Making My own Turned Metal Barrels

Thanks for sharing Garylee - that's a great idea.

One question - how did you find snipping the tubing?  Did you get a nice flush cut, or did it crimp the tubing?

I'm looking at doing something similar for 1/48 and am worried that any pliers/cutters will crimp the end.  I'm guessing you could just file away any crimp if that occurred?

Look forward to your thoughts.

Cool trick. Nice job on the improvised lathe.

Plastic is a crutch for people who can’t cope with metal. [Nice execution!]

I have turned barrels for my own and for others, some aircraft but mostly for armor and ships. I have a lathe, which I hardly ever use.

Chris, the nippers do crimp the tubing (worse on one side than the other) but that's one of the reasons I cut the tube longer than I need. It's easy to remove the crimped part with a coarse sanding stick and then it looks good.

That's a nice little lathe, Hawkeye. I'm a machinist for a living and I run the lathe department at a gear shop. I thought about doing these at work but they're pretty tiny for the equipment we have so I just did it at home. I think if I had a vise I could wrap the drill in a rag and hold it in the vise and that would make things a lot easier. I was also thinking about one of those sewing machine foot pedals for speed control. If I could wire that with an outlet I could use it to control speed on just about any kind of drill or mototool. Has anyone ever hooked one of those up? I'd sure like to hear some suggestions. That might even make me break down and buy a vise. :-)

That's outstanding, Garylee! I too use a variable-speed drill for a lathe..  A vise is required, IMHO though.. If you use one, you'll find that it's a hundred times easier to turn a piece.. I use a tube-cutter instead of nippers though.. It leaves a bit of metal inside the tube, but that's easily cleaned-up with a drill-bit..

If I could wire that with an outlet I could use it to control speed on just about any kind of drill or mototool. Has anyone ever hooked one of those up?

Haven't done a foot pedal, but I used a rheostat that I wired into an extension cord for speed-cntrol for my Dremel..  Can plug the drill into it too... I just lock it in "on" and then adjust the speed with the knob...

Those are a couple of great ideas, Hans. I can pick up a rheostat and an electrical box at the hardware store, and I already have a heavy duty 10' grounded extension cord so that should work great. I like the tube cutter idea but I don't have one that small. I also wanted to thin the walls inside the cone so I found that my seam scraper works pretty good for that since it's three sided and has pretty much the right angle, and it would work well for removing the burr left by the tubing cutter. I probably should have removed a little more material there as they still look a little on the thick side, but I think they're a definite improvement over the kit barrels. As you can see here in this test fit, not much shows once they're installed. You might also notice that I took care of the slant at the end of the one muzzle. Once I saw the photos I realized that wasn't quite straight. :-)

I like the tube cutter idea but I don't have one that small.

I got a small one for cutting brass tube down to 1/16th at Hobby Lobby... Need a vise though..  There's a pointed reamer available for Dremel tools too, wherever you get your stuff for it.. I got it at Ace, but I lost it a few moths ago, need to go get another.. That thing makes pretty short work of the burrs in tubing..

Garylee: thanks for the tip.  That had crossed my mind - to snip then file off any offending crimp.

Will definitely give it a try.

Again, great thread, especially seeing the way you've carved the muzzle, looks great.

You might also notice that I took care of the slant at the end of the one muzzle. Once I saw the photos I realized that wasn't quite straight.

No sweat.. Actually, I didn't notice, I was just lookng at the barrels, lol..

A little inward slant is ok, since most fighter pilots had their wing-guns set to converge at 300 yards/meters..  Jabos had their guns angled slightly down, as did a lot of P-47s.. It allowed them to strafe without diving as steep as they would have to if the guns were level with the center-line..

I know what you mean about having the guns angled, Hans, but what i was talking about is the flatness of the face of the muzzle. On the one it was a little off and you can see what  I mean in the first pic of the two guns after I blackened them. See how the one on the right is a little hinky? But in the last photos you can see that I went back and fixed that. Sometimes I think all of us modelers have a really strong perfectionist gene or something. :-)

There looking really nice. And the thread came out great to. You see, i do have the odd good idea. And never keep a tip to yourself.

I did try replying to your e-mail, but it was easier to do it here. Only another week, and i am back to civilisation and decent internet.

Those look fantastic, and they really add a lot in 1/24.

I just wrapped this kit up a couple of weeks ago and I really enjoyed it, I had generally good fit. Just required a little sanding around the cowling.

Yeah, i guess you do get it right sometimes, Bish. And I had fun doing the post. Here's where we're at right now. The wing halves are joined but we're still test fitting the fuselage. Excuse the mess on the bench. You guys know how it is.

So did you get any photos, Hun Hunter? I'm enjoying pretty good fit, too, but I'm still really taking my time and testing everything about eleventy-billion times (yes, that's the official number).

Hurry back, Bish, and get with the rotor installation!!

Gary

Bloody hell, that makes my bench look tidy.

Its a week on Tues before i get back to the bench. But i am geared up to get the chopper all done.