My Rohrbaugh Factory Tour

[DDGator]

The Rohrbaugh Firearms factory in Farmingdale, NY is just a 45 minute train ride from Mid-town Manhattan.  

I was lucky enough to have an invitation to visit on October 6, 2004.  Eric Rohrbaugh was waiting for me at the train station in Farmingdale.  
I recognized his voice – he was answering customer calls on his cell phone!  The factory is a nice, modern, high-security, but very non-descript
building in an industrial park.

Here is a picture of Eric and Karl in front of the building:



Inside the secure front door is a small office.  The desk you see is Maria’s desk – but she wasn’t there.  (No that is not a photo of her on the left!).  
On the walls are lots of R-9 promotional materials, photos from the SHOT shows, etc.  There are also photos of Eric and Karl’s family dating back
several generations.  The Rohrbaugh crest used in their logo is an authentic family crest in use for many generations – not just a marketing gimmick.



Eric also has a small desk up front where he fields phone calls and works on the computer.  Note the reading material on screen!



Moving back farther into the factory is a metal detector – and a nice welcome:



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[DDGator]

The hallway opens into the largest room in the factory, which contains the majority of the machining equipment.  This is where the slides, barrels and frames are made.  I will probably get some of this wrong, but here is the process as best I can recall.

An R-9 starts as three blocks of metal (two stainless steel, one aircraft aluminum) that are cut, shaved, drilled, filed, polished, bead blasted and anodized into a high quality handgun.  The frames, of course, are aircraft grade aluminum.  Here is a picture of some of the aluminum blocks.  Each block will become two frames.  The holes you see are cut by the metal supplier and are for mounting the block inside the machine for processing.



The blocks are placed in this machine, which in two steps, cuts, drills and otherwise shapes said blocks into two frames.



Here is the inside of the machine showing some of the various cutting tools that rotate through the machine as needed.



Here is the spindle upon which the blocks are mounted and the cutting is done.



The excess metal shavings and shreds are dumped into large bins for recycling.



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[DDGator]

There is a similar machine that cuts the slides.  Here is a supply of stainless steel blocks ready for processing.  Each block makes a single slide.  



This is the machine that cuts the slides.





Cutting the slides is also a two step process.  Here is an example of the three stages: 1) uncut block of raw material, 2) inside rails and dimensions cut – the top you can’t see is still square, and 3) final product.




The barrels are cut on a different type of machine.  Here is some of the raw stock stainless steel for the barrels.



The barrels are then fed into this machine for cutting.



Once all this is done, the parts are hand polished and finished with old fashioned low tech jewlers tools.  Here is the desk where this is done.



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The frames are then bead blasted to prepare them for anodizing.  This is one of the bead blasters.  There is actually one for rough blasting and one for the finer finish.



A good bead-blasted finish is critical to a proper annodization, so much care is taken as this stage, and any rough handling after blasting will require a re-do.  The blasted frames are stored in a box like this one to protect them while waiting to be sent out for annodization.  The frame on the right is not yet bead blasted, and the frame on the left is finished.



There are a couple of steps relating to barrel prep that are proprietary, and Eric would only discuss them in broad generalities.  I won’t discuss them at all here.

This is the engraving machine that puts all the lettering and numbering on the slides.



When all the parts are ready, they are painstakingly assembled by Karl Rohrbaugh or Steve Reuter.  This is the work area.  Note the can of Superlube!



Here are some of the parts bins necessary for assembly.



I thought this was interesting – a grip panel with a cut-out so Karl and Steve can look inside and see what is going on with the internals to help diagnose a problem.



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From here, the gun is carefully inspected and tolerances measured.  It is then test fired in a small test range set up just off the gunsmithing area.  Here is a picture of Eric test firing an R-9.



Each gun is then cleaned and carefully packaged by Eric.  Here is Eric getting an R-9 cleaned up and ready for shipment.



Here is a photo of Eric’s personal gun (Serial No. 2 – guess who has No. 1?) in a Hedley holster.  And yes – I checked – its full of Gold Dots!



RJ’s drawing of this prototype holster also hung on the wall in the office.



I also got to see Blackhawk’s gun (from The Firing Line) with a custom serial number (Blackhawk 1) and a custom K&D Holsters 2-in-1 monogrammed for Blackhawk.




After the tour, we snapped a photo of me, Eric and Karl, before heading off to dinner at the Liberty Diner in Farmingdale!





I met nearly everyone on the team (Maria was not there) and really got a chance to talk with Eric in detail. I can’t say enough about all of them.  They are all good people with a passion for their product and their customers.  They believe there is nothing they can’t do if they work at it hard enough – as evidenced by the sign you see in some of the photos.

Taking the tour has really given me an appreciation of just how much time, work and effort go into making a single R-9.  These are truly semi-custom pieces that are all slightly different and are individual expressions of a master’s work.

I can’t thank these guys enough for a fantastic experience!  

[Mr_Jody_Hudson]

Fabulous pictures of a fabulous team.

Thanks!

How in the world can they produce these pistols for less than $10,000 each!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a great look inside of a great place!

[Incursion]

Wow, that is really cool.  I'm probably their youngest customer.

[RJ HEDLEY]

Great post !   Looks and sounds like you had a great time !! The Driving force behind the Rohrbaugh's Brothers is illustrated by the decal sticker on the CNC machine Saying *Can't*,  not allowed.  [sixth photo]

[R9SCarry]

[size=24]OUT - STANDING![/size]

Duane ... thanks ever so much for that .... absolutely first class and great pics.  I feel even more part of the Rohrbaugh family now!

All I need to do now is manage a trip there myself.

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Small point .... being on crummy ol' dial-up - it took an age to get everything down on the page .... image burden is over 5 Mb!!!!!  

Duane ... occurred to me I'd like to archive this but put it on one of my servers with much smaller file size images.  Then give a link to it for those who want a quicker download.  Be OK ya think?

[DDGator]

Sure Chris.  I would down-size it myself if I had time... Maybe later.

[dmobrien2001]

Notice who's post Eric was reading. I guess he needed the link to the lube vendor

Ya done good 'Gator!  Very nice presentation!

[Jim]

Thanks Gator, very well done.  I think one of those R9S's was surely mine!!!!  Jim

[pocketman]

Very cool stuff!

Thank you.

**** Does anyone know how blackhawk is doing??****

[R9SCarry]

[size=13]Does anyone know how blackhawk is doing??[/size]

I too have wondered .... last I knew some while back he was at home and needing much nursing by Mrs Blackhawk.  I wonder if Eric has any more recent news.

[DDGator]

Eric has not heard from him or his wife in some time...  I hope all is well with him.