What I know about armor wouldn't fill one side of a cocktail napkin.

However, I'm pretty much "airplaned out" for now and I needed something different. Kits in general are losing their appeal so I wanted something that could incorporate some scratchbuilding.

I thought it would be fun to get an armor kit of some kind and then make an aluminum gun barrel. I know metal barrels are popular aftermarket items for armor guys. I wandered around the hobbyshop and was attracted to an M 107 self propelled gun because it had an enormous 175mm gun. The gun is twice as long as the vehicle itself.

I've just finished the gun barrel which turned out to be a bigger project than I thought. It's about 8" long and it required almost every lathe tool I have. It looks simple but it has 4 individual tapers and no pure cylindrical sections. Two pictures starting here (hit "next" for the second pic):

http://groups.msn.com/Margaret6547/miscellaneous.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=74

It's completely impractical in one sense. A commercially made aluminum barrel is about $10.00. My barrel used about $3.00 worth of aluminum and took 5 hours of labor...not exactly cost effective. But it was a first attempt and I learned a LOT.

Not impractical if you enjoyed making it. Your really moving along with your lathe, how long now has it been since you bought it?

I guess I've had the lathe for about 11 months now.

This has been the most challenging project since it involved making an exact replica. Other projects have been for my own designs so it was possible to just keep cranking on things until you liked the way they they looked. Also, the physics of metal turning is such that a long, skinny piece of soft metal doesn't behave well.

And this project used ALL of the strange accessories I've been accumulating. In order to turn the barrel, I had to manufacture a special clamping device called a "lathe dog" (seen holding the barrel on the left side of the first picture). I had to maufacture a special center using my compound slide...which I had never used before. The center was machined from 1" diameter steel and I hadn't machined steel before. I had to use my steady rest...which I had never used before. And I had to use my needle bearing live center...which I had never used before. This was the first time I'd ever done taper turning using the offset tailstock.

All in all, it was like a metal turning boot camp.