Home rifling
After the button rifling thread I thought I would add this and decided to give it its own thread.
I watched and helped my step father rifle a couple muzzle loader barrels. Interesting guy. Grew up on a small farm, 8th grade education, then went into the Navy for WWII. Self made and educated. Read and studies a lot. Had his own concrete contracting company. Always a shooter. Made each of us kids a 06 by machining the sights off Enfields and Springfields, sticking them in Herter's stocks he finished. Straightened the mag floor plates, changed to cock on opening etc. Lot of deer and elk fell to those guns. I passed mine on to my son.
Anyway, he got into muzzle loading and after assembling some Dixie Gun Works kits and stuff, he does some reading and talking to some other smoke pole guys he decides to make his own barrel.
First gets a piece of 12" wide fairly heavy channel iron about 12' long if I remember right. Then he takes a 5' piece of 3" pipe and laid a line down it by placing a piece of 1 ½' x 1 ½ " angle iron on it legs against the pipe. This makes it go straight down the pipe. He marks a line down it. Then takes a string and makes on wrap around the pipe and then pulls it tight to the line mark on each end. This makes it spiral perfectly down the pipe. 1 turn in 60". Perfect for round balls. 2 turns of course would have been 1 in 30" etc. Anyway, he marks out the string line. Then he takes a 6' piece of 1/4" x 1/2" flat bar. And starting about a 1" from one end he drills a hole every 4" in it and puts a tapered countersink on each hole. The holes are big enough for size 10 machine screws. He drills and taps a spot at one end of the pipe and screws the first hole in the flat bar to it. Then proceeds to line the next hole in the bar centered over the spiral line, clamps it, drills and taps it, screws the bar there. He keeps doing this until the bar is screwed spiraling down the pipe. Then on one end of the pipe he mounts a cross ways by welding a plate on the end of the pipe with a piece of ½ all thread sticking out of it. He threads a nut a ways on it then sticks on a bearing with a ½ center hole a 2' piece of bar with a 5/8" hole in the center and large washers tack welded on each side of the bar centered on the 5/8 hole. Then on goes another bearing and nut and tightens it up centering the hole on the bar. How the handle turns easily on the whole thing as the outside races of the bearings ride on the washers and the insides piece of the bearing is smaller than the ID of the washer.
Now he takes about a 16" pulley and cuts the center out of it and welds in a piece of 1 ½" pipe. About 6" long. Pipe has 4 holes every 90 degrees on each end, tapped to ¼ 20. Pulley is centered on this pipe. Next he mound 2 pillow block bearings with 1 ¼ " centers in line on the channel about 3' apart. He sticks a piece of 1 ¼ " round stock about 4' long in the pillow blocks with one end sticking over the end of the channel a bout 6 inches. He mounds his pulley on this end using 1/4" bolts through the holes to secure it and center it. Tack welds some angle and a hinge on the end of the channel and mounts a 2 hp electric motor with a small pulley. Then he carefully welded a ½ " drill bit to the end of a piece of 7/16" all thread so it was straight. He measured and center punched the free end of the 1 ¼ " round stock and used a hand drill to start a ¼ " hole in it. Then he took about a 2" piece of ½ " schedule 80 (heavy walled) pipe and drilled trough it with a 31/64 " bit to clean it up inside and welded it to some scrap flat bar so he could mount it in front of the 1 ¼ " round stock. He spend some time and use shims and slotted holes in the channel base to get it perfectly line up with the center of the round stock. Then he turned on the motor and started spinning the stock and holding a regular 31/64" drill from turning with vise grips he fed it to the round bar exerting pressure against the back of the bit using a flat bar lever. The end of the lever working against a piece of steel he clamped to the channel. A large "drill press". Once the regular ½ " bit's length was used up he went to the extended bit. Lots of oil and cuttings latter he had a 31/64" Hole straight through the round stock.
Next he went through it with a ½ " reamer with a welded on extension. Then he used a piece of 3/8 " round stock with a slit in one end and some 400 grit emery cloth in the slit and passed that through with new emery a few times while the shaft turned. Now he had a smooth ½ " hole thorough it.
He removed the motor. But, left the pulley on the round stock. The pulley had 6 spokes. He made a piece the clamped to the channel in such a way that it held one spoke and kept the pulley and round bar from turning.
