Barrel Polishing — Par Exellance

July 14th, 2008 by Roger | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

This is one procedure that you do not expect to see at a normal gun manufacturing facility. But remember, this is no ordinary factory. This is the FNM facility that is used to doing things to a level of quality and precision not found on production American sporting rifles.

 FNM employs a robot polishing machine to finish the process. It takes a stack of barrels and systematically runs them through a sequence of polishing processes from fine to super fine, to acheive a mirror polish.

The robotic polisher goes through the three-stage process.

 The secret to good bluing is two fold. First, polish to the highest level possible and second prevent too much oxidation from ocuring between polish and bluing. On the Model 70 you get both. The barrel profiled barrels enter the polisher in a state that is acceptable to most manufacturers and leave with perfection.

After polishing, the barrels are screwed back into the receiver for the last time. Lock-tite is used on the threads, not just to keep the barrels on, but mostly to prevent bluing salts from getting into the threads. This is a quality touch ignored by lesser gunmakers.

One of the gunwriters inspects a barrel and receiver.

With the barrel and receiver matted again, they go to be blued. In the plant this is called “black oxide.” But bluing and black oxide are the same thing. More to come . . .

More on Model 70 Barrels and Accuracy.

July 14th, 2008 by Roger | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

Barrel making is nothing new to the FN Manufacturing plant at Columbia. They have been creating barrels for all the machine guns for the U.S. Army for years. The same precision and extreme durability demanded by the U.S. forces is given to the new Model 70 and more.

 As a review . . . to create the initial barrels the blanks are:

1) Drilled to the proper diameter, depending on caliber.

2) Honed to a high polish smoothness along the entire length.

3) Given rifling using the hammer forging process which uses a mandrel and huge pressures generated by “hammers” in the machine.

These blanks look beautiful at this point but this is just the beginning. They are taken to a station consisting of three CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines overseen by one expert operator. At the first station the barrel blank is turned to the correct  profile (taper). This creates a suface finish so smooth that no further polishing would be necessary if these were made for lesser brands.

The outdoor writers gather around the machine that cuts the barrel profile. The finished barrel mirror smooth at this point.

The turned barrel is moved to the next machine which precisely cuts the target crown into the muzzle. This type of recessed crown is proven the best at protecting the fine edge of the muzzle from damage.

The third station carefully rough cuts the chamber in a multi-stage operation. The chamber end of the barrel is then threaded, and this same machine cuts the excess piece of barrel still attached just after the threads. This extra material was used for gripping in the machines.

In a hands-on procedure, the operator completes the process by hand polishing/honing the interior of the chamber to a smooth surface. This assures that feeding and extraction will be smooth and flawless. The Model 70s well-known “cone” is also cut into the breach at this time.

Honing the chamber.

This image shows the process from right to left starting with the blank and ending with the finished barrel.

From here the barrels are matted with receivers and are screwed on and properly torqued. These receivers have been prepared earlier and are fully polished, ready to go. Like the original Pre-’64 rifles, the receivers are forged from a solid piece of steel then CNC cut to correct dimesions for interal fits of the chamber, bolt, safety components, etc.

The barrel and receivers are indexed with a mark and then taken apart again. From this time on the same barrel and receiver stay associated with each other. After being taking apart, the barrels go to a special barrel polishing machine that is unique in the business. More on that later.

Barrels of fun.

July 11th, 2008 by Roger | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

In the begining is a round steel bar that will become a barrel.

The barrels start as a round bar of steel, several inches longer than the ultimate length of the finished barrel. The steel bar is drilled to a diameter slightly larger than the desired bore diameter. Then, to create the rifling in the bore, the steel bar is inserted into a hammer forging machine. The FNM plant has four of these machines in production. They are incredibly expensive compared to the equipment required to do button or cut rifling. But once in place hammer forged barrels (often called swaged barrels) can be extremely precise, durable and accurate.

Now let me go back for a minute. Before inserting the barstock into the machine the oversized bore is fully honed to a smooth polish. This eliminates any roughness that may be left over from the drilling process. It is how you can obtain a smooth, extremely precision bore surface using the hammer forge process. This is a key new Model 70 advantage.

With the honed barrel inserted into the machine a full-length mandrel is inserted into the bore of the bar of steel. This mandrel is an exact reverse image of the desired rifling and lands impression you want on the inside of the barrel. With the mandrel inserted the machine is put in motion and massive “hammers” numbering three or four pound the exterior of the barrel forming it against the mandrel. It pushes with so much force that the steel actually flows to the mandrel image forming sharp rifling corners and remaining smooth and clean inside. This can take up to two minutes to complete depending on barrel length and type and the number of blows to the barrel surface is often 6-7,000 blows per minute. It is an awesome sound of pounding. It is process that is a bit oily and messy. But it works extremely well. When completed the hammering is so consistend from end to end that it still appears as if it is a smooth, polished surface. Yet inside a nearly perfect image of rifling and lands has been formed and the polish of the honing process has been retained. With a little hydraylic force, the mandrel is pulled from the bore, turning with the rifling as it comes and the barrel is ready for the next process.

