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Posted: 5/21/2005 9:52:55 AM EDT
| Are the barrel, and trunions heat treated to the same point as the reciever meaning can I just put the whole thing in the heat treating oven without removeing the barrel, or trunions?.... |
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This is a SWAG - different steels have different requirements for temperature. You might harden the receiver and soften the trunion or barrel, don't know for sure. You will have to find the types of steel in each. the recommended hardness for each, and the temperature to do it at in the oven. Chances of all being the same is unknown. |
| I highly doubt they are the same hardness. The trunnions cut hard with a carbide end mill. I am guessing they are in the upper RC~50 range of hardness. The barrels I have cut on are much softer than this. They machine much easier. Also I would not want to heat my barrel up in the oven at 1550f Deg. I heat treated my receiver separately from the other parts of the gun. |
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I thought about this a little and I think it is a bad idea. Partly because of the differences in materials that the other guys mentioned, but also fo two other reasons. Even, if by some miracle the materials were all the same, just tempered to different hardness level, the two big problems I see are (1) the material thicknesses vary so they are going to quench at different rates and (2) metal forms an oxide at high temperatures (unless you use a vacuum furnace) and these oxides are very hard +60 HRC. Can you imagine what that is going to do to your rifiling? The sheet metal receivers are very forgiving of our heat treating mistakes. They are way over engineered. For the most part we will see elongation of our pin holes or other visible signs before a catastrophic failure occurs. When you start talking about a barrel retaining thousand of pounds pressure per square inch and consider that an improper tempering operation could reduce the tensile strength by half (depending on material), your first inkling of a problem could be when it comes apart. Cardinal rule of heat treating is know your material composition and at least check hardnesses to get an approximation of mechanical properties. I think we should discourage this type of experimentation unless your knowledge is extensive enough that you understand all of the ramifications of your action. As they say in the reloading manuals, if you are not 100% sure about what you are doing, don't do it. 
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Well said!!!! |
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