Re-threading a barrel

[boltman223]

I want to cut off the metric threaded tenon and then thread the barrel for a remington 700. I have two questions/concerns. My First question is, is it sufficient to chuck the barrel up on the taper of the barrel. And My second question is, if I try to chamber and thread the barrel with about 4 or 5 inches of it protruding out of the chuck will that cause any problems while threading? Thanks in advance for any help and info.

 

[Larryh128]

If you have soft jaws, they can be bored to the taper of the barrel. You can hold it on the taper without using soft jaws but you will definitely have marks to polish off. You need 2 points of support though. I would run the bore in a live center ( burr free) and hold on the barrel. You want 8-12" out to the live center to reduce any whipping of the unsupported barrel. A better setup would be to include a spider on the back side of the tail stock or a center in the tail stock to support the muzzle end.

 

[Preacher]

When ever I chamber a tapered barrel I use a piece of heavy gauge copper wire to hold it in 2 places...
For the best results, I like the barrel as close to the chuck as possibly...

 

[jscandale]

Preacher has a commonly used very good woriking meathod that works just great with a standard 4 jaw chuck. I typically use a spider chuck which does about the same thing. If the shank is 4-5" past the chuck jaw, that's about 2" too far. I would certainly echo Preacher in saying the closer to the chuck the better off you are.

JS

 

[boltman223]

thanks preacher and jscandale

just to clarify, do you put the copper wire on the larges diameter of the barrel that the jaws are going to grab or do you use the copper to make up for the taper. I would think that it would be on just the one spot, but I just wanted to make sure. thanks again?

 

[jscandale]

Whether or not you are grabbing the barrel shank or the tapered portion of the bbl, the copper is used in conjunction with an outboard spider in order to get the length of the bore to sping concentrically.
So...you would not want the copper to compensate for the taper and act as a wedge, you would want it to act as a spacer between the chuck jaws and the bbl in order to provide a pivot point so that the outboard spider does it's job properly.

JS

 

[boltman223]

ahhh, I see now. Thank you. The gunsmith in town here has me thinking that it was not a god idea to clamp down on the taper. Which I thought was a common ptactice and also thought it would be unavoidable with a lot of barrels. It is not a quick taper either...

I think he only has a little bit of chambering experience, back from when he went to school. He is mainly a general repair gunsmith. It it's a take off barrel so I am not worried about ruining it. This project is mainly a learning experience. Thanks again

 

[Lapua40X]

This project is mainly a learning experience. Thanks again

As part of the learning experience, if I may suggest, you might want to work on tapering a set of soft jaws to mate with the barrel. That'd provide the bonus of learning two processes with a single project.

 

[boltman223]

Thanks for the idea Lapua40x. Also wanted to say thanks to the others for the help. I'm am going to continue with the project as planned, sweeet!

 

[Chuckw]

you can use weed eater line instead of copper wire. it works great. before anyone jumps in and says it isn't adequate, one of the most respected smiths in the business showed me this trick. I have also used pennies and they work fine. brass brazing rod cut in short lengths works the best in my opinion.

chuck