Bending a barrel

[Mike Brooks]

The picture above is an attempt to put a bend in an otherwise straight barrel.  This barrel is a 20 gauge x 42" from the Mold and Gun Shop, and was made for a Tulle musket.  To determine the addition of an arc to the barrel, I applied a straight edge alone the top and measured the added deflection with number drills.  My bench here is a solid core door which as you can see is arched heavily by the C clamp, yet I was not able to add any bend to this barrel using these V blocks.  I gave up on this one.  I could have used those 4 x 4's Mike has for this job.

That's the same thing I do, only instead of a C clamp I jump up and down on it. If you were Canadian I suppose you could also wear mukluks whilst jumping.

[jerrywh]

 Mike. What formula do you use to figure just how high to jump and exactly where to land??

[WadePatton]

Mike. What formula do you use to figure just how high to jump and exactly where to land??

I cannot speak for Mike, but didn't he say re-bend it if you bend it too far?  That'd be the time to jump less higher (also turn it over).  Of course the speed of impact won't have a linear relationship to height attained. So watch out for that.

Also before dinner or after dinner-that may change the ability to jump so high, which of course may be offset by the greater mass of the sated gunbuilder.   


 

[gumboman]

I love the occasional humor posted here. Mike Brooks you make me laugh regularly with your dry humor. Keep it up.

Taylor that is a scary amount of flex applied to your barrel. I am amazed it added no bend. My vision of applying bend was not even close to that amount. I thought I might apply 1/2" to 3/4" to achieve results. This is way out of my wheel house.

[Mike Brooks]

Bending barrels isn't rocket science. I know of a guy who whacks them against a telephone pole in the alley. I can't stand the damage against my hands with that particular method.

[Dave B]

I had a Ed Rayl barrel that had gotten bent some way or other. I was able to straighten it out but it took even higher blocks that those shown here to bend it back. Scary bending a barrel that much and it not taking any notice. My blocks were 4" high and the barrel touching the bench under the clamps pressure before it started moving. Ed uses some tough barrel steel. Dave Rase put that barrel into English walnut for me after I straightened it. I have yet to build the fowling piece so no reports as to how tru it will pattern but it looks tru in the wood. Just finished watching Brave, the jumping on a barrel is all most like the Scottish sword dance. Some how the picture of a Kilt clad smith hoping on the barrel to bagpipes in the background make me smile.