I have a Remington .223 with a 23 inch bull barrel. The muzzle diameter is .830. I would like to remove as much weight as possible. What would be the maximum width, length and depth of the flutes to accomplish this? I was thinking of going with 6 flutes. Thanks.
Rifle barrel flutes
- Thread starter foffe1
- Start date
I'd like to suggest the 'other' program. Remove heavy barrel, install lighter barrel.
Keep heavy barrel for when you decide you want that instead. Or sell it to recoup some costs.
The plus of that is you don't have to wreck it then back off on the next one.
Cheers
Trev
Keep heavy barrel for when you decide you want that instead. Or sell it to recoup some costs.
The plus of that is you don't have to wreck it then back off on the next one.
Cheers
Trev
gunrunner8
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I have seen 30cal rifles with .560" muzzles so....
If you keep the barrel at least 1/8" thick at the muzzle (preferably thicker than that to allow for difference in steel strenght) then you will be A-OK IMHO. That means if you cut your barrel no deeper than 1/8" then I see not a problem with that scenario. Hammer forged barrels are not good for fluting b/c they have lots of internal stress. Button rifled ones are much better for flutting and single cut are better jet. Number of grooves in your barrel depend on the width of milling cutter, 6-grooves would be plenty for say 3/16" wide cutter, but 1/8" wide one could cut 7 or even 8 grooves. Flutting looks the best if groove is cut to the depth of only half of cutters width so for the maximum weight removal wider cutters are more desirable.
In your case cut 17" long, five flutes (ending 1" behind the muzzle) 1/8" deep, with 1/4" wide milling cutter for best weight reducing results.
If you keep the barrel at least 1/8" thick at the muzzle (preferably thicker than that to allow for difference in steel strenght) then you will be A-OK IMHO. That means if you cut your barrel no deeper than 1/8" then I see not a problem with that scenario. Hammer forged barrels are not good for fluting b/c they have lots of internal stress. Button rifled ones are much better for flutting and single cut are better jet. Number of grooves in your barrel depend on the width of milling cutter, 6-grooves would be plenty for say 3/16" wide cutter, but 1/8" wide one could cut 7 or even 8 grooves. Flutting looks the best if groove is cut to the depth of only half of cutters width so for the maximum weight removal wider cutters are more desirable.
In your case cut 17" long, five flutes (ending 1" behind the muzzle) 1/8" deep, with 1/4" wide milling cutter for best weight reducing results.
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You planning on doing it yourself (have the mill and tooling to use), or paying someone to do it?
If weight reduction is the aim, look hard at the carbon wrapped barrels that are available. They would likely give you the best reduction, while retaining the stiffness of the large OD.
A straight reduction of diameter to a smaller OD would be a good place to look for dimensions for your fluting. No point in not stealing the information that is readily available, eh?
For maximum weight reduction, try about a 1.5 inch ball end mill and go to town on it. Not gonna look like much though, so I figure maybe maximum isn't really what you wanted. Am I wrong?
Most of the guys that buy fluted barrels do so more for the looks than the weight reduction, I figure. The idea that they reduced the weight by an ounce or two, is a selling feature to them, but at the end of the day you can save more weight by other means, whether it's a choice of barrels, stocks, other hardware, or simply going on a diet and exercise program.
If you don't mind doing a little fingerwork with a calculator, you can work out how much you will remove, by doing a few sketches and a bunch of math to figure out the volume of metal removed, and the weight you will take off or leave behind by so doing
I say sketches, because you will have to keep track of a couple different shapes, if you go deeper than the radius of your ball end mill. The width and the outside radius of the barrel, then the radius of the ball mill by the depth of the cut past the surface, plus the rectangular shape of the area between the two arc segments. Plus the length of the cut, to calculate the volume.
Weights and measures of the materials are available online, or in reference books, Machinery's Handbook, for example, and the math required is there too.
Cheers
Trev
If weight reduction is the aim, look hard at the carbon wrapped barrels that are available. They would likely give you the best reduction, while retaining the stiffness of the large OD.
A straight reduction of diameter to a smaller OD would be a good place to look for dimensions for your fluting. No point in not stealing the information that is readily available, eh?
For maximum weight reduction, try about a 1.5 inch ball end mill and go to town on it. Not gonna look like much though, so I figure maybe maximum isn't really what you wanted. Am I wrong?
Most of the guys that buy fluted barrels do so more for the looks than the weight reduction, I figure. The idea that they reduced the weight by an ounce or two, is a selling feature to them, but at the end of the day you can save more weight by other means, whether it's a choice of barrels, stocks, other hardware, or simply going on a diet and exercise program.
If you don't mind doing a little fingerwork with a calculator, you can work out how much you will remove, by doing a few sketches and a bunch of math to figure out the volume of metal removed, and the weight you will take off or leave behind by so doing
I say sketches, because you will have to keep track of a couple different shapes, if you go deeper than the radius of your ball end mill. The width and the outside radius of the barrel, then the radius of the ball mill by the depth of the cut past the surface, plus the rectangular shape of the area between the two arc segments. Plus the length of the cut, to calculate the volume.
Weights and measures of the materials are available online, or in reference books, Machinery's Handbook, for example, and the math required is there too.
Cheers
Trev
Just once would do.
In order to comment directly in relation to one post or another, click on the "Reply With Quote" option, and it will copy the message that you are trying to respond to. If you wish to see what the post will look like before you click send, click the "Go Advanced" box, and it will show you the post as it is at that time. To view changes once in Advanced Mode, click the Preview Post box.Seriously though, to really give you good info, you pretty much have to cough up some of the details as far as what you expect to achieve, as well as what your capabilities are, or the lack thereof.
Some things make a lot of sense if you have the tools or the skills to do them, and not so much if you have to pay someone to do them for you. Of course, some guys have skills that took them a long time to learn, and equipment that cost them a bunch of money too, so it all kinda , well, depends.
Cheers
Trev
