Making ramrod pipes

[Scota4570]

I made a complicated Armstrong looking entry pipe today.  I used anealed sheet brass.  I made the mandril suggested in the Buchele/ Shumway/ Alexander book.  I hand filed the bands and contours by eye with needle files.  It looks, folk-artsie, if thre is such a word.   Nice but a bit off here and there.  It is not a refined as I would like. 

I was thinking of making another.  I looks like I could cut the bands with form tools in the lathe.  I could temporaly glue the pipe to a 3/8" rod and swing the lathe by hand to make an interupted cut.   For the two upper pipes I could make the tab a little short so that I could just run the lathe normally.

Does this idea have merit?

[WadePatton]

Lotsa ways to do it.  Mostly up to your skill level and resources and notions of "how it should be done".  I'm yet using storeboughts, but have a "special case" coming up real soon.  Luckily mine will be steel and bands aren't required.

And i'll guarantee you one thing for sure and definite.

Once you've made a dozen or twenty, you'll have much better results in a fraction of the time*.  Practice makes faster and better er. 

Keep after it.

*applies to practically everything.

[PPatch]

If you are building a folksy rifle then use it, it will fit in perfectly. If you are emulating one of the old timers make one like their's and work out your method as you go. Do it again if needed. Wade is right, practice shows you the way and they become easier and quicker as you gain experience. There are at least two ramrod pipe making tutorials here in ALR in the Tutorial section.

dave

[BPRICHARD]

I would like to offer a suggestion for the next time.  After you have your flat piece of brass cleaned and softened, cut to the correct length and width, use a metal straight edge and a pointed scribe or nail set and scribe or scratch in the lines or groves at either end of the soon to be pipe. Make them deep. Then wrap your material around your  mandrel(I use the shank of drill bit the correct size)  and clamp the lower edges in a heavy vice and draw it tight.  after they are shaped you can deepen your groves or shape the  flats to your desire.  You might want to practice on some scrap metal (tin can stock, or such )  so you can see where to bend and adjust you measurements.     Good luck, BPRICHARD

[Jerry V Lape]

Another way is to buy some of the commercially available sheet metal pipe which have preformed rings consistent with your build and file in the missing detail.  I think these  come out much nicer looking than the heavy cast pipes.  If you are aging the rifle your folksy pipes, with a bit of rubbed in wear will look great.

[Mark Elliott]

"Refined" is quite subjective.   Most all the hand filed thimbles I have seen, looked like they were hand filed.   The way you made your pipes is correct.  I suspect that you just need filing practice.     Are you using your mandrels to hold the pipes while you file the bands?  You really do need to have the pipes on a mandrel to do that.   I would suggest using an hand vise to hold the tab of the pipe while you file the flats.   You do know that the flats aren't really flat, right?   It is an optical illusion.    I still think practice is the thing.   That, and maybe get someone who has done a lot of them to demonstrate the filing to you.   

[Rolf]

If you are not happy, try, try again. Brass is cheap. With some practice you'll get what you want.
Check out the pipe tutorial  http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=687.0
Look at the method with the wooden filing jig and the one with the jewellers saw.

Best regards
Rolf

[Tom Currie]

I have spun them in my dress press much as you had mentioned, using a file to cut in detail. This of course needs to be done with the tab removed on the ends. Beware of the remaining spinning tab though, it would be rough on the fingers !

[flehto]

I've found the forming blocks pictured below to be excellent for making entry  pipes...both short tanged and the Bucks County extended finial type. These forming blocks can be used to make either one or two piece entry pipes. It seems the two piece entry pipe is a little easer to make in that it doesn't involve a lot of peening and annealing at the pipe/tang transition. For the two piece entry pipes. I use high temp silver solder { 1200-1300 melt temp}. The form block is made from oak......Fred

[Long John]

If you are having trouble keeping the ribs and grooves at each end nice and straight you can make a tool to help.  I made one from a block of maple with a set of short dowels installed perpendicular to the flat surface of the block.  I find (or make) a washer that has a hole ID large enough to go around the raw RR pipe and as thick as I want the first groove to be from the end of the pipe.  I drop the washer down over a dowel and slip the raw pipe down so that it is inside the washer and flush against the block.  Now I use a 3-corner file to file the groove around the outside of the pipe.  Then I remove the pipe and slip a second washer, that is as thick as the distance I want between grooves, down on top of the first.  Replace the RR pipe and using the 3-corner file make a second groove.  Because the washers are flat and can rotate the will guide the file in making nice parallel grooves around the pipe.

I'm on the road this week or I'd include a photo or two, but this is how I do it.

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[PPatch]

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=687.0