HELP re-contouring a barrel

[Tesoro]

Does any one know/recommend someone who could help me? I have a stock that my spare barrel wont fit in and I cant hog it it out. The shoulder needs to be more like 1 inch in length instead of the 2 inch it is now. Plus I need a hair taken off the barrel diameter. It is 22in #3 contour. I can provide the barrel that fits the stock for measurements to duplicate the larger one down to size. I am using the barrel that fits so I could spin it off and send with the other one when that 'someone' is about ready to do the job.
Thanks!

 

[Old Navy]

Maybe Brad can help.

 

[10XSHOOTER]

Cut rifled or Buttoned?

 

[Tesoro]

Cut rifled or Buttoned?

its a Brux - cut

 

[10XSHOOTER]

you can probably recontour with out any problems.
Make light cuts

 

[boltfluter]

Maybe Brux could help you out? Just a thought.
Paul

 

[FrankG]

Call Brux. It's they're stick so they shouldn't have any issues recontouring it.

Recontouring a cut rifled blank doesn't have the risk like you do with a button barrel.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

 

[Tesoro]

Will do thanks!!

 

[marazzi59]

PM me some dimensions on the job if Brux is a no go

 

[whatsupdoc]

Call Brux. It's they're stick so they shouldn't have any issues recontouring it.

Recontouring a cut rifled blank doesn't have the risk like you do with a button barrel.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels

It is my understanding that every button rifled barrel is contoured after the button
is pulled through.

So why is it a risk to modify the contour of a button rifled barrel?
Would it have to be stress relieved again before turning it down?

 

[Will Henry]

Buttoned barrels are typically treated after rifling and before contouring. The big issue occurs when a manufacturer tries to button rifle and tapered blank. Mike Walker told of button rifling some Springfield barrels which were already contoured. The bore ended up bigger at the muzzle.
When I started gunsmithing, we bought most of our barrels as 1 1/4 inch blanks (mostly from Shilen). I contoured these to various contours from Winchester featherweight to Heavy Varmint, and everything in between. Of the hundreds I turned, I recall one which distorted. Shilen replaced the barrel and paid for my labor.
Surprisingly enough, the barrels I encountered which warped the worst were a couple of cut-rifled barrels. Plainly, the material used was not properly relieved and I had to straighten the first one halfway through every cut. Frustrated, I put both barrels in the kitchen oven and turned it as high as it would go and cooked them for a couple hours. I don't know what the temp was, but it was enough to settle those barrels down enough that I could finish them.
I have milled Shilen barrels, full octagon, half octagon, and half octagon with a rib. They worked out fine. WH

 

[LVLAaron]

The big issue occurs when a manufacturer tries to button rifle and tapered blank.

This makes sense.

 

[Tesoro]

I spoke to Brux yesterday and was told no because it is chambered and the tenon threads would be damaged. So I said what if you made a sleeve for the tenon and I was told that would not work.

 

[paperpuncher]

I spoke to Brux yesterday and was told no because it is chambered and the tenon threads would be damaged. So I said what if you made a sleeve for the tenon and I was told that would not work.

Maybe they do it between center with a dog with and offset tailstock position to achieve taper

 

[Jonnyofalltrades]

I have a hard time imagining a barrel manufacturer of any size using anything but a good size CNC lathe for contouring. They're wasting their time if they don't.
Typical CNC lathe setups are a lot less versatile than a manual lathe. If it doesn't fit the pigeonhole, don't even bother trying to run it.

 

[jackieschmidt]

If you do it yourself, just use a positive rake tool with just about zero nose radius. Take light cuts and a fine feed.
I don’t use actual coolant when at my home shop. Just a mist cooler.

 

[Will Henry]

I spoke to Brux yesterday and was told no because it is chambered and the tenon threads would be damaged. So I said what if you made a sleeve for the tenon and I was told that would not work.

I imagine they just wanted to make up an excuse for not doing it. A cap over the threads, is a viable way of doing things but I usually just use a piece of aluminum flashing and a penny to protect the threads from the dog. WH

 

[Tesoro]

I imagine they just wanted to make up an excuse for not doing it. A cap over the threads, is a viable way of doing things but I usually just use a piece of aluminum flashing and a penny to protect the threads from the dog. WH

Yeah that was my take after I immediately presented an idea of how they could protect the threads. Thats fine they are busy but could just say so.

 

[DLT]

@foster

 

[FrankG]

It is my understanding that every button rifled barrel is contoured after the button
is pulled through.

So why is it a risk to modify the contour of a button rifled barrel?
Would it have to be stress relieved again before turning it down?

Even a good button maker should be restress relieving the material again after the button is pulled thru. What no barrel maker can measure for is what I call residual stress in the blank.

When they contour the blank if you hit what I call a residual stress point.... the machining operation will relieve the stress and usually what happens is the bore size will open up/change on you. When this happens you cannot make it go back. It is what it is. The worse place for this to happen is when you cut and crown the muzzle. Any secondary machining operation can cause it to go sour. Fluting, contouring etc...

Button rifling is like a snake swallowing a mouse. The steel is going to expand and then relax. It's basically a cold swaging process. Button rifling doesn't remove the material it displaces the material. So for just rough numbers you are making a .308cal barrel blank. The button might have to be say .3115" or .3120" diameter. All that movement has to go somewhere.

Cut rifling we don't induce any stress into the blank. If the blank has stress in it we will see it in contouring but this is prior to reaming and rifling etc... usually what will happen is the barrel will bow or bend if you will. If this happens we scrap the blank and the customer never sees it as it never gets finished.