chatter marks in chamber......how to fix them

[gtkustoms]

Is the barrel junk or is it fixable
its chambered in 7mm wsm

what can be done to fix this

thanks

 

[butchlambert]

Wrap wax paper around the flutes and make a light cut.
Butch

 

[gtkustoms]

Butch

They look to be pretty deep. They run the length of the chamber.
Will they effect the case when you shoot. I dont know that I am describing the problem right.

What will the wax paper do?

thanks
travis

 

[butchlambert]

Travis,
Of course if they are too deep you will have to cut some off the bottom and move the reamer deeper. The wax paper is a common fix that smiths have used over the years. You will have trouble with the brass unless you fix it.
Butch

 

[gtkustoms]

Butch

Thanks for the help

travis

 

[sjk]

GT,
Sounds like someone who wasn't up to snuff chambered this bbl. There's no reason that there should be chatter marks, it's proof that a novice did it. They can be taken out if not too deep but in mostly all cases you will run an oversized chamber if the high spots are taken off, oversized in relation to headspace. It's possible that it may be ok for firing one time and not reloaded. You don't mention what a fired case looks like. There's only a few ways you can go with this. Set the bbl back one turn, insert the chamber and then re chamber the insert right, grind up an India to chamber reamer size and polish out what you can. I have used the stones many times to polish out chambers and they produce a nice finish. You are not limited to an India, but can go even finer. I have done all three and had good results. Hope it helps

 

[TRECustom]

GT, this happened to me a few years ago. I never figured out why it started to chatter, but I figured the barrel was ruined. It was a #4 stainless Shilen,,not much shank), so I knew I couldn't set back enough to start over. I talked to David Kaiser at Brownell's and then to Dave Manson. Dave K had some good suggestions, but Mr. Manson was specific about what to try. On his recommendation, I took a .30 cal cotton cleaning patch and punched a hole in the center just big enough to slide over the reamer pilot and back to the shoulder, then lubed everything and fed the reamer in .010" and then pulled it out to clean it. Repeated this 3 times with a fresh patch every time. It worked like magic. The reamer flutes cut right through the patch, but it damped the reamer enough to stop it from just deepening the chatter marks. Once the chamber cleaned up, I depth miked it and determined exactly how much I had to set the shoulder and breech back.

I was curious enough to shoot the rifle with the chatter marked chamber before pulling the barrel back off. It did not extract, and I had to tap the case out with a cleaning rod. I kept the fired case, and it looks a lot like the .308 hulls out of an H & K.

Piece of cake, Tom

 

[gtkustoms]

Thanks for good ideas.

My father in law thinks that I should shoot it to see what happens to the case, after hearing that it gets stuck I think that I will just get it fixed the right way first.

I like the patch idea, I think that I will give that a try.

If there are other methods that work let me know.

Again thanks for suggestions

gt

 

[sjk]

Tre,
I guess you're never too olde to learn. Thanx
John

 

[JayIdaho]

The couple of tmes that I've felt chatter beginning, I increased reamer feed rate and it stopped chattering immediately.
I've also heard of packing the flutes iwth a heavy grease instead of the patch. I think the idea is to have something in the releif behind the reamer cutting edge. That prevents the reamer from being able to dig in and take a "scallop" of material out and then be pushed rearward. That is just my guess, no big deal. Whatever works is good.

 

[sjk]

Great save! However, a good thing to know is that if the chamber reamer or any other reamer for that matter cuts a chatter that is deep, there's no way in God's world that another reamer or drill bit will clear it out. It will merely follow the chatter of the original reamer and make the whole situation worse by bouncing back and forth inside. This is true for a chattered hole in any steel whether it be in a chamber or on a piece of flat stock. The only way is to bore it out and ream it again, but then by that time you've gone oversize. This then brings other alternatives such as setback. If you are qualified and have a good lathe, you can bore this chatter out by a very light bore cut, saying that the whole chamber can be cut without the use of reamers at all to a good finish. This opens a whole new line of thinking using spiral reamers. It's done by using two separate reamers giving extremely fine chamber finishes, but I don't suggest this for a novice. Excuse for straying off course a mite.

 

[gtkustoms]

would you use a floating reamer holder?

I am not to worried about setting the barrel back some in order to get it fixed right.

thanks
gt

 

[TRECustom]

GT, I do. No problem so far.

Tom