Rifling Machine

[LMMasterMariner]

This is my first post ever.

RIFLING MACHINE

10 years ago I made rifling machine of very simple design and later on when I had
internet access, found that some more clever people did it using much better design
and they did it in 1853. Just google '1853 rifling machine' and you will find it.

Must say that I am seaman and at that time I didn’t have internet access on board.
When ashore I didn’t have time for internet café. I was younger and I was spending
most of my free time in bars, pubs, night clubs and discoteques.
Life is much easier nowadays. Have internet on board and I no longer make bars.

At that time I was aboard brand new cargo vessel with brand new professional
grade lathe and milling machine. Once when I was in Hong Kong, I found Canton
Road, the street with so many shops for all kind of tools, bearings, gears, v-belts, etc.
You name it, they have it there. (picture 01) The street next to Canton Road is
Reclamation street and there I found aluminum shop where they cut aluminum to
required size and they do it immediately for additional small fee.

As I already had idea what to do, I decided to buy parts in order to build rifling
machine, so I spent approx. 400 US Dollars for 6 bearing housings with ball bearings,
8 pieces linear bearings dia 20mm, 3 meters of 20mm shaft, 50cm geared rack
2 gears (one for 9mm Luger and another for .22 LR calibers), couple of aluminum
plates and whole bunch of bolts and nuts. Gear sizes were determined in the shop by
turning the gear on the rack for one complete turn and measuring distance.

Design is very simple. Changing direction from longitudinal to rotational by
means of gear and pinion. That came for free as I took it from vessel's spares.
These were gears and pinions of Nitto Kohki angle grinders. Extremely accurate and
also extremely expensive, but as I said that came for free. Took me couple of months
to complete the job. In the meantime stopped with machining aboard vessels, as at
home I have 11 x 26 cutmaster lathe and 6 x 26 mini knee mill (harbour freight 40939).
Both made in China but not so bad. Can’t afford any good quality machines (read heavy),
as I have more than one hundred stairs from the street to my house. From 10 attached
pictures it can be seen what machine looks like and pictures 09 and 10 show recent
condition of rifling machine. These last 2 pictures were taken when I was rearranging
my workshop. Machine is not in use anymore and I am planning to use sliding parts
(linear bearings and shafts) to convert it to cut off saw.

Hope that this article will help someone to build his own rifling machine.

LMMasterMariner