Titanium muzzle brakes sneak peek

[Hawkeye Pierce]

These look great, in looking for something like this for my 260 terminator as soon as my barrel. I was going to go with the Area 419 sidewinder but is 7.5 oz. Im building this to be a light weight hunter but also to get started in PRS matches.
Are you going to have wrench slots for removal? I also like to shoot a suppressor so being able to put on and off would be nice.

 

[RH300UM]

I have a couple questions
1- Have you tested these?
2- How do you combat the threads loosening up? Different material hardness( barrel vs brake) different expansion rates.
Especially on the BIG boomers!
All my testing on different Ti brakes results it the same issue.
Ti being the harder metal the both stainless and CM.
The barrel threads end up taking a beating from the pressure/heat at the muzzle.
Just interested if i can learn something.
Ruined the ends of a few barrels testing these out.

 

[snox801]

I have a couple questions
1- Have you tested these?
2- How do you combat the threads loosening up? Different material hardness( barrel vs brake) different expansion rates.
Especially on the BIG boomers!
All my testing on different Ti brakes results it the same issue.
Ti being the harder metal the both stainless and CM.
The barrel threads end up taking a beating from the pressure/heat at the muzzle.
Just interested if i can learn something.
Ruined the ends of a few barrels testing these out. ☹

I run to brakes on my stuff and have never had that issues. I do out of habit also check to make sure they are hand tight at the start of the day but never had one come loose. I do t shoot long strings were heat may come into play though. May happen on a 556 but I've never had it on mine. I only have round style ones now.

 

[livetohunt]

I have a couple questions
1- Have you tested these?
2- How do you combat the threads loosening up? Different material hardness( barrel vs brake) different expansion rates.
Especially on the BIG boomers!
All my testing on different Ti brakes results it the same issue.
Ti being the harder metal the both stainless and CM.
The barrel threads end up taking a beating from the pressure/heat at the muzzle.
Just interested if i can learn something.
Ruined the ends of a few barrels testing these out. ☹

@snox801 should get them in the mail tomorrow for testing on a few different rifles.

The last Ti brake I timed and installed I just did hand tight, but I cerakoted over it and the barrel so it had a little extra holding it. I did load development with it and shot over 100 rounds thru it with zero issues. If the thread lockup is good, I've never seen any issues with them coming loose. I normally Just take a Drill, tool, rod, whatever and cover it with a rag and push it thru the ports to tighten the brake.

I've seen this question come up with titanium actions too, but they obviously make Ti actions with no issues.

Honestly I can't imagine getting the end of a barrel hot enough to cause any issues. Steel expands at .000072" per degree. Titanium is .000048" per degree. Titanium disperses heat better than steel, as it does contain aluminum.

When I shoulder my brake on my custom HCA carbon barrel on steel threads, I'm not concerned at all. Mike doesn't have the front section of steel that proof and other companies do, so when you Thread the barrel your shoulder is steel and carbon. Never head any issue with that, and that could be steel, graphite, and Ti all expanding at different rates.

 

[livetohunt]

Another note, dissimilar materials grip better against each other. The hardness difference causes better adherence. If you put a "part made of D2 tool steel" in D2 tool steel jaws and torque to 200 in lbs, or put it in aluminum soft jaws and torque to 200 in lbs, the part will hold much better in the aluminum soft jaws. (Parallelism and perpendicularly of everything aside)

 

[ppro]

Just a question, but for brake efficiency, wouldn't keeping the through the baffle hole size closer to (and of course, the right diameter larger) than the bore diameter make for better efficiency rather than more of a one size fits all ? I know your finishing your designs so probably all is not written in stone....

 

[livetohunt]

Just a question, but for brake efficiency, wouldn't keeping the through the baffle hole size closer to (and of course, the right diameter larger) the bore diameter make for better efficiency rather than more of a one size fits all ?

your absolutely correct... maybe my wording wasn't correct in my OP...


I will bore them to any required size, the bore size listed means it can be bored for clearance on any of those sizes. If I said 6.5 to a .338 it means the initial size I make it to will be .284 which will be .01" per side clearance for a 6.5.

 

[livetohunt]

I am very interested in the featherweight. Want to squeeze 338 on a 5/8-24 through it

that version is too small diameter for 5/8-24. It has enough wall thickness but you couldn't blend it at all. The next size up will be the same length but a larger diameter and available in 5/8-24 9/16-24 and 1/2-28. I haven't designed that one yet so don't have exact numbers.

 

[muleystalker]

Looks good, one thing you may want to look at is making the first port closest to the muzzle a 90* port to the muzzle, this helps divert the blast from the angled ports away from the shooter but still be a very affective brake. Also are you going to make any that will fit the Proof sendero contour, in the .900" range ?