He made a round piece of steel about 6" long with a 1/8 " wide slot on the side close to one end. The slot was about ¼ " deep. He used a piece of file and a dremel tool to fashion a cutter with 2 teeth to fit the slot. He ground the back side of the cutter so the top of the teeth were flush with the OD of the piece. The other end of this round piece got a 3/8 " drilled in it and then once a piece of 3/8 round stock was stuck in it it got welded on. The other end of the 3/8 round stock got a 1/8 " hole drilled in it side ways. Then he took the piece of 3" pipe he had made earlier wit the spiral and welded a plate and a piece of 3/8' pipe to the open end opposite the one he had put the handle piece on. Now he mound a piece of steel with a ½' slot in it in the center of the channel about 5" back from the end of the round stock. The flat bar that spirals down the pipe nestles in the slot. The height is set so the center of the pipe and round stock are the same. He welds a piece of angle iron on each side of the pipe right at the slot piece. Then using another piece of angle makes a top piece that bolts across the 2 upright pieces of angle. Trapping the pipe from moving side to side or up or down. When you pull on the handle the pipe has to turn because of the spiraled flat bar in the slot.
He shoves the 3/8 round stock through the 1 ¼ "barrel blank" then proceeds to place thin strips of paper under the cutter tooth until it bites as he pushes it into the bore. One that happens he places the other end of the 3/8 shaft in the 3/8 pipe on the end of the large pipe and pins it in place with a large pin made of 1/8 spring steel. Then pulls the cutter tool through the bore. I forgot to mention that he swabbed the bore with an oily rag prior to the cutter pass. He disconnects the cutters piece of 3/8 by pulling the pin. Then runs it back to the other end of the blank and sticks it back through after placing anther piece of paper under the cutter. He repeats this process, stopping to run a bronze brush and oily rag down the bore after every pass. Once he gets one nice deep groove. He un locks the pulley and turns it 180 degrees and locks it down again. He repeats the cutting process using the same number of pieces of paper under the cutter as he used for the first groove. He kept doing this until he had 6 nice grooves in the barrel.
Once he had that done he cleaned it up good then drove a big soft lead round ball through the barrel. He drilled a small hole through that and attached a long length of 1/8' round stock through it. He threaded the end going through the ball and attached it with small washers and huts and made a handle for the other end that he held on with a wing nut. He coated the slug with valve grinding compound and drug it through the barrel repeatedly. He went through several slugs and used finer compound at the end.
I won't go in to how he draw filed flats on the barrel and wend on to mount and shoot it as a precussion cap a muzzle loader. He did and id shot fine. He made 2 barrels with that jig, before he went on to other things.
Another guy from a small town about 35 miles away used the guts out of a real old wash machine to make his drawing piece and produced a barrel with progressive twist rifling.
Old man said it was better than watching TV during a Montana winter
After the button rifling thread I thought I would add this and decided to give it its own thread.
I watched and helped my step father rifle a couple muzzle loader barrels. Interesting guy. Grew up on a small farm, 8th grade education, then went into the Navy for WWII. Self made and educated. Read and studies a lot. Had his own concrete contracting company. Always a shooter. Made each of us kids a 06 by machining the sights off Enfields and Springfields, sticking them in Herter's stocks he finished. Straightened the mag floor plates, changed to cock on opening etc. Lot of deer and elk fell to those guns. I passed mine on to my son.
Anyway, he got into muzzle loading and after assembling some Dixie Gun Works kits and stuff, he does some reading and talking to some other smoke pole guys he decides to make his own barrel.
First gets a piece of 12" wide fairly heavy channel iron about 12' long if I remember right. Then he takes a 5' piece of 3" pipe and laid a line down it by placing a piece of 1 ½' x 1 ½ " angle iron on it legs against the pipe. This makes it go straight down the pipe. He marks a line down it. Then takes a string and makes on wrap around the pipe and then pulls it tight to the line mark on each end. This makes it spiral perfectly down the pipe. 1 turn in 60". Perfect for round balls. 2 turns of course would have been 1 in 30" etc. Anyway, he marks out the string line. Then he takes a 6' piece of 1/4" x 1/2" flat bar. And starting about a 1" from one end he drills a hole every 4" in it and puts a tapered countersink on each hole. The holes are big enough for size 10 machine screws. He drills and taps a spot at one end of the pipe and screws the first hole in the flat bar to it. Then proceeds to line the next hole in the bar centered over the spiral line, clamps it, drills and taps it, screws the bar there. He keeps doing this until the bar is screwed spiraling down the pipe. Then on one end of the pipe he mounts a cross ways by welding a plate on the end of the pipe with a piece of ½ all thread sticking out of it. He threads a nut a ways on it then sticks on a bearing with a ½ center hole a 2' piece of bar with a 5/8" hole in the center and large washers tack welded on each side of the bar centered on the 5/8 hole. Then on goes another bearing and nut and tightens it up centering the hole on the bar. How the handle turns easily on the whole thing as the outside races of the bearings ride on the washers and the insides piece of the bearing is smaller than the ID of the washer.
