Making a .22 barrel from scratch

antiqueguy said:
yeah not to mention 4140 or 4340 or any chromoly steels are affected by heat very easily not a good thing.
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antiqueguy said:
4140 for the most part but its heat treated properly
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What is the possible relevance to using this steel for a .22RF barrel?
As far as heat goes, it is not as if he is planning on drilling holes through 4 pieces of steel, welding them together, and then installing a liner.
 
.223Rem said:
.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geaEf4LoZV4
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This is a very crude way of making any type of barrel but maybe if I was stuck behind enemy lines and had no other way out maybe .
.223Rem said:
Thanks a lot for your willingness to help.

I was thinking 4140 or 4340 as the bbl steel. What do you think?
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I make my centerfire barrels with 4140 4150 and 416R as far as rimfire barrels go I have heard of guys using stressproof with great results as it machines very nicely I never have.

Not to discourage you but the cost and time involved in making and buying the tooling and equipement required to make a barrel is simply not worth it just to say I made it myself.
Make your action , trigger group and stock then buy a barrel blank and chambering reamer and build the gun ,you will still have made the gun .
 
antiqueguy said:
normalizing is heat treating as its treatment given to metal with heat in that case you bring the steel up to critical temp and slowly cool it 3 times the normalizes the granular structure in the steel
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Yes, that is certainly heat treating. Most people assign the phrase heat-treating to hardening without realizing it can be employed to do the exact opposite. Either way, stress relieving the steel is usually only done with button and hammer forged barrels.
 
There is a book that will tell you how to build a rifling bench, using a rifled barrel and a blank, non rifled barrel. The book I'm referring to is ( and don't look at me funny) call, A do-it-yourself Submachine Gun. The author is the world renowned, Gerard Metral. The book is available at Chapters Book Store. ( you have to order it in, will mail it to your house, in about a week )Take a look at the setup he built for a rifling bench. It works, but I wouldn't want to mass produce with this setup. Hope this helps. I have the book kicking around somewhere. If you can't find a copy, just pm me and I'll see if I can find it and copy the pages you will need.
Also there is some pages on heat treating, and bluing and all the different ways. And the formulas for bluing,( hot and cold) ,parkerizing etc.
If they change the name of the book, and maybe the layout of the gun lol (machinegun) it wouldn't be a bad book, has lot of info, that is not related to the machinegun.
Just an idea.... But could you use a 22 pellets gun barrel and just rechambering it? Everbody don't flog me, just asking.
 
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quinnbrian said:
There is a book that will tell you how to build a rifling bench, using a rifled barrel and a blank, non rifled barrel. The book I'm referring to is ( and don't look at me funny) call, A do-it-yourself Submachine Gun. The author is the world renowned, Gerard Metral. The book is available at Chapters Book Store. ( you have to order it in, will mail it to your house, in about a week )Take a look at the setup he built for a rifling bench. It works, but I wouldn't want to mass produce with this setup. Hope this helps. I have the book kicking around somewhere. If you can't find a copy, just pm me and I'll see if I can find it and copy the pages you will need.
Also there is some pages on heat treating, and bluing and all the different ways. And the formulas for bluing,( hot and cold) ,parkerizing etc.
If they change the name of the book, and maybe the layout of the gun lol (machinegun) it wouldn't be a bad book, has lot of info, that is not related to the machinegun.
Just an idea.... But could you use a 22 pellets gun barrel and just rechambering it? Everbody don't flog me, just asking.
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Good advice on the book. I actually have a copy my self lol. I found his rifling instructions hard to follow as he suggested another book on the subject.

I might end up buying a blank, at least some of the work I will do myself that way. Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but making the bbl last will give me time to figure it out.
 
.223Rem said:
I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but making the bbl last will give me time to figure it out.
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Good plan, IMO.

There are a couple books that have good rifling info in them, some even by folks that actually did some of it, rather than regurgitating someone elses info without knowing it was bad advice.

Somewhere in my books, I have some of the Harold Hoffman books relating to barrels and rifling, and, let us just say, he mat have been a gunsmith, but he sure was not much of a writer. Don't spend on them until you have read them, is my advice there.

There are some good pictures and drawings of rifling heads in Howe's Modern Gunsmithing, volume 2, but they are really not meant for use away from a place that has a very well staffed and equipped machine shop available.

Draw lots of pictures in larger scale than full size, and keep an eye on how things interact with each other. Better to make the blunders on paper!

Cheers
Trev
 
Hey, .223Rem,

Sounds like an ambitious, but cool project you have in mind.

Although at first you wanted to make your complete barrel, as others have mentioned it is a considerable undertaking and cost to drill and rifle the barrel bore.
It now sounds as though you may entertain using a .22 barrel blank.

I see you live in the Hamburg area. I am not sure if you have reason to go east much.

However, if you get a chance to be in the Peterborough area. To assist you on your quest, I am good friends with the VP, GM of Savage Arms Canada, located in Lakefield, Ont. If you would like to see how they drill and rifle .22 and .17 barrel bores, I can probably arrange to have you take a plant tour.

I have seen these gun barrel drill machines (which are fairly old) in action, they are massive and it's impressive to see them in operating.
As others have said, turning speed (the barrel rotates, not the drill on these machines) feed rate and lubrication are critical.
The drills are very expensive and have a fairly short life.

If you are now seriously considering using a .22 barrel blank, I may be able to help you out there as well. I assume you would like an unfinished exterior, so you can machine/profile it to your design.

If you have any interest in the above, shoot me a pm.

blackacres
 
I recall a guy who made a barrel out of steel rebar, but he was a barrel maker. It shot well too.
I agree with the rest, the barrel will be the most difficult and costly to make correctly especially for a 'one of' experiment.
You will have a long learning curve in itself just building a working .22 receiver, bolt, trigger and all the parts and correctly heat treated.
 
lejarretnoir said:
I recall a guy who made a barrel out of steel rebar, but he was a barrel maker. It shot well too.
I agree with the rest, the barrel will be the most difficult and costly to make correctly especially for a 'one of' experiment.
You will have a long learning curve in itself just building a working .22 receiver, bolt, trigger and all the parts and correctly heat treated.
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Ron Smith made that barrel for singleshottom on the forum. Ugly as sin but it shoots well. As far as heat treating goes, .22 LR does not generate enough pressure to require recovers or bolts to be hardened. Obviously it's never a bad idea as in increases durability, but it have little to no effect on safety. IIRC, Cooeys are made from relatively soft steel.
 
FYI .223Rem.

All recent Savage .22 and .17 HMR rimfire carbon steel barrels, and actions are manufactured using ASTM 12L14 steel. No heat treating is done after machining.

All recent carbon steel centerfire barrels, plus the new .17 WMR rimfire B-Mag barrels are manufactured using 4140 steel, which is heat treated after machining has been completed.
 
Blastattack said:
Ron Smith made that barrel for singleshottom on the forum. Ugly as sin but it shoots well. As far as heat treating goes, .22 LR does not generate enough pressure to require recovers or bolts to be hardened. Obviously it's never a bad idea as in increases durability, but it have little to no effect on safety. IIRC, Cooeys are made from relatively soft steel.
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again heat treating dose not always mean hardening it could mean stress relieving(normalizing bringing the grain structure back to normal) and annealing(making steel softer easier to machine)
 
quinnbrian said:
A barrel made out of 12-14mm rebar would look awesome!!! Does anyone have any pics of the rebar barrel that Ron Smith made?
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This is not Tom, but this is his gun:

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