Material for turning gun tubes?

[Devin]

I'm going to need to turn some 1/96th scale gun tubes for my USS Carondolet ironclad. Is there any material recommended over brass for doing this? 3/8" is the largest diameter I'll need, the longest tube is just under 1.5".

I'm going to be working on this with my father when I visit in a few weeks and want to be sure I have the material in-hand when I show up.

Also, if I turn these out of aluminum, will there be issues with making RTV or Silicone molds for casting?

Thanks,

-Devin

[ingura]

...

[Devin]

Thanks for the feedback, Peter. I know my father used to have some aircraft grade aluminum rod stock that we turned the stack on my USS Weehawken from and it worked pretty well, but now that you mention it, it did take some work to get some of the machining marks out.

I think I'll hunt up some brass stock. Does anyone have any suggestions where to seek out 3/8" diameter brass rod?

[qw56q]

What i have done before is insert a round rod into a electric drill, spin that and at the same time take a dremel and slowly machine it. This is rather time consuming and time consuming and should only be done if you have no other option.