Not only does swaging the rifling create a superior rifling inside the barrel, but it also alters the metalugy slightly as the steel is hammered until it flows. This process can increase the strength of the steel in the bore, giving you improved barrel durability and smoothness.

This bar stock is then placed in racks and it leaves the hammer forging area – being wheeled into the barrel shaping room. Just a little skinnier and just a bit longer than it was when came to the plant, but now ready for the next step.

We’re walking.

July 11th, 2008 by Roger | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

Finally it came time to take the tour. The writers were broken into two groups to make it easier to hear the “tour guides” and to allow everyone to get closer to the machines. One group took a tour of the military side of the factory and the other went to the new Model 70 portion of the factory.

Essentially the Model 70 area is divided into three parts.

First: Barrel production. This is where the barrels are hammer forged on the massive forging machines using the same process which have made Model 70 barrels famous. One big difference is that the barrels are fully honed before the swaging process begins. This assures a mirror smooth surface finish for the refling to imbed into during the swaging process.

Second: Barrel and receiver assembly. This is where the barrels are turned down to correct profile, threaded, chambered and trimmed. The receiver is then matted to the barrel and numbered. The assembly go to the robotic barrel polishing machine for final polish. They are separated and then sent to the bluing area, which is at a special plant located just down the road from the factory. The bluing process is often called the “black oxide” process by the technical guys at the plant, but bluing and black oxide are one and the same.

View of the machines used for turning the barrel, creating the chamber and matching the receiver to the barrel.

Third: Small part assembly. This includes the full assembly of bolt parts, the assembly of the MOA Trigger System, insertion of the scope base filler screws, the fitting of bolt release and the attachment of the action and trigger group into the stock.

These images show the final assembly area. The bolt stop is being inserted in the first photo. The second shows stocks and actions ready for assembly.

 I’ll detail each process in upcoming entrys.

The briefing.

July 11th, 2008 by Roger | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

I said earlier that I would go into detail on the intial briefing just a bit more.

Scott Grange — PR Manager for Winchester Repeating Arms — introduced a few more of the key players who were not at the dinner the previous evening. All this took place in the incredible Winchester conference room at FNM with its display of the last remaing Winchesters kept in the roof storage at the New Haven factory before it’s closing.

Jean Louie Vandestraeten then gave a full historic review of the factory, it’s current production and the commitment to what they call “commercial” products, which are primarily the new Model 70.

This photo shows one of the camera crew preparing to document the intial briefing.

 Mr. Vandestraeten spoke a bit how the Winchester collection came to the FNM factory. But of most interest to the writers was when he discussed the commitment of the management to a strategy where commercial products — like the new Model 70 — are key to their future. He mentioned the difficulty of bringing a sporting product into the environment of military production. The problem is not quality of function. The FNM factory is a total mil-spec factory that meets all the necessary requirments of the U.S. Military. He mentioned how their military customers will come in on a regualar basis, pull a number of completed machine guns off the racks where they are taken directly to the range for a full shooting test. After the test is documented, the guns are fully disassembled, the parts are mixed up randomly, and then they reassembly the guns back into working condition all with different parts. They are then retested and must meet all of the specificatiosn for function and tolerances that the original finished rifles had. This is the kind of environment that the new Model 70 will be built under.

The area of greatest complextity for FNM was in finishes. Military products require a completely different set of specifications for polish, smoothness of edges, stock to action fit and even metal to metal fits. Not to mention depth and color of bluing and the fact that new Model 70s have high grade walnut stocks. This was a challenge that FNM attached. Special polishing process have been added to the factory, new suppliers with expertise in specific areas of finish have been added and a special set of employees were assembled from within the FNM employee pool who had a desire to work on products which must reflect this extra attention to aesthetics.

Mr. Vandestraeten addresses the writers.

The Director of Commercial Products and the Winchester Repeating Arms photographer listen from the back of the conference room.

Read the rest of this entry »

Getting into the factory

July 11th, 2008 by Roger | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

One thing about making the new Model 70 at the FN Manufacturing facility in Columbia, South Carolina is that this is not ordianary plant with ordinary security. As you enter the parking lot a few things become apparent. The fences are high and secure. Some have razor wire. And there are cameras everywhere. This is nothing like any factory for regular hunting rifle. This is a super secure enviroment where all the machine guns for the U.S. Army are made.

Another thing you notice when you pull in is that cars are parked on the roads, on the lawn, just about everwhere. That is because the number of employees have doubled in the last two years. According the the FNM team, they simply cannot build parking lots fast enough to keep up with the growth.

 You go from the parking lot to the front of the factory.

