot of boiling water and form the coils by winding the hot PVC on the outside of a piece of pipe. The final OD would be bigger than you want but I would think you could easily compress to the proper OD.

McMaster has 1/8" square PVC stock for $1.72/4feet (#8660K27),
or 1/8" x 1" for $3.28/4feet (#8740K11).

[mark.f]

Hmmm... so far some daunting comments, and more suggestions.

We shall see. I'll get my hands on a rifled barrel somehow before my next cannon's built (and yes, judgement_arms, I do like to do it myself).

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments.

[JDP12]

i personally like the judge's method better, but each to his own