LEVELS
You will need a very accurate machinist level, one that will have the adjustable degree base, so correct
angles can be achieved.
TOOL STEEL
You will need a good supply of tool steel, (oil Hardening) for your reamers. You can experiment with
different makes until you find what will fit your needs.
In 30 years, I have found O1 hard to beat. More on this later.
SILVER SOLDER
You will need a good high strength, low melting point silver solder. This will be used to attach the rifling
buttons to the pull rod, and for attaching the round carbide to short steel rods for centering.
As you can see from the above that most shops have about all the machines needed to make rifle
barrels, except for a few specialize tools and machines.
There are a few other machines that you will need. One is a rifling machine, which I will show you how to
make in a later chapter. There is also the deep hole drilling attachment, which we will cover later.
If you do not want to go to the trouble of making the deep hole drills, or rifling buttons, they can be
purchase from various suppliers (listed in the back of this manual).
Deep-hole drills are fairly expensive, and making them can cut the cost by about 1/2 of the new cost.
Reamers can if you want to made from worn out hand reamers. All that is necessary is to regrind them
to the size needed. All sizes and dimensions will be given in later chapters, along with all other
information and sketches.
l I might point out that the drilling of the rifle barrel is one of the simplest operations of all the
processes that goes into making a gun barrel. It will take about 20 minutes to drill through a 26" steel
bar.
If you follow the directions carefully, you will be able to turn out high precision rifle barrels. They will be as
accurate and as good as any rifle barrel on the market and much better than the ones that are turned out
on the new computer machines.
In the big barrel making shops most barrels are mass-produced and inspection is not as good as it
could be. You will also understand firearms better when you finish this manual, why some barrels shoot