 

[MT257]

Price range?

 

[Rich Coyle]

Thanks for posting this.

 

[Canadian Bushman]

@snox801 should get them in the mail tomorrow for testing on a few different rifles.

The last Ti brake I timed and installed I just did hand tight, but I cerakoted over it and the barrel so it had a little extra holding it. I did load development with it and shot over 100 rounds thru it with zero issues. If the thread lockup is good, I've never seen any issues with them coming loose. I normally Just take a Drill, tool, rod, whatever and cover it with a rag and push it thru the ports to tighten the brake.

I've seen this question come up with titanium actions too, but they obviously make Ti actions with no issues.

Honestly I can't imagine getting the end of a barrel hot enough to cause any issues. Steel expands at .000072" per degree. Titanium is .000048" per degree. Titanium disperses heat better than steel, as it does contain aluminum.

When I shoulder my brake on my custom HCA carbon barrel on steel threads, I'm not concerned at all. Mike doesn't have the front section of steel that proof and other companies do, so when you Thread the barrel your shoulder is steel and carbon. Never head any issue with that, and that could be steel, graphite, and Ti all expanding at different rates.

I agree that if the proper size threads are used, and the brake is torqued sufficiently, that loosening is usually not an issue.

I do however disagree with some of your numbers and observations on different metal alloys. Im not sure what Ti alloys you are using but you expansion ratios seem a little off.

Ti-6Al-4v has a CTE ( coefficient of thermal expansion ) of 4.78 uin = .000188 per *F.

This will certainly come into play, especially in cooler weather where a muzzle can go from 70 to 100+ degrees in a few shots.

Also Ti in all alloys is known to be a very poor conductor of heat, for its weight. Again using Ti-6Al-4v for an example, Ti has a thermal conductivity of 46.5 BTU/hr where say 416R is closer to 173 BTU/hr. Aluminum being around 1200 BTU/hr.

This is where special considerations must be taken when using dissimilar metals. Not only their CTE but also their conductivity when using them in application where heat cycling is unavoidable.

Im not telling anyone these brakes arent quality or that using dissimilar metals Is a bad idea. Just that if you are attaching Ti to barrel steel you want to have plenty of thread, plenty of shoulder, a dab of anti seize with sufficient torque and routine checks or thread loosening can absolutely be an issue.

 

[livetohunt]

Looks good, one thing you may want to look at is making the first port closest to the muzzle a 90* port to the muzzle, this helps divert the blast from the angled ports away from the shooter but still be a very affective brake. Also are you going to make any that will fit the Proof sendero contour, in the .900" range ?

I'm basing sizes mainly off of round stock diameters, so I would have one that will be about .990" OD and be able to be turned down to about .875".

Price range?

Cheaper than the vast majority of what is out there when compared to other Ti brakes. Initial numbers are $120-$150 depending on the sizing. I'm not sure on the self timer, as we still haven't nailed down a design.

 

[livetohunt]

I agree that if the proper size threads are used, and the brake is torqued sufficiently, that loosening is usually not an issue.

I do however disagree with some of your numbers and observations on different metal alloys. Im not sure what Ti alloys you are using but you expansion ratios seem a little off.

Ti-6Al-4v has a CTE ( coefficient of thermal expansion ) of 4.78 uin = .000188 per *F.

This will certainly come into play, especially in cooler weather where a muzzle can go from 70 to 100+ degrees in a few shots.

Also Ti in all alloys is known to be a very poor conductor of heat, for its weight. Again using Ti-6Al-4v for an example, Ti has a thermal conductivity of 46.5 BTU/hr where say 416R is closer to 173 BTU/hr. Aluminum being around 1200 BTU/hr.

This is where special considerations must be taken when using dissimilar metals. Not only their CTE but also their conductivity when using them in application where heat cycling is unavoidable.

Im not telling anyone these brakes arent quality or that using dissimilar metals Is a bad idea. Just that if you are attaching Ti to barrel steel you want to have plenty of thread, plenty of shoulder, a dab of anti seize with sufficient torque and routine checks or thread loosening can absolutely be an issue.

My desktop jockey skills are being inhibited by my wife telling me to mow the lawn in the background, but I keep coming up with 4.8 x10^-6 inch per inch per degree F. which should be .000048. If I'm wrong let me know, but I saw that a few different places.

I'm far from a metallurgist, but I am flutes deep in Titanium almost every day. You seem pretty knowledgeable, if you have any opinions on the strength of 7075 vs 6061 aluminum shoot me a pm, as I make tripod adapters for rifle using 7075.