quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
QUOTE]

Unless you have a drawing and the specifications you may be comparing apples and bananas. I do know that ceramics and tantalum both cost more than anyone would care to play with.

Maybe for now. But sooner or later the price will come down, especially when one starts to figure their waiting time in on a custom re-barrel job.
I see the day when a ceramic barrel is casted with rifling and possibly chamber all in place and maybe inside a aluminum or alloy outer tube (mold) ready to screw on. No machine work, no 7 to 12 month wait, no wondering about melallurgy, fouling or accuracy problems. Just pure consistancy with barrel manufacturing.

Heh, I'm just dreaming. Right?

Unless you have a drawing and the specifications you may be comparing apples and bananas. I do know that ceramics and tantalum both cost more than anyone would care to play with.[/QUOTE]

While there are no drawings to be shared and the specifications are common knowledge, I am simply pointing out that while the OP was wondering about ceramics, there are cost effective alternatives. Anyone considering a new barrel material must of course think about projectiles as well. As it stands, common materials combined in unconventional ways offer many of the benefits sought with Ceramics.At a much lower cost so far.
I referred to Tantalum with first hand experience and knowledge. While it is exspensive if you wanted to just go buy a stick of it, or some powder as used in electronics, yes it can be very high. Sourced right as a barrel liner per se, its not too bad at all if the benefits and long term cost is recouped.
If a gunbarrel was lighter, cooled faster, and lasted 4 times a normal barrel, yet could be produced at, say, twice the cost of a standard barrel, is that too much? a little subjective of course, but I think you get the point.
Tantalum is quite unusual in its properties, but the benefit is the lack of noticeable heat erosion owing to its high melting point. Throat erosion becomes negligible, and most agree that this is the first part of a barrel to wear out. I use Tantalum to refer to it and its alloys
The following article is quite educational on the merits and pitfalls of different gun barrel compositions
http://ammtiac.alionscience.com/pdf/AMPQ8_4ART08.pdf
Recent advancements have been quite interesting. My particular interest and experience falls under cladding as referred to in the article.

Comparing Apples to Banana's?

Not on my end....lol.

CW

911,
The government has a relatively infinite budget compare to individuals. They can waste tax payers money without bothering their conscience.
The tantalum that I am familiar with is both expensive and is very soft. Yes it is a very high temperature metal and it is also not reactive at high temperatures with most environments. I suspect Stellite 21 might be just as cost effective.
Any yes you might be comparing apples and bananas when talking about a 25mm (approx 1" bore) compared to a sporting rifle that might get shot 200 times in it's life.

quote:

Originally posted by Rae59:

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
QUOTE]

Unless you have a drawing and the specifications you may be comparing apples and bananas. I do know that ceramics and tantalum both cost more than anyone would care to play with.

Maybe for now. But sooner or later the price will come down, especially when one starts to figure their waiting time in on a custom re-barrel job.
I see the day when a ceramic barrel is casted with rifling and possibly chamber all in place and maybe inside a aluminum or alloy outer tube (mold) ready to screw on. No machine work, no 7 to 12 month wait, no wondering about melallurgy, fouling or accuracy problems. Just pure consistancy with barrel manufacturing.

Heh, I'm just dreaming. Right?

Right, exotic materials cost exotic dollars.
You can buy another complete rack of rifles for the cost of one barrel made of unobtanium.

quote:

he Vega was designed to run out the 50,000
mile warrenty, it did just that.

I had a 75 GT that I ran the snot out of....

the engine was going strong at 80,000 miles, when it's life got cut short at 2 yrs old, when a lady ran me off the road right after a snow storm... my side of the road was plowed, and her's wasnt'... so she was driving on the side of the road that was plowed, like she was in England... came around a corner, she refused to yield, so it was hit her head on and try my luck at running off the road and dodging 6 big oak trees.... I managed to miss 5 of them....

typical Massachusetts drivers...

I use to think this was funny ( still do)... a guy across the street from mwhere I lived had a gas station... I use to pump gas there several nights a week, because when he had the bays closed on Sat and Sunday, he'd let us work on our own cars...several of we college guys took advantage of that...

one other guy owned a 73 Vega GT and he put a lot of miles on it...commuting 150 miles a day, 3 days a week back and forth to college...

the life span of an engine was about 20 to 25 K, before it started using oil...

and there was this place around the corner that rented Vegas and Pintos on the weekend for $19.95 plus 100 miles free...

so every 20,000 miles or so, when Joe's Vega started burning oil again, he'd rent one of those Vegas around the corner with a couple of thousand miles on it.. lowest miler he could get..

we'd pull it into the Bay at the Service Station, pull the engine out of the rental, pull the motor out of his, steam clean it all off, and then swap motors in the two cars...

he did this 3 times in the 18 months I worked over there in the evening....

he'd fill his old motor's crank case with 90 weight gear old.. and take the car back Monday morning... they were never the wiser...they were just leasing these cars from GM and Ford...

of course in those days, at least in the Northeast... 'beating the system' was a college kid past time...