Making a .22 barrel from scratch

.223Rem

.223Rem

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Ontario, K-W area.
So, I'm planning on building a .22lr rifle from scratch. I have the ability, the know how (I hope lol), and a decent machine shop set up in my father in laws basement.

I have pretty much everything drawn up and know how I'm going to make each part except for the rifling in the barrel.
I want to avoid buying a pre made barrel if at all possible because I want this to be all hand made.
I have looked up deferent rifling machines on line, but everything I have found seems very involved and I want to avoid building a whole separate machine. I want to make some sort of guide or bench mounted jig that will allow me to cut a consistent helix down the barrel. Adjustable rifling cutters do not seem to hard to make out of a piece of HSS, so the cutter is not the problem.

Do any of you guys have any insight on a jig or guide that can be made that isn't a massive machine? Any way to do this on a lathe maybe? I am expecting a lot of people to say, "don't bother" or "it'll be to hard to be worth it". But I really want to try. I see very little point in doing this if I replace the hardest part of the job by screwing on a 10/22 bbl.

This rifle will be a simple single shot (might make it take Ruger mk3 mags) bolt action. As simple as a Cooey.

Any advice, do's or don'ts from the pro's would be a great help. Pictures or links to how-to articles are also great.
 
only rifling I know about is the separate machine like those used to make muzzleloader barrels im sure some sort of setup could be made to work with other machines as the base it would take quite some time to design and build it by trial and error reinventing the wheel takes time.
 
There are 3 ways to rifle barrels, cut, button and hammer forge. I have seen rifling being cut on a Pratt & Whitney machine and I have made button rifled barrels on a hand made machine owned by a buddy, no experience with or even seen for that matter, hammer forging but understand the process. There is no easy way to do it and to drill the blank and ream and button takes the least amount of equipment, but still a significant amount of the correct tooling.....a .210 deep hole drill and a minimum 48" bed lathe, pressure feed cutting lube through the drill shaft, then a . 214 (I think) reamer which must be perfectly attached to a 24"+ draw rod. A means of lubing the reamer under pressure while the barrel rotates around it. None of this is rocket science but now we are to the rifle buttoning part and this is where it gets more difficult, you can either push or pull your button which has to be ordered with the twist you wish it to have, BUT, you must also rotate either the barrel or the push/pull rod at the same rate of twist or your button breaks off in your bore and the barrel is ruined as most likely is the button. There are several books available on the two shop friendly methods....cut and button rifling and how to build a button machine is also out there. Sorry I don't have the names off the top of my head but I'm sure Google can supply them. There are also several methods of attaining the correct twist to match your button and the fixture on the button machine to do this. If one builds a machine then you also want to make this adjustable to accommodate many different twists.

May I suggest you attempt to find a barrel maker in your area and ask if he would be amenable to showing you how to do it and allowing you to make one barrel. You may have to pay for his time and the materials of course but it would be a much more practical and far less expensive route.
I will be in the business of making barrels in the near future, with a full set up for button rifling, but nowhere near you. Don't forget rimfires are .221 not .224
 
The simplest machine is one that uses another rifle barrel to control the cutting head. This is a very old method. Instead of having a grooved or ribbed rifling guide, a barrel is sued, with a cast slug to generate the twist. I have rifled a barrel this way, and it works.

Apart from single point cut rifling, buttoning and hammer forging, there is another method - broaching. The broach is pushed or pulled through the bore, and all grooves are cut in one pass. The method is simple, but making the broach is more complicated.
 
How do you plan on drilling the blank of steel ending up with a straight hole? I believe lathes normally don't spin fast enough... you need pressurized coolant at the tip of the deep hole drill bit as well and a feed slower than most lathes offer... Once the hole is drilled you need at least a couple of long reamers to ream it as straight as possible, as smooth as possible and to exact size... then it is ready for cut rifling... the easiest method for you I think...
 
Drilling the hole will be the challenge but if you manage without deep hole drilling capabilities and make it that far then you only need to ream a good hole ;) which is where most of the problems in barrel making occur.

The rifling head is not easy at all to make if you never made one and the first few might not work so well until you figure out the correct geometry .

But if you can make it as far as drilling a straight hole and reaming it to the correct size I will gladly help you along and rifle it for you.

The work involved in making a working rifling machine and a rifling head would certainly be to much imo to make a barrel or two.

