FYI The Standard Steel Company in Lewistown Pa. made barrels back in the day. They turned them with lathes that could be seen rusting up in the yard today.
Do big guns; (tank/artillery) use a monster size reamer for chambering?
- Thread starter Lee in Texas
- Start date
hoz53
Gold $$ Contributor
that would have been interesting
Rusting lathes are more heart breaking than a trip to the pound!
That's a tough comparison but I feel your pain.
Fast14riot
Gold $$ Contributor
Watervliet also was the company who made the Bunker Buster bomb from the first gulf war, they used old barrels to make it. Pretty cool video about it on their channel.
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“More than likely” the chamber is bored using essentially a “single flute reamer on a boring bar... very likely multiple tools...
Somewhat distantly related is that I remember reading about the space shuttle launches and the device to separate the booster rockets is set off using IMR4227 gunpowder propellant.
That is actually a broach. Broach rifling is a form of cut rifling, but cuts all grooves simultaneously. Ernie Stallman at Badger Barrels perfected this process for precision small arms barrels.
D-4297
Gold $$ Contributor
In todays modern machining world ; cutting a bottleneck chamber for a Abraums barrel could be done with a large CNC Lathe , and it could cut not only the correct profiles , but give a micro-finish cut that nearly could equal a reamer finish . Considering all the implications , I'm guessing that's how it's done . A Boring bar ; holding multiple bits , to take multiple cuts per pass , would be the requirement , to get a consistently finished chamber . With one final "finish Cut" pass , with a dimension in the range of +0.020 / 0.000 . Chamber could then be polish Honed . No Sweat , G.I. !
ckaberna
Gold $$ Contributor
Imagine changing the chuck on that one......
Dead Eye
Silver $$ Contributor
That dude is the bore scope.
How much JB does it take to clean one of them big ones 
?
?How much JB does it take to clean one of them big ones
A lot. Especially using CLP instead of JB. Wear a crew out scrubbing a tube all day.
I doubt the chamber has to be that precise, it's made up of multiple pieces, not a single chamber cut into the tube. The case is cardboard so any roughness has nothing really to catch on, and there is a ton of slop when you shove a round in, until you get to seating the base, which has a rubber seal.
I din't see any muzzle brakes.
Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
Probably didn't care, either.
This segment on the M4 Sherman at C-Span is fun. That retired tanker Colonel seems like a good egg to have served under.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?467996-1/world-war-ii-m4-sherman-tank
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Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
Cheaper by the 1000-ct on sale at Graf and Sons.
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Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
Now that's a powder monkey.
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7887mm08
Silver $$ Contributor
I work less than a mile from the Watervliet arsenal. Future son-in law works there.
I have worked on site there many times (outside service) but never worked in the forge area.
They have some monster lathes in there!
Brians356
Gold $$ Contributor
Not quite the precision required, perhaps, but consider the fixtures required to bore out the forged 50-ft propulsion shaft sections in a modern aircraft carrier:
http://forum.accurateshooter.com/th...n-rifled-barrel-better.3996053/#post-37678767
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