Indicating Barrels to chamber

[tobnpr]

Im a bit worn out on this topic for now.

x 10

Way into the weeds...

 

[urbanrifleman]

So, after buying all this stuff it turns out the headstock on my lathe is way too long for a back side spider to do barrels. So, I would have to do between centers or I am thinking about buying the Viper fixture and using it in the 3 jaw chuck. IS there any reason this would not be a good purchase? I am officially out of money.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

You can sell that lathe and find one more suited to barrel work. Dont try to fight it with workarounds, youll never be happy trying to learn and making workaround jury rigs at the same time

 

[urbanrifleman]

You can sell that lathe and find one more suited to barrel work. Dont try to fight it with workarounds, youll never be happy trying to learn and making workaround jury rigs at the same time

Yah man, that's not going to be happening any time soon. I can chamber blanks between centers for a while if I have too. But modifying existing barrels doesn't always lend itself to using the steady.

 

[BoydAllen]

There is a thing that works like a mid bed half headstock, that lets you dial in a barrel. With it you can use a lathe that would normally be to big to chamber through the headstock, particularly if you do all of your barrel alignment from the chamber end. Some pictures can be found searching for cat head steady rest. The other situation they can come in handy for is if the spindle bore is too small, and you have enough bed length. I remember Speedy writing about one he made, also Chet Whitebread made one for a 9" SB by splitting an extra headstock he picked up off of Ebay.


And then there is this.

 

[Hal]

Boyd
Thanks for posting those pictures. I would like to make one of those rest
if I could find the right bearings.
I'll have to do more searching.

Hal

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Boyd
Thanks for posting those pictures. I would like to make one of those rest
if I could find the right bearings.
I'll have to do more searching.

Hal

Remember the bore has to be big enough to press in a sleeve thats thick enough to be solid and still be big enough inside. Youll be looking for like a 4” roller bearing

 

[Edd]

Boyd
Thanks for posting those pictures. I would like to make one of those rest
if I could find the right bearings.
I'll have to do more searching.

Hal

Google Pillow Block bearings.

 

[ridgeway]

Just run it in the steady... No fancy gizmos needed. Another idea...just machine a heavy wall tube, drill and tap for 4 set screws and mount it in your steady rest. Got your cat head that runs in your steady. Many ways to do it, just a little thought...

 

[Hal]

Edd

Thanks for the reply.
It will give me a place to look.

Hal

 

[urbanrifleman]

Just run it in the steady... No fancy gizmos needed. Another idea...just machine a heavy wall tube, drill and tap for 4 set screws and mount it in your steady rest. Got your cat head that runs in your steady. Many ways to do it, just a little thought...

Already thought of that, even bought material but abandoned that idea. My steady rest is not even close to beefy enough to do that. Yes, if I had a machine shop available to me for free and a bunch of material I could use I would draw up a steady rest bearing fixture and make it, because I love that idea.

Sadly, I don't have any of those things at the moment so I just bought a Viper which does exactly the same thing in the chuck.

I think I will do most of my chambering of blanks on centers. I have a good process for that and to me it makes more sense. It certainly is faster. Seems to work for Tubb. He manages to make a few shooters.

It's really about getting the reamer to follow the hole. There is truly more than one way to skin that cat it appears.

 

[butchlambert]

Just run it in the steady... No fancy gizmos needed. Another idea...just machine a heavy wall tube, drill and tap for 4 set screws and mount it in your steady rest. Got your cat head that runs in your steady. Many ways to do it, just a little thought...

Remember you can't indicate the bore in the steady until you machine the OD to be concentric to the bore.

 

[urbanrifleman]

Remember you can't indicate the bore in the steady until you machine the OD to be concentric to the bore.

If the tail of the barrel is in the centered three jaw with a turned portion of the tail OD in the chuck (which was turned while in the live center), and the head end is in the steady, with the OD turned concentric to the bore and the bore centered with the live center, there is no need to indicate the bore. Once the bore is centered to the live center, and the OD of the chamber end turned to the live center and placed in the steady, there is nothing left to indicate, in a practical sense. It is as straight as you can get it.

At that point you can use the steady on the flat and float the reamer, or use the live center and float the barrel.

The way I see it, at some point you still have to assume that something is straight. You also have to FLOAT something.

Even if one were to indicate the barrel to perfect, everyone still uses a floating reamer holder. As far as I know.... You can go the other way and set the reamer to hard point and float the barrel.

 

[rwj]

A bit off topic, but definitely related question - how straight, and on center is, the hole created when a barrel is gun drilled?

 

[ridgeway]

Remember you can't indicate the bore in the steady until you machine the OD to be concentric to the bore.

Yeah...thats definitely true just running in a steady. My other principle that ive used is like the attached pic. You can dial in then. I've done it several times on a small 12x36. I got plenty of rigidity to do anything gun wise on it...its good.

 

[urbanrifleman]

Yeah...thats definitely true just running in a steady. My other principle that ive used is like the attached pic. You can dial in then. I've done it several times on a small 12x36. I got plenty of rigidity to do anything gun wise on it...its good. View attachment 1238558

Is there a standard for buying a steady? Mine is a rickety thing.

 

[DaveTooley]

Steady rest are not made to perform like a chuck. Turning and threading will be done between centers. Running the reamer in will not apply any pressure other than towards the chuck.
BTW I get the best results running the treads in the steady for the chambering part. YMMV

 

[Tucker65]

So, after buying all this stuff it turns out the headstock on my lathe is way too long for a back side spider to do barrels. So, I would have to do between centers or I am thinking about buying the Viper fixture and using it in the 3 jaw chuck. IS there any reason this would not be a good purchase? I am officially out of money.

How true does your spindle bore run? I have a lathe that the headstock is too wide for barrel work but the thru hole is 2" and runs really true. I make rings that I press on the barrel and then turn the OD to just slip into the spindle bore. Then I have just been grabbing the barrel in the 4 jaw and reaching in with a long stem indicator to indicate the throat or muzzle depending on which end I'm working on. Not sure if this is the most accurate way but my chambers have been coming out great and the results on paper have been too.

 

[DaveTooley]

How true does your spindle bore run? I have a lathe that the headstock is too wide for barrel work but the thru hole is 2" and runs really true. I make rings that I press on the barrel and then turn the OD to just slip into the spindle bore. Then I have just been grabbing the barrel in the 4 jaw and reaching in with a long stem indicator to indicate the throat or muzzle depending on which end I'm working on. Not sure if this is the most accurate way but my chambers have been coming out great and the results on paper have been too.

I put O-rings on the OD of the bushings I use.

 

[HillbillyLongRifle]

I put O-rings on the OD of the bushings I use.

Dave are you just dialing in the throat and muzzle still for barrel indication?