Building a Woodshop Rifling Machine

By Barclay

This is how to build a machine , using basic wood working tools to be found in most home workshops.
My power tools include a radial arm saw , an electric drill or a drill press and a hand router.
Hand tools include a few screw drivers, squares tape measure, hammer and a few others normally found in most households.
The machine described will, if done right, produce an accurate barrel of a variety of bores, lengths and twist rates.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350957440

Book preview

Building a Woodshop

        Rifling Machine

Introduction

This book has been a work in progress and was not compiled in one session from notes and experience but mostly as an as we go entity. What started as notes to a friend during casual e-mail exchanges involving day-to-day family matters and events exposed enough material that my friend considered it worthy of more attention. The result of his encouragement follows.

Some of the later information may appear to contradict that which has been given earlier. This due to the learning curve and different approaches used in the final project needed to complete this effort. As the work neared completion, it became apparent that the aim of describing the process of rifling, although the main goal, was incomplete. To build a barrel from scratch, the exterior must also be considered. Therefore, the last part of this effort details the solution I found best for my goals, that of doing the most possible with the tools at hand in my modest wood shop. I do not touch on the steps of welding a tube from flat stock or boring the barrel from a solid bar. Those are whole projects in themselves and ones I have no experience in nor tools to master in what is basically a wood shop.

There exists quite a lot of information in books and on the internet regarding rifling types, rates, construction etc. but very little about how one would go about it in a modest home workshop. To date, the little information I have been able to find would not have served well enough as a how-to guide to lead a casual hobbyist like me through the process. I keep searching and believe the topic has been covered to some extent and hope that my little effort will add some tiny bit to the possibilities now available. This, I hope, will serve as a starting point for the hobbyist. Refinement to the tools and methods will be developed by each person as time, interest and need determine.

The material here is presented to offer a few ideas for the construction and use of a rifling machine, not to detail barrel making or complete rifle building. I have added a few notes about my solutions to finishing the outside of a barrel since octagon stock is not readily available.

This effort has been put together over several years and as time has passed, more information has come to my attention. The amount of data on the internet grows daily, even hourly, as does the ability to gather the information. My recent findings show that there is really nothing new. As an example, my cutter and cutter box were in use on machines used to build barrels during both world wars and before.

As with any challenge, more than one solution can be found. Pointed out to me was the fact that fairly few of own a wood lathe suitable for this kind of project. With that in mind, another solution and other notes follow in the Addendum chapter.

The information here was, for me, a good solution to my challenge.  I will be trying other methods in the future for my own enjoyment, one of which will involve methods closer to those of the old masters using tools likely to be found there and then.

A word of caution!

Much has come to my attention recently of published warnings for using the tubing known as DOM,