Best way to dial in a barrel on a steady rest.

[chuckbuster243]

Hello guys,
I have a question about the best way to dial in a 3 jaw steady rest. I usually put the barrel trough the headstock and dial in each end with a spider and a 4 jaw. I am trying to chamber a 16" ar15 barrel and its way to short to go through the headstock. So I put the muzzle end in the 4 jaw dialed it in and put a center in the bore on the chamber end and put my 3 jaw steady rest on that end. I used the center just to get close and dial in from there. My problem is using the 3 jaw steady rest I could not get closer than 3.5k from dead true. I thought about making a spider to put in the rest with 4 set screws so I could dial it in true with 4 points but I am up for any suggestions... Steady rests are not my cup of tea anyway and one with three points of contact for sure. Any ideas will be helpful I am open minded.. Matt

 

[jscandale]

You will never truly get it dialed in especially if you indicated the outside diameter in the 4 jaw and running the steady rest on the outside diameter of the breech end (as if there was another way to grab it with a steady rest).
Good news is that if it's a 16" bbl, it's not what you would call a target rifle, so it's not like you are going to shoot bench rest with it.

JS

 

[chuckbuster243]

That is true... I did dial off the outside on the muzzle end and then the bore on the other. So I guess I will never get it perfect. But when I looked down the bore with the lathe running it did look like a laser beam even out 3.5 k. I have seen a few that looked like you could jump rope with them.. lol I was looking to make a short 3 gun rifle with this particular barrel. I just like doing it like it is one of my bench guns even though I know it will never serve that purpose. I am gonna relax a little and keep trying. I think running a steady rest in any form has allot of luck and voodoo to get it right. Thanks, Matt

 

[Erik Cortina]

Put the barrel between centers and cut your threads and true up the barrel right in front of the threads, then put your steady rest on that spot, then chamber. This is the short version. Good luck.

 

[chuckbuster243]

Got the barrel finished last night... Dialed in one end in the chuck and cut true center in the other. Put in live center and trued up a small portion to put steady rest. threaded chambered swapped ends and crowned... Ready for test fire and gas port... Thanks guys, It was not to bad once we got rolling. Matt

 

[Straight Shooter Supply]

Since the muzzle was threaded you could have built an extension. Thread it on tight and then put it through the head stock as you normally do. This is how we cut muzzle threads on regular barrels that are too short. We have 12" pipe extensions with all the different action threads cut in them. If the barrel is really short we use our action truing jig.