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Revolver cylinder flutes, How to??

Mike8623

Aluminum
Joined
Jan 15, 2013
Location
usa
Does anyone know how and just what type of tool was used to flute revolver cylinders?? I would think a ball mill would work of the proper size but what about the conical tree shape at the end of the flute?? Anyone got any ideas or know how it is done?
 
I'm not a gunsmith, but a toolmaker, that profile can most easily be created by ramping a ball nose down at a 45 degree angle then continuing straight down the cylinder and exiting the cut.
 
thanks RWO for response. Rewt, I think I'll try your method due to the fact I already have a ball mill and won't have to buy another cutter, what you said sounds pretty straight forward to me. I've been thinking about this for quite a while and trying to find a specific cutter when all the time the solution was right under my nose.

Thanks to the both of you.
 
RWO is correct, obvious from the machining marks. A ball nosed cutter will give a different shape at the end unless you raise it as you finish, requiring a lot of patience or CNC.

Bill
 
I think you put the ball cutter at a 45 degree angle to the work say an inch from the face of the cylinder. Plunge cut it in to the desired depth on the cylinder then use your x axis and cut the cylinder flute to the very end. So you use the mill as a drill press at 45 degrees to the desired depth then the x axis and move the table with the work piece and cut until the mill comes clear of the work at the face of the cylinder
 
Never seen a revolver cylinder with an angle at the end of the flute. Always a radius.

'Course, I ain't seen every revolver ever made.

BTW, if you want the official Smith and Wesson flutes, make sure they're off center to the chambers so they don't look symmetrical with respect to the top strap.
 
some kind of inside joke I'm not in on??

My S&W 5 shot .357 is fluted just like paracongos...mine is a little different model(forget what) but visibly the only difference is mine has the fully enclosed ejector and synthetic grips.

How else would one be fluted other that dead center between the cylinders? Or why??
 
Never seen a revolver cylinder with an angle at the end of the flute. Always a radius.

'Course, I ain't seen every revolver ever made.

Not an angle, just a taper because they were cut with a circular cutter fed along the axis of the cylinder. Feeding a ball nose end mill at an angle will somewhat mimic a factory flute.
 
How else would one be fluted other that dead center between the cylinders? Or why??

696, .44 Special. You tell me why they aren't centered.

Other than that, it's damn near perfect.

I explored different methods of correcting them.

Dressed wheel on a surface grinder. Pretty hard to get into the blind end and not have something look a bit ugly.

EDM with a contoured electrode. I actually like the look better than grinding, but getting a consistent finish on all of them isn't easy.

I think I have 2 more that are untouched to experiment on. Next test, someday, will be to plunge and arc out with a boring bar on the cnc.

Could also grind a custom cutter, but would have to figure out the radius and diameter that will clean them all up.
 
When I cut flutes, I use a BNEM. As I leave the cut I ramp out in a circular interpolation move in X and Z. You can't exit at an angle and get a look like the factory. Factory flutes are cut with a radiused round cutter.
 
Does anyone know how and just what type of tool was used to flute revolver cylinders?? I would think a ball mill would work of the proper size but what about the conical tree shape at the end of the flute?? Anyone got any ideas or know how it is done?
Not a revolver...But my guess is that S&W probably did it like this on a horizontal mill. Like I said...just a guess on my part. I'm sure the other suggestions mentioned here would also work just fine.

Gunworks Barrel Fluting - YouTube
 
I think you're mostly right, I think a kinda torpedo nosed ball end mill or a convex round cutter shaped like a bullet would work....Anyone out there interested in making one...I would pay for it.
 
Thanks so much for posting that, Any idea what size or what and where to get a cutter like that???
 
That "torpedo" shape on the cylinder is automatically generated by the standard convex cutter( already linked in a previous post)

at the end of the cut the tapering effect happens all by itself.

all you need to determine is what radius you need.
 
Do a google search for convex milling cutters......................I'll have to look at me 2nd Gen Colt cylinder prints for the cutter radius and Ø.
 








 
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