Seems to me the modulus of Aluminum is about a third that of steel, Titanium is about half of Steel’s. Seems like you’d be saving some weight but going backwards with respect to harmonics even with a thicker barrel.
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Aluminum airgun barrels
- Thread starter thammer
- Start date
This is the reason for asking so all it needs is to shorten the stem?
It's to help Avenger Gen1 owners and Nova Liberty and Freedom and Seneca Aspen owners as well.
http://mountainaircustomairguns.com/faq/
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Aluminum airgun barrels 
Remember what the engineers did with the Vega motors decades back? We don't need no stinkin steel liners just plain old aluminum will be fine said they. How did that werq out for them?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eku8TNTGQ2s
Remember what the engineers did with the Vega motors decades back? We don't need no stinkin steel liners just plain old aluminum will be fine said they. How did that werq out for them?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eku8TNTGQ2s
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2024 t3 might not be the best material but the concept I feel is solid. Upon further research I've found huge advancement in aluminum alloy for disc brakes. A company released a compound with high silicon carbide content to prevent oxidation and increase wear while still reducing weight. A similar material could still allow for a larger diameter and stiffer barrel without weight increase.
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TheAir ordinance MODOC 9mm pcp used an aluminum barrel.
Unfortunately the issues with the rest of the gun prevented most long term testing. High failure rates for the cartridges and even a heard of one firing with the breech open and flying back to hit the user.
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G
Guest
Guest
I really dont see reason why to even play with idea of putting alu rifling. If you want to have stiff bullbarrel from alu instead of carbon or real steel why not just fit liner inside of that alu bar? Thats what liners are made for.
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Easier to machine, lower cost, fewer components, lighter than steel and possibly an advancement in the sport.
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I think that thermal expansion may be an issue, but if the steel straw and the aluminim sleeve around it is not bonded, then they can expand separately without causing any bending while still maintaning the same rigidity.
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On the surface (to me) it seems like a good idea to use aluminum. One part I do not fully grasp, why is CF 9either in layers or in the right tichkness) not a good alternative? While using a steel liner core like FX.... Not weightwise, but rigiditywise is my question.
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It's very rigid and works very well. I have an FX liner now that's sleeved in CF and held together with a heat fit brass thimble on both ends then held in tension with a 1" OD aluminum tube with 1/8" walls. It's a tank. I can lift my rifle from the crown end without flex. It was time consuming and expensive to make. If all those same benefits can be combined in to a single blank it would be a much lower cost option with added benefits like the ease of machining, increased rigidity, faster production and weight savings.
Again it might not work. With today's technology and advancements in metallurgy a high wear resistant aluminum isn't out of possibility as it might have been even a decade ago.
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I am not a machinist nor a metallurgist, but it's worth a try, in my opinion.
What about a honeycomb-style sleeve?
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Made an inquiry to see if this coating could be applied to the interior of a tube uniformly. it might be the needed element to make this work really well.
https://www.balesusa.com/coatings/diamond-chrome/
https://www.balesusa.com/coatings/diamond-chrome/
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not sure what you meant by multiple pieces, all the quality center fire carbon barrels are single piece and 1/2 MOA accuracy. Just google carbon barrels and there are many mass produced and custom carbon barrels. All of them aren1 piece and gun specific.
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You either have to start with a barrel blank you fit to the breech then turn down to slip a CF sleeve over. Most are 2-3mm wall at most so a second sleeve over that for a super rigid bull barrel or you have to make a thimble to fit the breech then a thin FX style liner with spacers and multiple sleeves of CF. All of which are time consuming and expensive. A single 1" OD aluminum blank hammer forged would likely only be a 20% over the cost of a standard diameter steel blank and only have to be turned down to fit the breech which is a lot easier to machine if it's an aluminum alloy vs steel. the Center Fire CF barrels I've seen all start at $6-800 and an all aluminum barrel 1" OD matched to the breech should be less than $300 if the bore will support the friction of a soft lead pellet. Lead is a Brinell hardness around 5 and the aluminum should be at 120+ Brinell hardness depending on final alloy chosen.
This is specifically to get a super rigid barrel to offset harmonics without spending hours and $500+ on a barrel. Already have CF sleeved steel liners with full tensioning systems that work very well but they were time consuming and expensive to MFG.
This is not intended to be a way to produce airgun barrels in mass production as most guns would not be able to accept a barrel with a diameter of 1".
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We don’t need 1 inch barrels, just look at the improvement of a 2mm thick carbon sleeve can do for the fx barrel. For such low power application I say 5mm thickness will already more than good enough. FX has the best start on everyone when it comes to carbon barrels, they already have the thin inner core and they can even make it thinner and send it off for carbon wrap so the carbon can be properly wrapped and cured. This will be night and day better than our Mickey Mouse epoxy glued on carbon sleeve. this will also be cheaper than the 1 inch firearm barrels, but still a good premium over current system for sure.
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I'm not sure of the difficulties on a bore, but hard anodized aluminum is harder than chrome moly by a good bit. Also, a lot of motors now use a specialized coating which I believe is a special anodizing process. One of them calls it SCEM. Not sure of other names. VERY hard and wear resistant.
Bob
Bob
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This might be an interesting barrel material. Stiffer and absorbs vibrations better than aluminum
33% less weight that 6061 aluminum.
50% lighter than titanium
75% lighter than steel
20 times the shock absorption of AL
Allite ?
https://alliteinc.com/
https://youtu.be/zC-ZHPWrdjI
33% less weight that 6061 aluminum.
50% lighter than titanium
75% lighter than steel
20 times the shock absorption of AL
Allite ?
https://alliteinc.com/
https://youtu.be/zC-ZHPWrdjI
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That looks awesome. They are only about a 40 minute drive away. I'll be giving them a call tomorrow to see if the material can be Cold Hammer Forged.
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