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We arrived at the plant at 7:00 a.m., and were greeted by Doug Bell, Savages Director of Manufacturing. He gave us a brief history and the nickel tour through the museum in the lobby. They had firearms on display that represented every decade of production from the turn of the 20th century to present day. We then entered the manufacturing area and were turned over to Fran, the set up man in the barrel department.
The barrels start out as raw billet stock 24 feet long, and 1.115 in dia. The stock is loaded in a bar cut-off machine, and cut to finish length + . The barrel lengths differ from model to model, so the lengths are calculated in accordance to yield the most blanks from one bar of material with the least amount of waste. For example: 8- 26 inch blanks and 3-22 inch blanks would only leave approximately 3 inches of waste.
Once the blanks are acquired according to the work order, they are arranged on a cart that holds 40 barrels, and are machined in lots of 40. This helps keep track of quality control. All of the barrels are painted on one end with a color code to designate what caliber that they are to be.
The cut-to-length now travel to the deep hole drill for the initial drilling operation. Like most established barrel makers, Savage uses the prized Pratt & Whitney machines that were WW 2 surplus. These machines are no longer made, but highly valued among barrel makers. All of these machines have been rebuilt and up-graded with modern equipment including hydraulics and digital readout.
The drill bit is a single fluted carbide cutter, silver soldered on a V tube. The tube acts as the shank and also supplies oil to the cutting tip. The chips escape via the V in the tube. Once the barrel is clamped in the spindle, the drill is positioned through the drill guide bushings and the operations start. The spindle turns at a rate of 5000 r.p.m, and cutting oil is pumped through the drill at 1200 p.s.i. The drill advances through the barrel at 2.4 inches per minute. The drill time is 10-12 minutes, depending on barrel length. Drilling material that long usually results in a little drift in the hole. Once the drill goes completely through the blank, it may not be dead centered on that end. According to machining specs, it can only be .060 or less off center to continue to the reaming operation.
The current reaming operation is relatively new technology, compared to the old way that barrels were reamed. For years Savage used a gravity reaming center that used weights to control the feed rate of the reamers. This was a somewhat slower process, because each barrel had to reamed in increments, and had to be advanced to the next reamer station several times.
New technology has not only cut down on machining time, but improved the quality as well. The new process involves a machine capable of reaming 6 barrels at one time, 3 on each station of the machine. The barrels are clamped in a horizontal fixture, and the shanks of the pull through reamers are inserted through the barrels and locked into the quick disconnect chuck. Like the deep hole drill, the reamers are oil fed through the shanks. The reamers turn at 2500 r.p.m. and have a feed rate of 14.5 inches per minute as they are pulled though the barrel blanks. The tooling used is supplied by JGS, a well known manufacturer of chamber reamers and barrel tooling for the firearms industry.
Each barrel is optically inspected for finish and checked for size with plug gauges.
Rifling the barrel is accomplished in the swage operation, just across the aisle from the reaming stage. The swage operation as they call it, is more commonly called button rifling, as it involves pulling a carbide swage, called a button, through the barrel to displace material from the grooves to make lands. The rate of twist is controlled in two ways: the correct helix angle is ground on the button, and the machine itself regulates the twist rate by means of a rack & pinion following a sine bar on the machine. The rate of twist on the machine can be changed simply by changing the position of the sine bar.
The barrel is clamped solid in the fixture, and the pull rod with the button is inserted from the breech end through the length of the barrel and chucked into a 3 jaw chuck which is connected to the regulation system, via the rack &pinion.
The buttons are dipped in a high pressure swaging lubricant prior to being pulled through the barrel, which incidentally only takes 15 seconds, a very simple and quick operation.
With the inside now rifled, the outside contour is turned to be true with the bore. Savage uses Mori-Seiki CNC turning centers to make short work of a task that can be quite time consuming to an ordinary gunsmith. Starting with a rough pass, the back side of the barrel is supported with a follower rest to eliminate chatter. For a sporter barrel, the first rough pass will reduce the muzzle to .750.The first pass starts at the muzzle and cuts towards the breech. The tool now changes to a threading tool and cuts the threads (20 t.p.i.) with 7 passes. The tool then changes back to a turning tool and makes a finish pass towards the muzzle. Once the finish pass is complete, the live center retracts and crown is cut with another tool change while being supported by the follower rest. The center returns to the crown, and the tool head moves to the breech, where it cuts and chamfers the barrel, separating it from a small stub that it was chucked upon. This whole operation takes longer to describe than actually do. Sporter barrels have the most material to remove, but even at that, it only takes 2 minutes!
After the barrel is removed from the machine, the breech end is deburred and the operator must stamp the barrel with a letter code designating caliber. After all, the color code is now gone.
What happens to this barrel now is nothing short of witnessing artistry in motion. Savage is probably one of the only firearms manufacturers that straightens the barrels that they manufacture. This process is simply best described as old world skill. Using a screw type press, the operator using only his eyesight, knows where and how much pressure to exert to remove the bow from the barrel. Looking through the barrel, the operator can see a backlit screen that is just across the aisle.
The screen is basically blank, with a vertical line down the center. What he looks for is a shadow of the vertical line, reflecting from the bore of the barrel. If the barrel is straight, the shadow of the line will be straight and unbroken. If the barrel has a bow, the line will be broken and offset from one another. Pulling, twisting and turning the barrel in and out of the v-blocks while bumping the hand-wheel on the press, a good operator spends less than 1 minute massaging a barrel into perfection. Knowing where and how much comes from a lot of experience.
Chambering is accomplished in a 5 step procedure, starting with the barrel held vertical in a stationary position, with pressurized oil fed from the muzzle. The first operation on the turret is a centerdrill/champher. This is followed by a core drill for rapid metal removal. A rougher chamber reamer takes the chamber to .010 under final dimensions. The finish reamer cuts to the final specs., and then the chamber is polished with a flexi-hone for smoothness. Chambers must be held to within .012 concentricity and pass a 5 point inspection for chamber dimensions.
The only work left is the outside finish. Stainless steel barrels are hand polished, while the blued barrels are finished with the new vibratory tumbling process after being mated to an action. Once installed on an action, the barrels are proofed with a proof load within the acceptable pressure limits. After being proofed, the barrels are now roll stamped for model and caliber. The unit is now a barreled action and goes on to assembly where the trigger group, magazine components and stock are installed. The completely assembled rifle is then test fired to ensure proper function. The very last operation is application of the serial number on both the action and the bolt head. From there it starts it journey to find the shelves of your favorite gun dealer.
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