Btw not all steels are suitable for making barrels ,even if they are strong enough if the sulphur content is to low the machinability will not allow a good enough finish.
Even a 22rf makes pressure so be sure to use the correct steel.
 
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I have read references to using a diagonal bar outside the lathe ways and runing a rack and pinion gear off of it. I suspect that it would be fairly difficult to eliminate chatter on the cutting head with that method. As I understand the method, the barrel is held rigid in the lathe chuck and the cutter is pulled manually through the bore using the above bar and gear system to create the twist.
Along the lines of guntech, I think drilling a deep hole in solid stock and particularly for something as small as 22 cal would be a major challenge. I also would suggest doing a google search for gun drills ; I seem to recall an article going into the details of making drills for deep holes and the drills were straight not twisted and the point was off center as best I recall

cheers mooncoon
 
tiriaq said:
Apart from single point cut rifling, buttoning and hammer forging, there is another method - broaching. The broach is pushed or pulled through the bore, and all grooves are cut in one pass. The method is simple, but making the broach is more complicated.
Click to expand...

Indeed broaching would be your best option.
Four groove HSS broach with bore riding long brass bushing would be quite simple to make out of 1/4" square tool stock.
With the bore filled with high sulfur cutting oil and slow cutting speed no presurized coolant set up would be needed.
 
gunrunner8 said:
Indeed broaching would be your best option.
Four groove HSS broach with bore riding long brass bushing would be quite simple to make out of 1/4" square tool stock.
With the bore filled with high sulfur cutting oil and slow cutting speed no presurized coolant set up would be needed.
Click to expand...

tiriaq said:
The simplest machine is one that uses another rifle barrel to control the cutting head. This is a very old method. Instead of having a grooved or ribbed rifling guide, a barrel is sued, with a cast slug to generate the twist. I have rifled a barrel this way, and it works.

Apart from single point cut rifling, buttoning and hammer forging, there is another method - broaching. The broach is pushed or pulled through the bore, and all grooves are cut in one pass. The method is simple, but making the broach is more complicated.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the broaching idea! Sounds like that is a good way to go. I will probably just do 2 grooves but the theory is the same.
 
guntech said:
How do you plan on drilling the blank of steel ending up with a straight hole? I believe lathes normally don't spin fast enough... you need pressurized coolant at the tip of the deep hole drill bit as well and a feed slower than most lathes offer... Once the hole is drilled you need at least a couple of long reamers to ream it as straight as possible, as smooth as possible and to exact size... then it is ready for cut rifling... the easiest method for you I think...
Click to expand...

A gun drill and a long series reamer (reamer might be welded to a rod for extra reach). Gun drills are special drills made to make deep, small, straight holes. I'll buy one and the reamer from a tooling company.
 
mooncoon said:
I have read references to using a diagonal bar outside the lathe ways and runing a rack and pinion gear off of it. I suspect that it would be fairly difficult to eliminate chatter on the cutting head with that method. As I understand the method, the barrel is held rigid in the lathe chuck and the cutter is pulled manually through the bore using the above bar and gear system to create the twist.
Along the lines of guntech, I think drilling a deep hole in solid stock and particularly for something as small as 22 cal would be a major challenge. I also would suggest doing a google search for gun drills ; I seem to recall an article going into the details of making drills for deep holes and the drills were straight not twisted and the point was off center as best I recall

cheers mooncoon
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, A gun drill is exactly what I plan to use, shouldn't be overly hard.
 
coyote said:
Drilling the hole will be the challenge but if you manage without deep hole drilling capabilities and make it that far then you only need to ream a good hole ;) which is where most of the problems in barrel making occur.

The rifling head is not easy at all to make if you never made one and the first few might not work so well until you figure out the correct geometry .

But if you can make it as far as drilling a straight hole and reaming it to the correct size I will gladly help you along and rifle it for you.

The work involved in making a working rifling machine and a rifling head would certainly be to much imo to make a barrel or two.

Btw not all steels are suitable for making barrels ,even if they are strong enough if the sulphur content is to low the machinability will not allow a good enough finish.
Even a 22rf makes pressure so be sure to use the correct steel.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for your willingness to help.

I was thinking 4140 or 4340 as the bbl steel. What do you think? I thought about using stainless but I figured deep hold drilling would be to big of a pain.
If I end up getting stuck, I might take you up on your offer. I would much rather have some one rifle a barrel I made then resort to a store bought. Thanks again, that is a very nice offer.
 
