I once asked a Smith

Pete Wass

Pete Wass

Well-known member
who worked some for a maker of Custom Hunting Rifles and I suppose even Benchrest Rifles, how many barrels he could do in a day; his job at the time there. He said 3 and a half, the way they do them there. I thought that was a pretty good pace, all manual everything. I'd be curious as how many folks do with CNC machines when adhering to the same parameters Smiths use for Custom rifles.

Thanks,

Pete
 
I can pretty comfortably do 2 in an 8 hour day. That's complete, from start to finish including disassembly, and re-assembly of the complete rifle and engraving the barrels.
If i am really under the pump, and have them already disassembled, i can do three in about 10.5 hours. By the end of which i am mentally and physically drained..

I'd be surprised if anyone doing them to the same standard of accuracy could do them much quicker with CNC. You would maybe save an hour per barrel..

Cheers
Leeroy
 
Pete, keep in mind, I am not a Gunsmith.

If I was looking at a barrel job as just another machining job in my shop, and knowing the requirements of the job, I could set up and do 5 Barrels in a 10 hour day using the equipment I use. That is assuming all of the Barrels are the same profile and close to the same length.

The most time consuming single operation is the truing of the barrel. Getting it perfect so that all subsequent operations are truly straight with that is possibly the most important aspect of the entire job.

All a CNC operation does is speed up certain operations such as threading and measuring because those are programmed into the machine's operation. Repeatability in production settings is certainly superior in a CNC set up, providing the tooling is up to the task at hand.

I have been in the Machine Shop Business long enough to witness the evolution of the industry. I was around when the concept of insert tooling was a fantasy. Now we hardly use anything but. I was around when high production and repeatability was performed with Cams, tracers, and jigs and fixtures.
Now computer controlled machines perform these operations, where the importance of the operator is replaced by the programmer, the qualified tooling, and of course the machine.
 
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Pete,
I can comfortably do 50 a week to include, serializing, chamber, thread muzzle and Cerakote, packed ready for FedEx to pick up. It's not what the machine can do but how fast I want to feed it. It never gets tired where I do. When I'm on a roll doing production work I can setup and do the breech end in less than 20 minutes. Setup, thread and crown muzzles in less than 10 minutes. One offs take considerably longer because of setup time particularly if I don't have a program written.
 
Once the machine and I are warmed up, it’s not unrealistic to do 3 an hour bench to bench on repeat jobs, excluding caliber markings/spin polishing.
 
Dave Tooley said:
Pete,
I can comfortably do 50 a week to include, serializing, chamber, thread muzzle and Cerakote, packed ready for FedEx to pick up. It's not what the machine can do but how fast I want to feed it. It never gets tired where I do. When I'm on a roll doing production work I can setup and do the breech end in less than 20 minutes. Setup, thread and crown muzzles in less than 10 minutes. One offs take considerably longer because of setup time particularly if I don't have a program written.
Click to expand...

Dave, that's the big difference. While I can do 5 a day on my Pratt & Whitney manual Lathe using the tooling I have made, which is labor intensive, at the end of the day I would be tired and ready to shut it down.

If I was in the gunsmith business, and made the chambering and fitting of Barrels one of my primary sources of income, I would certainly invest in a suitable Cad/cam machining system.
 
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About how long

Rubicon Prec. said:
Once the machine and I are warmed up, it’s not unrealistic to do 3 an hour bench to bench on repeat jobs, excluding caliber markings/spin polishing.
Click to expand...

does machining the tenon portion take the machine to do? I can imagine it's "Smokin" fast?

Thanks,

Pete
 
jackie schmidt said:
Dave, that's the big difference. While I can do 5 a day on my Pratt & Whitney manual Lathe using the tooling I have made, which is labor intensive, at the end of the day I would be tired and ready to shut it down.

If I was in the gunsmith business, and made the chambering and fitting of Barrels one of my primary sources of income, I would certainly invest in a suitable Cad/cam machining system.
Click to expand...

Jackie,
When I was chambering on my 10" Nardini I could do everything in about 2 1/2 hours. That's without a flush system and before I started using caliber specific core drills to rough in the chambers. With core drills on the Haas it only takes two passes with the finish reamer.
 
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