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What’s the difference between “milled steel” and “stampings” with regard to firearms manufacturing?

Milled Steel 

Lather Stampings

Story

This is an old area of manufacture, but I have done a bit of R & D and Prototyping on this exact steel Milled and Stamped steel firearm parts issue over a very long time. This is an area of my expertise. A lot of MY time and a lot of YOUR money. Tax money. The proper and correct answer is not easily and quickly explained. At least I can’t nor will. This is a Life AND Death issue. This is the base issue. Life and Death. Perhaps yours. In War…In Your

Home.

In War…your life or your adversaries life. Based on the mass produced Stamped steel arms vs. Milled steel arms. I am not talking sporting arms here. Tools of War. The choice of no arms or a few good arms or lots of so, so arms. From WW-2 on. Today. If you were faced with this issue…how would you choose? Your son? Your brother? Do you get my point?

In these times

CAD/CAM and NC/CNC has changed the Equation. Dramatically. Milled Steel and/or Stamped Steel and the Correct Application of these manufacturing methods is almost Moot. For Tools of War. Almost…not completely. There are several other ways to make Steel arms parts…not just Milling and Stamping. Good ones. And less expensive. And much quicker. The Stamping method of arms manufacture is over 70+ years Old! The Milling method of arms manufacture is hundreds of years Old! Did Automobile and Aeroplane manufacturing change much in the last 70+ years? A hundred years? I thought so. Sporting/Custom arms are another matter. For another time.

My Patent Simple Answer is in two parts.

WHY, and HOW. The WHY is cost, primarily, but not just cost. Ease of quantity production and the use of simple manufacturing tools and unskilled and/or semi-skilled labour. If you are planning to go to War or Respond to a War, you need Huge amounts of these items. And darn quickly too! WW-2. remember? Me too. Grandparents do. Not me. WW-2. WHY. This is How Stamping came to be. Lots of unskilled/semi-skilled labour and a bit of Expensive and Fancy Tooling. Mostly during the second great war. Unskilled and/or Semi-skilled labour to produce the stamped parts. Lot and lots of parts. For Tools of War. Your Grandfather. Your Grandmother. Remember? WW-2.

Extremely Highly Skilled Tool & Die Makers were required to Make and Maintain this Tooling. Milled parts were still necessary, but in quite small quantities compared to the original designs of almost all Milled Steel firearm parts. Quality vs. Quantity. Excellent vs. Inexpensive. Life vs. Death.

HOW. In most original firearm designs, the critical parts are of Milled Steel. At least from the Design, Engineering, R & D, Prototype, test/retest and initial production runs. Milled steel parts require Expensive Machine Tools and Highly Skilled Machinists. Quality and Quantity will Butt Heads. Ask any Production/Process Engineer. Per unit Milling time is much longer by several multiples compared to Stamping. Milling costs are incredibly high compared to stamping. RELIABILITY is HIGHER. High Reliability = high cost. PERIOD.

Here is the Critical part of the WHY. Once a firearm design is solidly Established and RELIABLE…The Cost Cutting begins. The less costly stamping and high quantity manufacture of parts begins. Therein is the problem. Choices must be made. Lots of inexpensively [Not crap, just Not expensive] made O.K. RELIABLE arms, or a much smaller amount of quite well made but Absolutely RELIABLE arms. INEXPENSIVE ARMS = NOT ABSOLUTELY RELIABLE. M-16. Remember? I do. M-16. O.K. For War. Not me. At Home.

There are several other materials used, but on Quality and RELIABLE firearms, Milled Steel or other Ferrous Alloys WERE the STANDARD. Stamped Steel IS the Standard…now. Tools of War. War. Not Sporting arms. As to Steel…Milled solid steel or Stamped sheet steel. These are what you asked about. I gave my Option on my take on the Question’s Answer. There is a third and fourth Steel manufacturing method for firearm receivers and related parts. Perhaps, a fifth method coming along very soon. Later. Milled Steel vs. Stamped Steel..

Website: www.subauae.com

Author: Li Fu Ran, Engineering, Design.

Post By: Irfan Khan