Form-1 50 BMG suppressor

[T-Rex]

1 is the primary blast baffle/support that goes over over the tip of the brake. 2 is the "gas stripper" baffle.

Is your process moving from left to right (as it should be depicted)?
If so, #2 is called a blast baffle and what you're creating (around the baffle stack) is called a coaxial chamber.

[Zero99z]

1 is the primary blast baffle/support that goes over over the tip of the brake. 2 is the "gas stripper" baffle.

Is your process moving from left to right (as it should be depicted)?
If so, #2 is called a blast baffle and what you're creating (around the baffle stack) is called a coaxial chamber.

Oh, never heard of a coaxial chamber before. This is a fairly experimental design for me. Yup, moving from left to right.

[Milan454]

It has been a while and this project got shelved for a while because of the press forming issues. I gave up on the press forming and wanted a new plan....then A bunch of 3.35" aluminum rod came into my shop at a ridiculously low price, so I decided to make some of the baffles from that. The general plan is now a large blast chamber (7"-8") then 2 steel baffles and then 6 aluminum baffles to finish, with 1" between each baffle. The baffles are 0.200 thick in the cone and 30* cones. Any thought on the effectiveness of this?

Here is the recent progress.



With all due respect, aluminum will always work harden. In light of that fact how many sound waves and gas pressure will it take to make the aluminum brittle and fracture, especially as baffle matetial? Just a thought...
Best,
Milan
A detail on the baffle

[MartinDWhite]

Decided to make the old mold into the first baffle (was my son's idea). This means there will be a blast chamber of about 7" then a 60* steel (4140 I think) baffle, then a 30* steel (4140 I think) baffle, then six 30* aluminum baffles. Each baffle will have a 1" spacer between them.

[MartinDWhite]

With all due respect, aluminum will always work harden. In light of that fact how many sound waves and gas pressure will it take to make the aluminum brittle and fracture, especially as baffle matetial? Just a thought...
Best,
Milan

The aluminum baffles are over .200 thick....and this is a honestly a toy. I doubt it will get shot more than 100 times in it's life. If it doesn't last, then I will fix it (all legal precautions taken, of course).

[Milan454]

Fair enough. I just wanted to put it out there...

[MartinDWhite]

Finished up all the baffles and spacers. All together the pieces weigh in at 10.9 lbs. Probably need to do some weight reduction on the end cap like on the front cap (1/2" holes around the face that don't go all the way through). The first baffle is way too thick and I can lose about 0.6 lbs in it.

Need to decide if I am putting in clips on the cones....thoughts?

Next step is to cut main tube to length, assemble, weld, test....

Pieces of the stack.


Complete stack put together.

[T-Rex]

Yes, you need to lose a LOT of weight. There's no reason a 50BMG suppressor should weigh more than 4lbs. There's minimal recoil reduction to be had by just the silencer's mass. If you can lose >1/2lb, from the first baffle alone, you've most likely made everything unnecessarily thick. I understand some people's trepidation, but it's grossly overstated.

Yes, clip the baffles.

[MartinDWhite]

Thanks for your input on weight and clipping. When I started this project I found a lot of information from here and other sites that said at least 6 lbs was required in the suppressor to equal the felt recoil on a good muzzle brake and that 7-8 lbs was better, so I targeted a 7-8 pound weight. Where do you get the 4 lb limit for a 50BMG suppressor?

[T-Rex]

My weight number comes from building several 50BMG and other large bore cans, of the like. This is from the amount of material required for the build, nothing more.

You can't just throw a number out there that would equal a muzzle brake. Considering the same brake, there will be different recoil impacts between rifles of differing weights. This would apply to silencers as well. You must also take barrel length into account. You could get similar recoil results from a heavy rifle w/ a shorter barrel, to a lighter rifle w/ a long barrel. As gas exit velocity and pressure will be different, between the two.

Also, your weight number isn't factoring in the impact the silencer's actions will have. No, this won't be as great as an effective brake, but not all silencers have the same recoil reduction.

For a little experiment, do you have any chunks of steel laying around?
A 3"OD x 4" cylinder, w/ a 3/4" hole in it (muzzle threads and bullet passage) will weigh ~7.5lbs
Thread that onto your barrel and see what it does for recoil.
Know, however, it doesn't factor any recoil reduction added by the silencer's suppression characteristics.

[fishman]

This isnt going on a barret, correct?

[MartinDWhite]

This isnt going on a barret, correct?

Armalite AR-50

[fishman]

This isnt going on a barret, correct?

Armalite AR-50

Ok, just making sure. A heavy can like that will F--k with a barret's short recoil action cycling.