Making barrels

[ErikPrice1@msn.com]

 Anyone here ever try to make a gun barrel outta horse shoe's like some of the web sites mention? Is it strong enough metal for that?

[Watauga]

Yep they might work but they Kick like a HORSE!

Sorry BrokenHawk just kidding ;-)

[ErikPrice1@msn.com]

Thats good didn't think of that

[monkeywright]

Okay the first thing that I'm going to say as I know very little about black powder, but the idea of holding a Lit stick of dynamite right there in your face would worry me.(I'm not sure how much power you plan to use and the forces involved in that) From what I understand horse shoes are not the highest quality of iron that you can get.

Now I'm going to list off a few personal recommendations that I feel would be most prudent if you plan to do this.
1.  I would check the quality and viability of using horseshoes for a gun barrel.

2.  I would melt down and cast all of your horseshoes into one ingot, that is barrel shaped.  I think this would be a good idea to help hold a consistency in your iron.

3.  After you've got it forged out I would suggest you have the center line board by a local machine shop most machine shops should be able to hold tolerances within 3 to 4 thousand's of an inch down the entire burrel.

4. Heat treating would be an absolute must again your local machine shop should be able do this for you. as a side note you may check in to freezing the barrel to absolute zero.

5.  After you completed this have them Magnaflux it to look for fracture and stress cracks as well as wholes throughout the barrel if at all possible check and see if they can do ultrasound although Magnafluxing as good I would recommend an ultrasound.

These are just some recommendations that I have but the process that I'm discussing here are the same procedures that we use on the rotors for turbines. So I'm very comfortable with these parts and the stresses and strains they go through in a start-up.

[shootrj2003]

Broken hawk,
How are you man? I'm sending that out soon to you.I believe mild steel has the neccesary characteristics to make a Black powder barrel from.That would be a real accomplishment man! Shootrj

[ErikPrice1@msn.com]

Broken hawk,
How are you man? I'm sending that out soon to you.I believe mild steel has the neccesary characteristics to make a Black powder barrel from.That would be a real accomplishment man! Shootrj
[/quote  Doing good thanks for asking. Just checking into it I'm away's from attempting anything remotely like it, but read where some of the old timers did that. Still just trying to learn the basic's.

[Blackfeet]

You would have to know what  material was used in the horse shoes, this will be a factor in any attempt at heat treating. With a mixed lot of shoes, this will be a problem.
Drilling the bore would be best done with a gun drill, a special machine with pressurized coolant and chip clearing. A functioning smooth-bore would be a possibility with extended regular drills and reamers. A pistol barrel might be better or even a small hand cannon (after test firing of course)

[ErikPrice1@msn.com]

I like your thinking Blackfeet " A small hand cannon" 

[shootrj2003]

 A friend of mine who taught me about guns when I was about 15 [he was much older,and had hundreds of guns and always told me to"buy the ammo and I'll take you out and let you shoot whatever gun you want]He was a machinist and made beautiful little brass cannons from lathe handles and by drilling a .45cal. blind hole into them then intersected the bore with a hole for cannon fuse and..voila! perfect little cannon barrell .he'd take them out to the woods secure them against somethng and let em' rip,they were only about 4-5" long but they made a heck of a noise.I always wanted one to build a carraige for,yeah smoothbore is fairly easy to start with.Commmercial shoes for horses are just plain old mild steel,strong but soft your not gonna change it much by any heat treatment except to case harden it You don't need it harder for a gun barrel and in my estimation, it's probably strong enough for BP,but that's just my estimation I woudln't take my word for it,I'm just an old horseshoer,not a gun designer or a metalurgist Whatever you do be careful  I would'nt want you to get hurt man!

[Blackfeet]

Or a hand gonne  

[Rocky]

I ain't no metal worker, but isn't that a boatload a work? It sounds like you'd be better off leavin'em on the horse.

[shootrj2003]

blackfeet,
yeah, it is a boatload of work,but when they did it that way guns and the iron to make em' were worth a lot more to have around and gun barrels could n't be got downtown at the" Gun Depot" so recycling was in .The good thing in those days was anything made of iron was fairly the same -wrought iron[hinges,nails,axe heads,gun barrels,Various other kinds of forged hardware ,anything that was steel was good basic carbon steel and was saved for ,knives,swords,axe edges,fine tools etc. there wasn't a lot of worrying about  different heat treating methods ,anything else made of ferrous metal was cast iron,pulley's, gears etc.