Boring and reaming a barrel

[Longknife]

OK, I am pondering re-boring and reaming a barrel and I need info on making the the boring bit, reamer, etc. I'm not talking about a useing a $25 grand hydraulic, automatic, pressure fed machine, I want to do it the old fashioned way. Anyone out there have any experience with this? Thanks, Ed

[AndyThomas]

Try this,

http://www.iowatelecom.net/~toadhall/boreing.htm

Andy

[flintriflesmith]

The Gunsmith of Williamsburg movie illustrates the process and tools fairly well. It has just been released on DVD. See archives from last month.

I believe it is Foxfire V that also shows tooling

[bob in the woods]

I did a pistol barrel. Thought I'd start small!  I bought the DVD by American Pioneer Video, with J. Laubach forging a barrel. He also shows how to make the boring tool. With that, and the Gunsmith of Williamsburg video, I was able to cobble together a barrel. For rifling, I used a set up which is different than the video. I found it in an old MuzzleBlasts. It is basically a length of keystock, supported through two metal ends set on a board on which the barrel is fixed. The keystock runs through the barrel, and the square cutout that it runs through on one end is canted depending on the amount of twist you want. It actually cuts a gain twist. I'm probably not explaining this very well. Perhaps someone else is aware of this set up . It worked well for the shorter barrel.
One thing I did confirm...you can't use a standard type twist drill to bore the barrel. It won't drill straight.
Trust me! 

[jerrywh]

The square bit with wooden back works very well . If you make light cuts and lots of oil it will make a near mirror finish.  I still have one or two I used many years ago.

[Longknife]

Andy, Thats a good lookng bench at the toad hall shop but it is not verty helpful in making the boring bit. I have the foxfire book, has anyone made one like that?

Jerry, I have made the reamers to do smoothbore barrels but I need info on the boring bit to do the heavy work....Thanks, Ed

Bob, Can you show me the boring bit you made???

[Ken G]

Longknife,
There's a whole page on making a boring/reaming bit. 

http://www.iowatelecom.net/~toadhall/_the_long_bit.htm

[flintriflesmith]

Longknife,
There's a whole page on making a boring/reaming bit. 

This is on the reaming bit which is used after the boring bit. The boring bit is also square but it is twisted and no wood and paper shim is involved.

I have a section on my web site that begins with barrel welding and includes details of both kinds of bits.

http://flintriflesmith.com/Tools%20&%20Techniques/barrel_making.htm

Gary

[Longknife]

BINGO!!!!!! Flintriflesmith, Thats what I was looking for. I assume I could make these out of a square file or tool steel, Is there a particular twist rate that works better than others? How much can you take out in one pass?  Thanks, Ed

[Rolf]

To make a pistol barrel,I thougth you use a lath, a standard twist drill would drill a strait hole. If the hole is off center, I thougth you could put it between two center cones and turn the sides parraell with the bore.

Does this make sense?

Best regards

Rolfkt

[flintriflesmith]

BINGO!!!!!! Flintriflesmith, Thats what I was looking for. I assume I could make these out of a square file or tool steel, Is there a particular twist rate that works better than others? How much can you take out in one pass?  Thanks, Ed

We made some bits out of old files but did it by welding the file steel to the rod so that all four corners were file steel but the core remained mild steel. (wrough iron would have been more period correct but we usually saved what we had for actual rifle parts). The softer core reduced but did not eliminate breakage.

We found a "variable" twist worked fine. Just eyeball it.

The reason there was a large rack of bits in the photo was that we found it faster to have each one only few calibers bigger than the one before. That cut down on the amount of borings any one bit was making. Remember the borings are pushed ahead of the bit and you have to stop very often to blow them out of the barrel and re-oil the bit.

Gary

[bob in the woods]

Re the picture of the bit...same as what Flintriflesmith showed. Eyeball the twist. I don't suppose it much matters. I used one of those tapered square files welded to a short mild steel rod. The DVD with Mr. Laubach shows exactly how to do it. Well worth the money.
Re turning /drilling pistol barrels on a lathe...I guess so, but that was not what I was after.
I'm practicing for a rifle barrel.

[chris laubach]

Bob,
Glade to hear you enjoyed the DVD.

Ed,
As Gary has stated, you can use a file, just scarf weld the square file onto the mild steel rod.
Heat the square bit than twist it by eye. You can clean up the twist bit with a rat tail file.


Chris Laubach

[Dphariss]

OK, I am pondering re-boring and reaming a barrel and I need info on making the the boring bit, reamer, etc. I'm not talking about a useing a $25 grand hydraulic, automatic, pressure fed machine, I want to do it the old fashioned way. Anyone out there have any experience with this? Thanks, Ed

The "straight bit" backed by wood will do a very nice job of finish reaming. Just be sure to ream breech to muzzle.
As stated its in the Gunsmith of Williamsburg.

Dan

[Steve Bookout]

Here is a photo of a "short bit" used for boring out a barrel.  The top bit is merely a length of tool steel or similar scarf welded to a 3/8" hot rolled rod.  The bottom pic shows a completed bit that has been welded to the rod, drawn out and squared with a taper, sharpened with a file, twisted while it was hot, hardened  and then tempered.  The direction of twist can be of either direction.  In my opinion, the bits made from a tool steel seem to last just a bit longer than ones made from a file.  Cheers, Bookie