octagon to round inletting

[brokenflint]

While polishing and polishing and polishing  my colonial Va lockplate  I was thinking, LOL imagine that you have time to think while polishing, about inletting octagon to round barrels.  I've never done this and was wondering how its done, or suggestions on how its done. I'm stymied on how you keep a crisp inlet at the transition.  That and while I was looking at the photos on the rayl brass barrel pistol just posted for sale I see the breechplug tang is still straight, how do you compensate the inlet as the tang following down the grip?

[Stophel]

I HATE round barrels. MUCH easier for me to inlet an octagon barrel.

Don't worry about absolute perfection on inletting the "wedding band".

Ya just bend the tang.  First thing I do when I get one is cut the tang to about half it's original thickness.  They're all way too thick.

[George F.]

I would recommend removing the breech plug from the barrel to bend the tang. You could stretch the last thread and end up leaving a noticeable space between the barrel breech and the breech plug. Another point is you don't want to damage the top flat of the breech plug that seats up against the barrel. That corner if damaged will again be an eye sore. Put a piece of leather under it when you turn it upside down prior to beating it with a hammer to bend it.   ...Geo.

[George F.]

Inletting oct.-round barrels aren't attacked much differently that oct. barrels. Chisels, scrapers, and inletting black/ candle soot.  A round scraper goes pretty fast. Just be careful of the sides, and mistaken contact points on the sides,  The wedding band can be cut with the right size gouge. You can try to get the wedding band inletted on the bottom, but nobody is going nock you, the sides is what everybody sees. The round channel can be started with gouges. You can run a knife cut just inside the barrel dimensions, to prevent any splits ruining your day until your barrel lays in the channel past that early cut with the knife. Oh, by the way is this a pistol barrel, or a long barrel?  ...Geo.

[G-Man]

Original octagon to round barrels and good quality contemporary ones that I have seen have a very subtle transition point - the octagon section tapers down so that the OD of the band and adjoining start of the round section fall in a pretty straight line and you don't make any extra adjustment for the band - if you do make a cut, it will look weird when you look down from above - remember on these guns you want flowing lines, not steps.  Actually many octagon to round barrels on American guns that I have seen had no "wedding band" and blended to the round portion with no distinct transition point.

One of my pet peeves is when you see modern octagon to round barrels with a huge step at the transition point - it's just not right and really detracts from the lines of the gun.  If you get one of these and have to work with it, I would do a lot of careful filing, at least on the exposed flats, to smooth the transition.

Good luck

Guy

[Roger Fisher]

I would recommend removing the breech plug from the barrel to bend the tang. You could stretch the last thread and end up leaving a noticeable space between the barrel breech and the breech plug. Another point is you don't want to damage the top flat of the breech plug that seats up against the barrel. That corner if damaged will again be an eye sore. Put a piece of leather under it when you turn it upside down prior to beating it with a hammer to bend it.   ...Geo.

I bend mine with it stuck in a padded vise.! Stoph is on the mark saying most are too thick (the tangs)  I admit to forgetting to file the underneath down - dumb! on 'some'!

[Dphariss]

One of my pet peeves is when you see modern octagon to round barrels with a huge step at the transition point - it's just not right and really detracts from the lines of the gun.  If you get one of these and have to work with it, I would do a lot of careful filing, at least on the exposed flats, to smooth the transition.

Good luck

Guy

The huge step is also a great stress riser.
It can also result if a change in bore dimensions.

Dan

[brokenflint]

George F,   Pistol barrel is what I was thinking about.

Chris   I'm not attempting this atm, long range planning MUHAHAHA, ya more parts LOL.   Originals are scare as hens teeth, pistols are nonexistant here :-)  so I have no idea what they really where built like.
   
Guy,    I was using the Rayl octagon to round as my visual reference, I'll go pull the photo back up and look at it to see what the condition is.

Roger   I just bend the rifle barrel tangs while they are in place also, but this thread strain issue may make me rethink it.