A few days back maybe, I was working on straitening the muzzle brake of my Puma project. And I wondered. How do I actually know if it’s really straight? Is there some tool that I can use for this? Or, is it just looking? Help for future projects with this would be greatly appreciated.
Artemis
Stand it up on end vertically. Look at the barrel compared to straight lines on your wall and compare on two different axes. If it’s parallel you’re good to go.
Here’s what I do…there are other ways…find one that works for you.
Look at the barrel and see if the muzzle brake is straight. This means rotating the barrel slowly 360 degrees and making sure the muzzle brake is parallel to the barrel.
Put the turret on a flat level surface with the main gun level, mounted in the turret, check to see if the side vents are the same distance away from a flat surface. Imeasure and mark a tooth pick in the middle and slide it into the sides of the muzzle brake. Once centered, I measure the distance of the outside ends from the flat surface. Both sides should be the same. That helps check to make sure the side vents are clocked level the same on both sides.
Repeat #1 and look at it to double check before the cement sets.
Avoid the alignment issue by getting an Aber or similar turned main gun barrel with brass muzzle brake. These will screw on straight. The position of the side vents should still be checked. See #2.
HTH
I just squint down the length of the barrel while rotating it. You can also use a straight edge to line up down the length.
Or if the barrel is yet to be attached rolling it along the edge of a table will make any wobble obvious.
Rolling the barrel across a flat surface really works and you can quickly figure out which direction you need to bend to make corrections.
To check if a muzzle brake is straight, you can use a simple tool called a bubble level. Attach the bubble level to the top of the muzzle brake and make sure the bubble is centered. Then, rotate the muzzle brake 180 degrees and check if the bubble is still centered. If the bubble stays in the center both times, the muzzle brake is straight. This method is easy and accurate for ensuring your muzzle brake is properly aligned.
Wade’s ( @Armor_Buff ) toothpick trick works really well. Usually just looking at it is enough to see if the muzzle brake is “clocked” correctly. If a toothpick is too thick to fit through the holes on the muzzle brake, you can use any piece of straight wire or metal rod.