barnesuser28
Well-Known Member
well combined they know a helluva lot more then you do!!!
Barrel Flute Finish
- Thread starter Edd
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vegas steve
Well-Known Member
i guess we're at the mercy of the hand lap and air guage job done by the the barrel maker to be uniform across the length of the bore. i would agree with everything else you stated this time bart.
vegas steve
Well-Known Member
yes you are correct. the more time i spend talking with bart i have realized that i couldn't have been more wrong about him if i tried.this man is an endless fathom of knowledge,and i have behaved like a totall ***. i read some of my older posts and and wonder why i acted this way. i was unprofessional and mean. i completely and thoroughly apologize for my behavior .
I agree with Aldon! I am sure if you take the time to know Shortgrass you'll find the same ... there are lots of good folks here that are always willing and able to help.
barnesuser28
Well-Known Member
Thank you. you just gained much more respect from me. im glad that you and Bart are now seeing eye to eye
To the original question, a center cutting ball mill will only have one flute past center for cutting. If the flute geometry doesn't allow the material to get cut and cleanly swept out away from the barrel it will drag chips and create the abraded finish you are seeing in the bottom of your barrel fluting.
Time and experience will lead most who care about their finished product to a good ball mill that will leave you a clean cut finish. After all, how hard is it to fixture up a chode and make some test cuts with different ball mills after you screw up the first barrel you ever fluted? The tooling guys will give them to you free of charge for testing.
Time and experience will lead most who care about their finished product to a good ball mill that will leave you a clean cut finish. After all, how hard is it to fixture up a chode and make some test cuts with different ball mills after you screw up the first barrel you ever fluted? The tooling guys will give them to you free of charge for testing.
A barrel maker in California some years ago air gaged some finished button rifled barrels he fluted. The gage showed a groove diameter bump at each end of the flute and the groove diameter was bigger under the flute. With finished hammer forged barrels it was the opposite; same flute end bumps but smaller groove diameters under the flute. Cut rifled barrels ready to shoot but fluted had little change in their groove diameters, but they did change.
One other barrel maker says he flutes barrels 'cause his customers want them that way and he makes an extra few dozen bucks per barrel. But he prefers not to if accuracy's important.
One other barrel maker says he flutes barrels 'cause his customers want them that way and he makes an extra few dozen bucks per barrel. But he prefers not to if accuracy's important.
Whatever they used to cut the flutes left marks lengthwise on the barrel. Looks kind of like a body shop cut them with an air chisel. I may be on to something here. When they sent it back the surface looked like it had been polished with a body grinder. I'm hoping the person that worked on the inside of it was more talented than the person who worked on the outside of it.
RTK
Well-Known Member
Shilen doesn't like fluting very much, I copied this
What about "fluting" a barrel?
Fluting is a service we neither offer nor recommend. If you have a Shilen barrel fluted, the warranty is void. Fluting a barrel can induce unrecoverable stresses that will encourage warping when heated and can also swell the bore dimensions, causing loose spots in the bore. A solid (un-fluted) barrel is more rigid than a fluted barrel of equal diameter. A fluted barrel is more rigid than a solid barrel of equal weight. All rifle barrels flex when fired. Accuracy requires that they simply flex the same and return the same each time they are fired, hence the requirement for a pillar bedded action and free floating barrel. The unrecoverable stresses that fluting can induce will cause the barrel to flex differently or not return from the flexing without cooling down a major amount. This is usually longer than a shooter has to wait for the next shot. The claim of the flutes helping to wick heat away faster is true, but the benefit of the flutes is not recognizable in this regard until the barrel is already too hot.
What about "fluting" a barrel?
Fluting is a service we neither offer nor recommend. If you have a Shilen barrel fluted, the warranty is void. Fluting a barrel can induce unrecoverable stresses that will encourage warping when heated and can also swell the bore dimensions, causing loose spots in the bore. A solid (un-fluted) barrel is more rigid than a fluted barrel of equal diameter. A fluted barrel is more rigid than a solid barrel of equal weight. All rifle barrels flex when fired. Accuracy requires that they simply flex the same and return the same each time they are fired, hence the requirement for a pillar bedded action and free floating barrel. The unrecoverable stresses that fluting can induce will cause the barrel to flex differently or not return from the flexing without cooling down a major amount. This is usually longer than a shooter has to wait for the next shot. The claim of the flutes helping to wick heat away faster is true, but the benefit of the flutes is not recognizable in this regard until the barrel is already too hot.
