Fluting Barrels

[repoman1984]

I wish I had CNC machines...
That was all done by hand.
The barrel has a straight shank so I just did it in the kurt vise.

too much setup, I have a lot of respect for the manual machinists I'm preety handy if you give me a Haas cnc though.

[Penzanse]

Hijacking 101

Wow! 0 to hijack in less than 2 posts! So, back to the OP's question, who does fluting in Socal?

[ar15barrels]

Wow! 0 to hijack in less than 2 posts! So, back to the OP's question, who does fluting in Socal?

Nobody, but I'm getting setup to do it in the future.

[264charlie]

Randall, We need you full-time.

[ar15barrels]

Randall, We need you full-time.

Start a race car and gunsmithing shop up in Oxnard, hire me and I'll move...

[uscbigdawg]

First, it's not a new process and Randall is NOT the only person that can do it. It's a gigantic pain in the *** as I'm sure he'll attest to.

That said, there is a theory that fluting will help cooling of the barrel as you're increasing the surface area. It's possible, but in tests we've done, it's not shown to be an appreciable amount.

It does however accomplish one major thing and that is that it looks freakin' cool. I too am a big fan of spiral fluting and I believe Bobby at Freedom Gunworks is sitting on a couple of 18", 1:8 SS spiral fluted barrels.

As a side note, beware of who does the fluting (whether straight or spiral). If not done correctly you can seriously screw up what was a good barrel. Bobby can take care of you on this as well as ordering anything you need. If he can't, I can.

Rich

[ar15barrels]

there is a theory that fluting will help cooling of the barrel as you're increasing the surface area.
It's possible, but in tests we've done, it's not shown to be an appreciable amount.

It does however accomplish one major thing and that is that it looks freakin' cool.

I think most people go with it because it looks cool.

I am also of the opinion that the increase in surface area does not make enough difference in cooling for it to actually BE considered an advantage.
This is mostly because that same increase in surface area was accompanied by a decrease in mass which makes the barrel heat up AND cool down quicker.
We can get an even larger decrease in mass by simply profiling the barrel smaller in diameter.
That's what I recommend if the primary objective is to reduce weight.