Now he takes about a 16" pulley and cuts the center out of it and welds in a piece of 1 ½" pipe. About 6" long. Pipe has 4 holes every 90 degrees on each end, tapped to ¼ 20. Pulley is centered on this pipe. Next he mound 2 pillow block bearings with 1 ¼ " centers in line on the channel about 3' apart. He sticks a piece of 1 ¼ " round stock about 4' long in the pillow blocks with one end sticking over the end of the channel a bout 6 inches. He mounds his pulley on this end using 1/4" bolts through the holes to secure it and center it. Tack welds some angle and a hinge on the end of the channel and mounts a 2 hp electric motor with a small pulley. Then he carefully welded a ½ " drill bit to the end of a piece of 7/16" all thread so it was straight. He measured and center punched the free end of the 1 ¼ " round stock and used a hand drill to start a ¼ " hole in it. Then he took about a 2" piece of ½ " schedule 80 (heavy walled) pipe and drilled trough it with a 31/64 " bit to clean it up inside and welded it to some scrap flat bar so he could mount it in front of the 1 ¼ " round stock. He spend some time and use shims and slotted holes in the channel base to get it perfectly line up with the center of the round stock. Then he turned on the motor and started spinning the stock and holding a regular 31/64" drill from turning with vise grips he fed it to the round bar exerting pressure against the back of the bit using a flat bar lever. The end of the lever working against a piece of steel he clamped to the channel. A large "drill press". Once the regular ½ " bit's length was used up he went to the extended bit. Lots of oil and cuttings latter he had a 31/64" Hole straight through the round stock.
Next he went through it with a ½ " reamer with a welded on extension. Then he used a piece of 3/8 " round stock with a slit in one end and some 400 grit emery cloth in the slit and passed that through with new emery a few times while the shaft turned. Now he had a smooth ½ " hole thorough it.
He removed the motor. But, left the pulley on the round stock. The pulley had 6 spokes. He made a piece the clamped to the channel in such a way that it held one spoke and kept the pulley and round bar from turning.
He made a round piece of steel about 6" long with a 1/8 " wide slot on the side close to one end. The slot was about ¼ " deep. He used a piece of file and a dremel tool to fashion a cutter with 2 teeth to fit the slot. He ground the back side of the cutter so the top of the teeth were flush with the OD of the piece. The other end of this round piece got a 3/8 " drilled in it and then once a piece of 3/8 round stock was stuck in it it got welded on. The other end of the 3/8 round stock got a 1/8 " hole drilled in it side ways. Then he took the piece of 3" pipe he had made earlier wit the spiral and welded a plate and a piece of 3/8' pipe to the open end opposite the one he had put the handle piece on. Now he mound a piece of steel with a ½' slot in it in the center of the channel about 5" back from the end of the round stock. The flat bar that spirals down the pipe nestles in the slot. The height is set so the center of the pipe and round stock are the same. He welds a piece of angle iron on each side of the pipe right at the slot piece. Then using another piece of angle makes a top piece that bolts across the 2 upright pieces of angle. Trapping the pipe from moving side to side or up or down. When you pull on the handle the pipe has to turn because of the spiraled flat bar in the slot.
He shoves the 3/8 round stock through the 1 ¼ "barrel blank" then proceeds to place thin strips of paper under the cutter tooth until it bites as he pushes it into the bore. One that happens he places the other end of the 3/8 shaft in the 3/8 pipe on the end of the large pipe and pins it in place with a large pin made of 1/8 spring steel. Then pulls the cutter tool through the bore. I forgot to mention that he swabbed the bore with an oily rag prior to the cutter pass. He disconnects the cutters piece of 3/8 by pulling the pin. Then runs it back to the other end of the blank and sticks it back through after placing anther piece of paper under the cutter. He repeats this process, stopping to run a bronze brush and oily rag down the bore after every pass. Once he gets one nice deep groove. He un locks the pulley and turns it 180 degrees and locks it down again. He repeats the cutting process using the same number of pieces of paper under the cutter as he used for the first groove. He kept doing this until he had 6 nice grooves in the barrel.
Once he had that done he cleaned it up good then drove a big soft lead round ball through the barrel. He drilled a small hole through that and attached a long length of 1/8' round stock through it. He threaded the end going through the ball and attached it with small washers and huts and made a handle for the other end that he held on with a wing nut. He coated the slug with valve grinding compound and drug it through the barrel repeatedly. He went through several slugs and used finer compound at the end.
I won't go in to how he draw filed flats on the barrel and wend on to mount and shoot it as a precussion cap a muzzle loader. He did and id shot fine. He made 2 barrels with that jig, before he went on to other things.
Another guy from a small town about 35 miles away used the guts out of a real old wash machine to make his drawing piece and produced a barrel with progressive twist rifling.
Old man said it was better than watching TV during a Montana winter
