Used Rifling Buttons

[USCGLongBow]

Does anyone know if there is a way to buy a used rifling button, or get ahold of one for a single build? I'm looking at building two custom rifles with unusual bores and don't want to buy a brand new button just for two rifles.

 

[lazylabs]

How do you go with unusual bores and standard buttons?

 

[USCGLongBow]

Well, what I was looking at possibly would be a standard 10mm or 41 pistol button. I'm not sure I would actually build either rifle, just ideas I'm playing with. I'm just looking at my options and logisitics for a future build. Most likely if I do it I would just have a button built so it fits my exact needs, and I would just hold on to it in case I wanna build another barrel. I have also looked at using a 408 blank barrel, but I don't think it fits what I want to build.

 

[Clark]

I don't know anything about it, but shooting the bull with John Benjamin, barrel maker, at machinery auctions, he tells me that he can hear when a carbide button snaps and it is broken and worthless.

 

[Kennibear]

Button rifling a barrel takes one helluva specialized hydraulic press/machine and a push/pull rod sized to the bore. Then there is the gun- drilled barrel blank....

You got all that in your garage? Can I come over and play?

KB

 

[J E Custom]

That is a real ambitious project, Not that it cant be done but it will be very difficult without all of the machinery.

I would think that cut rifling would be easier and a suitable machine could be fabricated and
a cutter for the rifling also.

Cut rifling does not require stress relieving after it is cut like the buttoned rifling does ,so that would eliminate one major step.

The cut rifling would take more time (Many passes) but the risk of ruining a barrel would be less.

Just some thoughts

Good luck on your project, and keep us up dated.

J E CUSTOM

 

[shortgrass]

[QUOTE

The cut rifling would take more time (Many passes) but the risk of ruining a barrel would be less.



J E CUSTOM[/QUOTE]
Until your cutter breaks!!!

 

[J E Custom]

[QUOTE

The cut rifling would take more time (Many passes) but the risk of ruining a barrel would be less.
J E CUSTOM

Until your cutter breaks!!![/QUOTE]


+1
This is where Murphy's law would come into play.

I have never tried to rifle a barrel because they are so many available, but I know that some of the black powder purest have/do so maybe they will chime in.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Kennibear]

What you want to do is going to cost more than contracting with a maker.

Another approach would be to have a broach made and pull it through. It can be configured to final ream to size at the same time. Maybe take 20 cutters in the stack. You could have any rifling form you wanted. But this way isn't cheap either.

KB

 

[Trickymissfit]

What you want to do is going to cost more than contracting with a maker.

Another approach would be to have a broach made and pull it through. It can be configured to final ream to size at the same time. Maybe take 20 cutters in the stack. You could have any rifling form you wanted. But this way isn't cheap either.

KB

I used to bird hunt with a process engineer that bought broach bars on a daily basis. Doing a spiral cut with a broach is a bear! And I mean a big bear, but with specialized tooling can be done well. Look for lots and lots of scrap in the learning process, and also look for zero help as they will never divulge their secrets.

I've always wondered why everybody uses carbide buttons to rifle a barrel. Yet I also know there's a good reason why. I'd have thought a Tin' coated high speed button would have given a more precise cut with a better finish. Plus the actually metal cut is very small in the first place.
gary

 

[msalm]

I've always wondered why everybody uses carbide buttons to rifle a barrel. Yet I also know there's a good reason why. I'd have thought a Tin' coated high speed button would have given a more precise cut with a better finish. Plus the actually metal cut is very small in the first place.
gary

That would be because a button doesn't 'cut' anything, it swages the steel into shape and at those pressures the carbide works better, can be polished to just as fine of finish, and typicall is coated. Buttoning a barrel would be far easier than cut. Probably the hardest part in either processes is drilling the hole...that is the one that takes expensive deep hole drilling equipment. You can fabricate a button puller with a little thought, time, scrap material and a hydraulic pump and cylinder.

Cut rifling takes at the most .0002" cut per pass, .004" depth per groove, 6 groove equals a minimum of 120 passes per barrel. Not only do you need consistent twist, you need to be able to advance the cutter precisely and have it spring loaded on the pass back through the bore so the cutter doesn't drag too much. I have two hand operated cut machines, one an old rifling bench with the wooden twist guides, the other is a more modern sine bar machine. Either one is limited to about a 1-24" twist and for muzzleloader barrels only... Haven't tried to pull a cutter through 4140 or 416R yet and don't think I will.