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 Aluminum lathe work needed 
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I have some aluminum tubing that I need contoured to a specific shape. Not firearm related.

I have the tubing and a to-scale drawing but the dimensions of the finished product will differ slightly from the drawing. It’s really the shape that matters most, so a little winging it will be necessary. Final product is about 15” long and just under 5/8 diameter at the thickest part.

I am in Seattle, close to Renton.

Anyone that can help?


Sat Jul 17, 2021 3:49 pm
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Basic idea? Tapered? Contoured? Edge radii? Lots of different lathes with different capabilities. Having an idea of what you need will help with finding someone capable of doing it.

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Sat Jul 17, 2021 6:09 pm
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It’s a gun barrel for a scale model of a large artillery piece (the Atomic Cannon). There’s a long section that does not taper, then a tapered section about .75 long where it goes from about .62” to about .5”, then a section about 5.5” long that tapers very gradually until about .5 from the muzzle,, where it flares out a bit.

The actual dimensions are not as critical as capturing the overall look, and in fact the tubing I have sourced is all metric, so some approximation will be needed.

edited to add the picture I should have included in the first place.


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Sat Jul 17, 2021 6:48 pm
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Real Name: Randall Knapp
Anyone of us with a lathe could cut that for you. The tubing does not know it is metric.


Sat Jul 17, 2021 10:40 pm
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Oxblood wrote:
It’s a gun barrel for a scale model of a large artillery piece (the Atomic Cannon). There’s a long section that does not taper, then a tapered section about .75 long where it goes from about .62” to about .5”, then a section about 5.5” long that tapers very gradually until about .5 from the muzzle,, where it flares out a bit.

The actual dimensions are not as critical as capturing the overall look, and in fact the tubing I have sourced is all metric, so some approximation will be needed.

edited to add the picture I should have included in the first place.


An important suggestion, if you want to avoid costly mistakes by someone attempting to do the work for you - pick one measurement unit and stick with it (and provide a new drawing with only that measurement unit, preferably inches since most lathes in home shops are set up for inches). You've got inches, millimeters, and centimeters all on the same drawing; that's a good way to end up with some mistakes.

And as someone else said, it doesn't matter if your tubing is metric; a lathe can cut it to any size needed and it doesn't matter what it starts as, other than to avoid waste by not starting excessively oversized.

I'm too busy to take this on, but it looks like a simple job for someone, as long as you can provide good dimensions for what you actually want. I think if you ask someone to "wing it" but expect them to generate what you want, you're probably setting both of you up for some frustration.


Sun Jul 18, 2021 1:34 am
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Yondering wrote:
Oxblood wrote:
It’s a gun barrel for a scale model of a large artillery piece (the Atomic Cannon). There’s a long section that does not taper, then a tapered section about .75 long where it goes from about .62” to about .5”, then a section about 5.5” long that tapers very gradually until about .5 from the muzzle,, where it flares out a bit.

The actual dimensions are not as critical as capturing the overall look, and in fact the tubing I have sourced is all metric, so some approximation will be needed.

edited to add the picture I should have included in the first place.


An important suggestion, if you want to avoid costly mistakes by someone attempting to do the work for you - pick one measurement unit and stick with it (and provide a new drawing with only that measurement unit, preferably inches since most lathes in home shops are set up for inches). You've got inches, millimeters, and centimeters all on the same drawing; that's a good way to end up with some mistakes.

And as someone else said, it doesn't matter if your tubing is metric; a lathe can cut it to any size needed and it doesn't matter what it starts as, other than to avoid waste by not starting excessively oversized.

I'm too busy to take this on, but it looks like a simple job for someone, as long as you can provide good dimensions for what you actually want. I think if you ask someone to "wing it" but expect them to generate what you want, you're probably setting both of you up for some frustration.


That all makes sense. I will clean the drawing up so all dimensions are in thousandths of an inch. Unfortunately, the drawing I was given had no dimensions, so I printed it out to scale and was trying to measure with my cheap calipers.

So, who's available to take this on? I know it's a ridiculously small job.


Sun Jul 18, 2021 5:02 am
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The tapers, and then the flare, don't make this a small job.

I wouldn't want to throw my tailstock out just to do one small, non-critical job. Probably be easier to cut those by hand with a file if you've a lot of latitude in final dimensions. Depending on your tubing, if it gets really thin, especially down by the end, it might bend or get a crinkle. This looks like the kind of job that you'd think would be 30min and it ends up being half a day.


Sun Jul 18, 2021 7:28 am
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I'd say that step one is cleaning up the drawing for sure.
After that you could join Seattle Metalheads and post your drawing there.

https://groups.io/g/seattlemetalheads

If the Metalheads can't help then you could swing by Getter Going Machine Works over in White Center.
They are good folks with a garage machine shop and take on small jobs like this all the time.


Sun Jul 18, 2021 11:44 am
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Being that it is aluminum it could even be turned on a wood lathe by some old fart with some skill. I do not see a bore dimension so you might have over thunk this by sourcing the aluminum tubeing instead of having it turned out of wood and painting it.


Sun Jul 18, 2021 5:55 pm
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You've all given me a lot of good suggestions, and shown me how little I actually know about what I'm asking. That's a good thing- knowing what you don't know is important.

Whoever suggested trying to do this/have this done on a wood lathe, that is something I was considering and my solution may end up being to buy an old wood lathe on craigslist. Probably cheaper than half a day of a good machinist's time in the end, and I'd have a new tool I would find other uses for.

Why did I choose aluminum instead of wood? I considered wood and plastic, but went with aluminum because on the original gun, a large section of the barrel was bare metal and acted as part of the hydraulic recoil dampening system. Achieving a realistic metal finish with paint is extremely difficult, so I figured I'd save myself that hassle and start with metal to begin with.

Anyway, thanks again, I think I have a plan for moving forward.


Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:07 am
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Those gradual/minor drawn out tapers kill it for most hobby level turners.


Mon Jul 19, 2021 9:39 am
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I have a plan- use the drawing to make a sanding block of the right shape, glue some coarse sandpaper to it and take my time.


Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:10 am
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Oxblood wrote:
You've all given me a lot of good suggestions, and shown me how little I actually know about what I'm asking. That's a good thing- knowing what you don't know is important.

Whoever suggested trying to do this/have this done on a wood lathe, that is something I was considering and my solution may end up being to buy an old wood lathe on craigslist. Probably cheaper than half a day of a good machinist's time in the end, and I'd have a new tool I would find other uses for.

Why did I choose aluminum instead of wood? I considered wood and plastic, but went with aluminum because on the original gun, a large section of the barrel was bare metal and acted as part of the hydraulic recoil dampening system. Achieving a realistic metal finish with paint is extremely difficult, so I figured I'd save myself that hassle and start with metal to begin with.

Anyway, thanks again, I think I have a plan for moving forward.


I respect a guy who recognizes what he doesn't know and wants to learn.

I also don't think those tapers are a big deal; they don't look any worse than the tapers on a typical AR barrel and I've done plenty of those with the compound on the lathe. A decent machinist can get a pretty respectable finish that way, and clean it up further with sanding if needed.
Edit - I missed the very slight long taper on the thin section of barrel. If you can tolerate that section being straight, it'd be an easy job. If not, add an hour or so in labor to get the tailstock set right and then re-centered again.

Sorry to see nobody's willing to take this on for you; it seems simple enough to me and not more than an hour or two. I'd do it if I didn't have so much on my plate right now. If you haven't got it done by winter time, hit me up and maybe I can get it done.


Mon Jul 19, 2021 10:48 am
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