TOOLING FOR RIFLE BARRELS
TOOLING FOR RIFLE BARRELS
Rifling Buttons are Precision Carbide Tools for forming the rifling grooves and resizing the bore in gun barrels. Sizes range from 14 caliber Rifles to 10 gauge rifled shotgun barrels and can be ground with any helical twist right or left handed. They are available in rifle only, bore only, or combination style. The Buttons are either Push or Pulled through the barrel depending on the type of equipment you have available. We also recommend all rifle buttons to be coated with either (TIN) Titanium-Nitrate or a (TIALN / Futura Nano) Titanium Aluminum Nitrate coating. This will improve your tool life and increase barrel finish by keeping the material from cold welding to the buttons.
All these buttons are made to your specifications or we can determine the size of the button based on material, hardness and wall thickness of the blank. To achieve the correct size button all these variables must be determined for the expansion and contraction during the buttoning process. If you plan to stress relieve the barrel after rifling this also needs to be evaluated into the equation.
Once you determine the style of Rifle Button you wish to use you need to determine the exact size of the Rifling and Bore you wish to establish in the barrel. You need to first start with a good straight gun drill hole approximately .006”-.008” smaller than your Bore size. Then pass a reamer through the barrel to establish your Bore size to remove any surface imperfections and control the inside diameter of the barrel from one end to the other.
Then you are ready to Push or Pull your button through the barrel. Utilizing a good pressure lube is required to achieve good results. The process is very fast, approximately 40”-60” per minute. A combination button which consists of a rifling button and a Bore button will both swage the lands in the barrel and resize the bore section in one pass.
Combo Push Button Specs (PDF)
Combo Pull Button Specs (PDF)
Push Rifle Button Specs (PDF)
Pull Rifle Button Specs (PDF)
PULL BORE REAMER
This carbide Multi-flute Reamer of usually 4 or 6 Flutes is pulled or pushed through a gun drilled barrel to accurately control the surface finish and size of the ID of the barrel prior to rifling. Standard procedure is to remove .003″ – .004″ per size of material to insure a precision clean bore which sets up the style of rifling tool to be used. Coolant flows through the ID of the rod over the fluted reamer to move the chips forward creating an excellent bore inside the barrel.
HAMMER FORGING MANDRELS
Another production method of producing rifling barrels is by Hammer Forging Rifling Mandrels. We manufacture these precision tools with high impact carbide. The carbide mandrel has the entire depth rifling pattern ground into its surface to reflect the exact interior of the barrel. Very precise tolerances are controlled to manufacture this tool.
RIFLE/BORE GAGES
In order to measure the inside of the rifled barrel you need to use Rifle and Bore Air Gage probes. We manufacture these in carbide to the SAMMI barrel specifications to give you the correct sizes throughout the barrel. These probes are functional with the use of an Air Column and master setting rings which will give you precise measurements throughout your barrel.
TECH SUPPORT
We have a dedicated staff of experts with over 85 years of combined experience to assist the customer with all of their special requirements. At the beginning phase of an engineering project, give us a call to discuss the process sequences required to avoid unnecessary problems in the future. If the customer is experiencing any gundrilling problems or has questions, they should contact our engineering staff for solutions.