To add, any advice on a jig to get the proper rate of twist?
I saw a video where a guy marked a helix on a plastic pipe with marker and measuring tape, cut a slot along his helix by hand with a dremel tool (very steady hands). This was a guide for the tool. Then put his cutter onto a rod, put the rod into the plastic guide, and placed a pin through the helix slot into the rod.
The effect was as he pushed the rod attached to the cutter, the pin acted as a cam and forced the cutter and rod to rotate his X inches per turn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geaEf4LoZV4

Go to the 5 min mark to get an idea. Now I know his set up is SUPER crude and it turns out less then stellar, but I think the theory is sound. I could use a steel rod and turn it so it's a nice smooth, non-sloppy fit, mount the whole thing to a bench and ream it.
What do you guys think?
 
Neither 4340 or 4140 steel is needed for 22 rimfire.
Your best bet would be to skip drilling the barrel all together with substantial savings for gun drill etc.
Just use 17cal or 20cal rimfire (5mm Rem) or old used centerfire barrel and ream it with the reamer with pilot and that will be assurance that the hole will be straight.
 
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gunrunner8 said:
Neither 4340 or 4140 steel is needed for 22 rimfire.
Your best bet would be to skip drilling the barrel all together with substantial savings for gun drill etc.
Just use 17cal or 20cal rimfire (5mm Rem) or old used centerfire barrel and ream it with the reamer with pilot and that will be assurance that the hole will be straight.
Click to expand...

yeah not to mention 4140 or 4340 or any chromoly steels are affected by heat very easily not a good thing.
 
.223Rem said:
Thanks for the tip, A gun drill is exactly what I plan to use, shouldn't be overly hard.
Click to expand...

Them's famous last words, eh? Shouldn't be! Bwahhhaahhahahahahah! :D

Build a much of the rest of the gun as you can, first. If you get that done, you will have learned enough, maybe, to make an 'educated' decision, WRT whether you really really 'need' to make that barrel yourself.

I know HOW to do so, but, quite simply, won't. The investment in drills, reamers, and time, is quite simply not worth the expenditure.

Even J. M. Browning bought in his barrels.
Simply put, it's specialist work, better left to the specialists, as they are generally tooled up for it, and can amortize those costs over LOTS of barrels.

But, if ya gotta...

Watch ebay for gun drills and reamers in sizes that you can use.

The hard part of the drilling is not so much about the speed, but keeping the drill feeding at the right rate, over the duration of the cut. Pressurized lube can be done with some pretty gyppo set-ups, rifling too, but drilling a deep, straight hole is...non-trivial. Getting it smooth, straight, AND the correct size, even less so. And smaller barrels are a bigger PITA than larger ones, due to the nature of the physics involved. Smaller drills have smaller tubes, of more diameters length, and are more prone to coming apart in the hole if something goes...poorly.

If you have not yet seen it, the video and paperwork on building a rifling and drilling machine that is sold by Guy Lautard, is worth a look.

Not impossible, but.... Gonna really depend a lot on your skill sets and endurance, as far as the likelihood of getting anywhere with this.

Like I said earlier, I would suggest that you build the rest of it first. Get that far, you will have already accomplished a great deal.

As a reference price point, I can usually find a decent rimfire barrel for way under $50, shopping the gun show tables, and have bought several Anschutz barrels for under $20 each.
Really hard to beat that!


Cheers
Trev
 
I've watched my highschool shop teacher rifle a barrel using a wooden 3" dowel with grooves cut in a spiral along it. This dowel had the single groove cutter on the end of a rod attached to it - and as the dowel was pulled through the rigidly mounted follower, it turned the cutter for the correct pitch of rifling. To mark the spiral on the dowel , he just marked each end and pulled a string tight between marks as he penciled the line to follow as he hand chiseled the grooves.

Multiple passes were required for each groove of rifling - until the required depth is achieved.

A steel guide could be made using square stock. Slide a close- fitting pipe over a three foot piece of square stock and with one end of the stock in a vise, twist the other end with a crescent wrench until it has the right spin. A follower is easily made to follow the twisted square stock as you pull a little cutter through the barrel.

Using a Redmans barrel liner would sure simplify the job but if you can do it without, it would be cool.
 
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