Security means being on “the list” before you can enter and going through an airport style security with one difference. Everyone seems better armed. I wonder why?

Each of us, including the writers, FNM staff, the camera crew and the rest of the team from the Winchester Repeating Arms offices needed to pass through the process.

Once inside you passed by offices for engineers, managment, IT guys, etc. In the background you could hear the hum of the attached factory buildings. The anticipation was growning.

The Winchester conference room.

July 10th, 2008 by Roger | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

In the last few years the number of employees has grown to over 700  from a third of that just a couple of years ago and double that of two years ago. The initial briefing was done in the “Winchester Conference Room” which is a huge board room with a giant conference table.  The conference room is a once in a lifetime experience of its own. On both sides of the room you are surrounded by gun cabinets filled with the best of the Winchester rifle collection called “The FNMI Winchester Collection. Most of the collection of 2,500 Winchesters went to the musum in Cody, Wyoming many years ago. The balance was kept hidden in a storage area above the roof of the Winchester plant in New Haven, Connecticut. Very few people ever went there. With the plant closure, these guns were catalogued and eventually brought to the columbia plant.

For more photos of the event click here.

The attendees.

July 9th, 2008 by Roger | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

The FNMI Winchester Collection

So who is here for today’s tour. Below is the list. As photos are posted throughout the rest of the week we’ll try to identify your favorite writers in attendance.

Holt Bodinson, Jim Carmichel, John Haviland, Ron Spomer, Brian Sheetz, Jeff Johnson, Buck Pope, John Sundra, David Fortier, Ian McMurchy and Terry Wieland.

The Winchester Repeating Arms team lead by Scott Grange was supported by a huge team of FN Manufacturing engineers, factory personal and management who used this event to not only show off the new Model 70s but to show the culture of quality that sets it and their other production of machine guns and pistols apart from all the others.

For more photos of the event click here.

Tuesday July 8, 2008

July 8th, 2008 by Brady | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

The gunwriters are flying toward Columbia, South Carolina right now. In fact a few have arrived . . . and are preparing for the Model 70 event beginning tomorrow.

Several of the Winchester Repeating Arms have already arrived, including the company photographer and videographer, who will be filming the events. So let’s review why this is such a big deal:

1. Prediction: Just a few short years ago, with the closing of the New Haven factory, the Model 70 was presumed dead.
   Reality: It is not.
2. Those who thought it would eventually return some day predicted that it would be built in far away foreign places.
   Fact: It is being built in Columbia, South Carolina, USA.
3. Some predicted that if the Model 70 came back it would be made to a lower standard.
   Fact: It is not. The new Model 70 is being built at the world’s finest firearms manufacturing facility. The FN Manufacturing plant makes all of the machine guns built for the U.S. army and is part of the famed Herstal Group of world-wide fine firearms production.
4. Some predicted that even if it came back it would just be the same as the old models.
   Fact: The new Model 70 is better than ever before. It still has the superior Pre-’64 stype controlled round feed action. But it has been improved at nearly every level. The most important change is the full redesign of the trigger group in what is now known as the MOA Trigger System. This zero take up, zero creep and zero overtravel system is a fully adjustable trigger system that takes trigger function to the next level: Clean, crisp and consistent.

Check in again later this week for more updates on the event.

View Images from the event here.

This week: Exclusive coverage of the new Model 70 Media Event.

July 8th, 2008 by Brady | Posted in * Model 70 Media Event * |

America’s top outdoor writers are coming to the new Model 70 factory in Columbia, South Carolina. Six months ago at the 2008 SHOT Show in Las Vegas we introduced the new Winchester Model 70 to the world. The projected delivery was summer of 2008. Well, summer is here and the production line is finally in motion. To celebrate the reintroduction of the Model 70 and its new production line at the FN Manufacturing facility in South Carolina, more than a dozen of the industry’s best outdoor writers have been invited to the factory this week to see the production line in action and to give first hand accounts of what they are seeing and learning.

This gives the writers the opportunity to learn first hand exactly how the new Model 70 is being given the total quality upgrade everyone is expecting, and it gives them the chance to see where the final assembly of the already acclaimed MOA Trigger System takes place. The journalists will not only get to see why the new Model 70 exceeds the originals in fits and finishes, but will also get to shoot production line guns themselves and experience the minute of angle accuracy promised with each new Model 70. This information will be important to you since Model 70s shown at the SHOT Show and other shows and the rifles used for introductory articles were pre-production rifles – mostly prototypes – put together for testing, and in some cases fine-tuned and worked over by hand. The rifles the outdoor writers will be shooting are actual production. The writers will be reporting on rifles which have just left the production line. If you have one on order, one of them might be yours. Accuracy is real production rifle accuracy. This week, we are letting the guns do all the talking.

So stand by for more updates here on the Winchester Repeating Arms website as the week progresses.