On 22 Sep 2003 09:23:12 -0700, (Dan Caster) wrote:

I watched a TV show where they were straightening shot gun barrels by
hand. The owner of the German factory said there was no machine that
could do as good a job as the man.


I toured the FN plant in Belgium in 1958. That was my Dad's idea of
tourism. :)

They had a room with about 8-10 guys using barrel straightening vises
that were mounted at eye level from heavy ceiling beams. Each vise
had a large handwheel and an Acme or square thread screw that brought
a anvil down on the barrel as it lay across two blocks. This was done
at eye level and the workmen were looking through the barrel at
windows across the room. My Dad commented that they could look at the
reflection of the window sill inside the barrel and spot the bends,
and rotate the barrel to get it at the top. As they slide the barrels
in and out across the blocks, they applied light pressure until they
found the point that got the barrel straight. Then they overbent it a
little, let it relax to straight.

This may have been the high point of my Dad's vacation but I still
remember getting to see the Mannikin Pis statue in downtown Brussels.
Oh yeah, we also got to see the 1958 World's Fair.

The next year we got to tour the Norma ammunition manufacturing plant
in Sweden.



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