Question: Barrel holding

[tdelewis]

First let me say that "The Engraver Cafe" is a wonderful resource!! Beginners like me get advice from the best in the business.

Does any one have any Ideas for making a barrel holding fixture? If you do could you show a photo?

 

[Ed Westerly]

I don't have any pictures of my holding fixtures, but you can do it at least two ways. On short barrels, like handgun barrels, you make a pair of holders with pointed tips which are made of aluminum or plastic, which fit into the ends of the barrel. on longer barrels, you can use Thermoloc to hold the barrel just to the edge of the area you are engraving, and move the barrel back and forth to get to other areas as you need to. Hope this helps.

 

[rod]

Hello, TD,

At Reno on Monday at the seminars, John B delivered an good presentation on holding fixtures that he has designed, built, and used for many years. These talks are always videoed and quite soon a DVD will be available for sale from the FEGA website. It should be right up your alley?

Fred B and others will probably also respond to you.

Rod

 

[Fred Bowen]

Hello,

I make some fixtures specifically for Colt Single Action Army revolvers. At Reno I demonstrated the prototype of a new barrel holding fixture that I plan to market. It will handle barrels of 4 3/4" to 7 1/2" (may be made to handle shorter lengths also) and .38 to .45 caliber. There is another fixture for SAA's that allows total access to the recoil shields for engraving.

I will have an article in the next Engraver magazine describing them and asking for people to phone, email or write to me if they are interested or have suggestions. Then I will know how many to make and determine a price.

Fred Bowen

 

[monk]

there should be info on that in the tips section of the forum.

 

[Beathard]

On rifles I have been using a Tupperware bowl to hold the far end of the barrel. I tape the barrel to it. This keeps the barrel for repeatedly rubbing on the table.

 

[mitch]

Does any one have any Ideas for making a barrel holding fixture?

a while back i tried to introduce a really slick fixture for rifles & shotguns, but had so little interest that i couldn't justify putting it into production. (needed about 30 orders to break even, got 5-6. i guess folks just enjoy barrel rasslin'!) you're probably going to be stuck with cobbling something together on an as needed basis. good luck...

 

[Ed Westerly]

Once you've seen a couple of fixtures, if your at all machinist oriented, most folks just whip one out in the shop. Looks of the item being less important than saving money sometimes!

 

[Sandy]

My Barrel Holding Fixture

Hope this helps There are two sizes. They are made from Carpenter Clamps. You can make the brass ends from Thermolock.

 

[JJ Roberts]

Sandy,I like your barrel holding fixture,I use a barrel spinner from Brownells for my engraving of barrels.J.J.

 

[Sandy]

JJ, I have the barrel spinner you speak of. At the time I made those in the photo didn't think of the barrel spinner. Marty Rabeno uses the same clamp only he doesn't remove the feet from the clamp heads. He also uses thermolock on the clamp feet.
Anyway I hope the photos will help those in need of a holding fixture.
Sandy

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

The Brownells Barrel Spinner Centers might be a way of transforming the bar clamps into a barrel holding fixture.

 

[FANCYGUN]

The barrel centers from Brownells work just fine and I held it in place with a thermoloc mount I made up to attach it to the bar clamp. Here I used it to hold a 1886 Winchester action for engraving. You can play with this method in any size ofr configuration you like depending on what you want to hold.
Hope this helps out.

Marty

 

[JJ Roberts]

The nice thing about the Brownell barrel spinner is you can turn the barrel with one hand while engraving with the other hand,good control thats what I'm looking for. J.J.

 

[jerrywh]