Barrel profiling

[Stan Taylor]

Stan, I'll bet you are quite capable of contouring a barrel on a manual machine if you needed to do one.

Yes sir you are exactly right if I don't feel like writing a program for the CNC,I go over to the old Monarch about 60 yrs young, I have almost every pattern imagined and dial ever cut in by crossfeed and have at it but getting lazy in my old age like to cheat a little when I can.

 

[338 Mollett]

Lathe work is like getting married ,everyone should do it once !

 

[TakeDeadAim]

I realize this is an old thread, but I’m an old guy who felt like chiming in. These days the wait time to get good barrels is painfully long and sends customers away. I learned to deal with long shaft chatter nearly 50 years ago. Running a sharp tool upside down and slower than normal allows for a reasonable DOC. I made spring loaded inserts for my follower years ago, not the best but functional. I don’t pay rent on a space for, or a payment on a CNC lathe. It does not take all day and rarely takes a file.

I won’t take a taper job on but do reduce 1.25” blanks to size and a finished surface on a fair number of competition rifles for customers who know I’m charging a bit of machine time in exchange for taking weeks off their “wait time”. They also know I take the time to align their barrel till the indicators show as close to zero as can be had on any given barrel. Every gun is measured for headspace, you can get the free bore you want and I’ll time the bore curve to their choice of 12 or 6 o’clock. If I find something needs polishing on their $1500 CNC action or $300 trigger, I fix it.

Before anyone gets worked up. I know many of you do this as well, I’m no genius, I did not invent the techniques I use and not the only one who does good work. We all see enough of those that don’t. I’m not going to die a rich man, but a satisfied one knowing that in the two professions I’ve done for over 40 years my best went into each job.

Enjoy your day, and thanks to those who share their experiences.

 

[Jonnyofalltrades]

I have only profiled a barrel a few times, maybe 4? It was fairly painful. I hear lots of guys referring to the upside-down-tool thing. What is the reasoning behind it? I have only ever turned a tool upside down for threading in a blind hole, so that it was feeding out, not in.