Making own AR barrel??

[bishop2queen's6]

Pardon my ignorance, but how hard is it to make your own barrel for an AR?

Say if I had a lathe, end mill, pipe threader and all the necessary tools, can't I go buy any sort of steel pipe or solid core of the desired length and make my own barrel?

I was thinking, I would go out and buy a solid core or steel tube of the length I want, but out of an aerospace stainless steel such as Inconel 625, and make an indestructible barrel that will last ten of thousands of rounds.

[eviioiive]

[milotrain]

Fundamentally it's not all that hard. The difficulty is in the execution. You will not get a higher round count than a normal barrel with "fancy steel" because what breaks down barrels is fire cracking at the throat, not metal on metal wear.

Short description:
• Buy a steel rod about the length you want + 8" or so. Lots of steel choices but you are focusing on what steel will be able to be worked, not what steel will hold up to round count. Doesn't matter how aerospace the steel is if you can't machine it. Easy solution is 416R (rifle barrel SS originally developed by Crucible).
• You'll build a gun drill first, this is a high pressure flood based drill system. You'll spin the barrel in some sort of chuck and in some sort of lathe like system then drill it with a carbide bit brazed on the end of a driving rod.
• Now you'll cast a led lap into the bore and charge it with lapping compound, then lap the barrel some several 100 times.
• Now you'll either decided to pull/push a rifling button through the barrel or cut the rifling grooves. Deciding which way you go you'll need to build either a hydraulic pusher/puller button rifler or a sine bar or CNC controlled cutter system.
• Now you lap it 100 or so times.
• Now you put it in your lathe with a tracer attachment or by offsetting the tailstock and profile the barrel.
• Then you chamber, thread and crown the tapered barrel blank.

It's a... process.

[SoldierLife7]

Why?

[baih777]

Its easier to buy a nitrided barrel.

[xfer42]

Sure. Got some tooling to drill, ream and rifle the hole?
Most people dont, so they buy barrel blanks.

[bishop2queen's6]

Yup. I figured it was much more difficult than I firsr conceived it to be. Thanks guys.

[jericho89]

It would be one of those thing that you could say I built this, but not practicle

[kurac]

you should invite a bunch of us over for a BBQ the day you try to drill a hole through the Inconel 625, maybe you can rifle it with a gain twist too.

[milotrain]

There is nothing wrong with asking the question, everyone (even Kreiger) asked that question. It's the right one to ask. There are a huge number of things to take into consideration when making a barrel from scratch but there are absolutely garage machinists who have done it.

Let's not go all LongrangeSubForum on the op.

[M1NM]

You will not get a higher round count than a normal barrel with "fancy steel" because what breaks down barrels is fire cracking at the throat, not metal on metal wear.

Inconel isn't going to break down from fire cracking. It's the stuff rocket nozzles are made from.

Making a barrel is easy. Plan the caliber, length & contour then go out on the back porch and yell RANDALL and he'll appear with what you want.

[milotrain]

More than just heat is a work in torching out a barrel's throat. I don't know enough about how Iconel reacts to vaporized copper.

[yari]

OK not trying to bash here. Have you ever tried machining 416 stainless or 4140? I'm guessing no. Incolnel is extremely hard stuff to cut. I have experience with it and avoid it at all costs! It's slow, eats cutters, and is expensive! For the cost of one barrel I'd make 50 stainless ones and replace them when necessary. Last part I made from incolnel was for a nuclear reactor and charged them 80k.

[milotrain]

Or just chrome line it

[kcstott]

Pardon my ignorance, but how hard is it to make your own barrel for an AR?

stainless steel such as Inconel 625, and make an indestructible barrel that will last ten of thousands of rounds.

And how much Inconel have you ever machined?? I'm guessing NONE??

One Inconel is not a stainless steel. It's a Nichrome alloy and is closer in relationship to Monel then Stainless.

You also didn't look up the properties very well It is not indestructible. It's has a lower tensile strength then 4140, it is incredibly soft and gummy to work with.

So Go spend 10X what a good chunk of 4140 will cost you on so wizzbang Inconel and then go do it five more times, It will take you at least that long to figure out how to machine it.

Do you think you are smarter the all the barrel makers out there?? DO you think you just had an idea that no one else had??

go luck with that. I can't get people to buy a 4140 Shilen match grade PSL barrel for $450 how much do you thing a .875" diameter 16" long chunk of Inconel is going to cost you?? try the cost of a LMT 308 rifle the stuff is not cheep.