50 BMG and a lathe spindle

[john.k]

Actually barrels are quite soft.......always assuming its not stellite lined ......anyhoo,IMHO a barrel would be too soft to make any kind of lathe spindle .........but as an interesting tangent,after WW2 ,Howard Auto Cultivator Co used many surplus rifled barrels as parts in their rotary tillers.

 

[Milland]

Actually barrels are quite soft.......always assuming its not stellite lined ......anyhoo,IMHO a barrel would be too soft to make any kind of lathe spindle .........but as an interesting tangent,after WW2 ,Howard Auto Cultivator Co used many surplus rifled barrels as parts in their rotary tillers.

This site: https://steelnow.com/blog/gun-quality-metal says more like 25-32 RC. Not very hard, but certainly not quite soft.

 

[MilGunsmith]

Steel specs from the barrel drawing. This is for the lined barrel. Unlined barrels are very hard to find. The stellite liner is not easily machined or removed as it is a heat shrink fit. The barrel is bored for the liner .750" diam. and 12.125" from the breach. At the breach end the chamber insert/liner retainer boring hole increases to 1.025" dia. and 3.544" deep and is threaded 1.1875-16UN for 1.031" from breach.

APPLICABLE SPECS/STANDARDS:
A. ASME Y14.5M 1994
B. MIL-W-13855
2. MATERIAL: STEEL, SPEC MIL-S-46047
3. HEAT TREATMENT: NORMALIZE AT 1675F. FOR TWO
HOURS. HEAT TO 1600F. QUENCH IN STRONGLY
AGITATED OIL. (QUENCHING BATH SHALL HAVE ADEQUATE
PROVISION FOR LIMITED TEMPERATURE RISE AND CAPACITY
SHALL BE ADEQUATE FOR WORKLOAD). TEMPER FOR
2 HOURS MINIMUM TO HARDNESS RH C30-36.

 

[michiganbuck]

I think a scrap BMG barrel would be a very nice piece of stock for many applications if one could get it for a reasonable price.