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Want to start doing my own barrel chamberings....help

bsumoba

I am a mechanical engineering by education and am relatively young so it seems that it would probably be more economical in the long run to chamber my own barrels.

I do not want something I will feel like I need to upgrade later, but do not want to break the bank either.

I just want to do chamberings for up to a 1.25" straight 32" barrel. I also want to do brakes as well.

What would you recommend for a lathe? Budget maybe sub-$1500?

Those Grizzly benchtop lathes look enticing, but will it be big enough and good enough for what I want to do?
 
The smallest lightest lathe I'd look at would be a south bend heavy 10. Very good machines. Expect to pay at least 2500 for one in good shape.
 
How many $500 chamber jobs does the tooling cost? I was thinking that I could get up and running for something north of $5k. I shoot up 2 barrels a year, so I figure I'll break even in 5 years.

Being able to build tooling, etc. will probably help pay for it too.


Am I off base on my assumptions?
 
Busdriver said:
How many $500 chamber jobs does the tooling cost? I was thinking that I could get up and running for something north of $5k. I shoot up 2 barrels a year, so I figure I'll break even in 5 years.

Being able to build tooling, etc. will probably help pay for it too.


Am I off base on my assumptions?
Click to expand...
You can get set up pretty darn nice for 5k. Right off the bat you will find yourself making tooling for barrel work, dies and everything in between. Tooling definitely is a must and one can never have enough tooling!

Just to get the barrel dialed in, here is your $500(not including your workholding setup)...
Interapid long stem indicator: $380
Noga indicator base: $120

Chambering is highly opinionated in the methodology part. Read all you can, apply any past machining experience, ask questions and have at it. I sure enjoy doing my own work and very meticulous at what I do. A budget set up is definitely not out of question.
 
Busdriver said:
How many $500 chamber jobs does the tooling cost? I was thinking that I could get up and running for something north of $5k. I shoot up 2 barrels a year, so I figure I'll break even in 5 years.

Being able to build tooling, etc. will probably help pay for it too.


Am I off base on my assumptions?
Click to expand...

Who is charging $500 for a chamber job?

It cost me $10,000 + to do my first chamber job.
 
bsumoba said:
I am a mechanical engineering by education and am relatively young so it seems that it would probably be more economical in the long run to chamber my own barrels.

I do not want something I will feel like I need to upgrade later, but do not want to break the bank either.

I just want to do chamberings for up to a 1.25" straight 32" barrel. I also want to do brakes as well.

What would you recommend for a lathe? Budget maybe sub-$1500?

Those Grizzly benchtop lathes look enticing, but will it be big enough and good enough for what I want to do?
Click to expand...

You need a higher budget for a good lathe. I would skip over the grizzly and look for a good used lathe as there are many available. Being a mechanical engineer you should know that heavier is better.

Make sure spindle bore is bigger than 1.250" and that the headstock is as short as possible.
 
Located in the San Jose Bay Area.
I figured it would be more like 5K all in. I got the wife to agree to 1500, but know it will cost much more than that.

I figured that I will go through 2 barrels minimum per year. at say max $350 for the chamber job and if I decide to put a muzzle brake (for my tac rifle) or a tuner, then it's probably pushing $500. So yes, that is a return of 5-6 years.
 
As said doing your own work will NEVER pay for its self. The up side is you can do a barrel or what ever you need when needed. By time I got set up with just my lathe and tooling I'm in the 15k range. Then comes the mill and tooling. But I will say it's been the best thing I have done as I really enjoy making my own stuff.
 
My Advice is save your money, Go to a couple of the NRA Short Courses "Basic Lathe operations, Intermediate Lathe Operations, and Advanced Lathe Operations". Or go to your local Community College and take at least the first two semesters of Machining Technology.

You will get the fundamental's and have some hands on experience operating a lathe.

There are NRA short courses on action blue printing and re-barreling. Do yourself and the instructor a favor take the lathe operations classes first. You will then understand the fundamentals, and have the confidence and skills necessary to tackle the re-barreling jobs. You will also understand the equipment well enough to make good decisions about what you need and want.

My lathe is a $8,000.00 tool room lathe. each of my six machinist's tool boxes have $25,000.00 worth of tooling in them. Gunsmith work is not cheap, but it is very rewarding to do your own work.

Nat Lambeth
 
Lots of insight here on the initial costs for barrel work.

I was proficient on a lathe and bridgeport back in my college days.

It might be better to just have people who are good at barrel jobs doing it for now until I take a few classes. I will go this route first.
 
I just started down the road you are looking at. If barrel chambering is the only thing you want out of a lathe then not worth the trouble. I think it is one of the cheapest hobbies you can get into compared to fishing or whatever. It is a long way from rocket science. Watch craigslist and ebay there are a lot of manual equipment for sale out west.. Took me 2 years of watching to find my lathe and mill a decent distance from home. I found a good SB 13x48 for 2500 and a decent 42 bridgeport for 1500. $400 for 2 VFD and I have 2 variable machines that run pretty good. Watch the Youtubes and buy a couple of videos and just learn some basic machining operations. Find a belt drive lathe. I got lucky on my first crash and just screwed up a tool bit and that slipped the belt. Good practice regrind my tool bit. Learn to cut some threads. First thing I made was action truing fixture that screws on my spindle. Then I took a giant short cut. 2 and a half days one on one with Gordy. Great experience! I chambered 2 barrels and and trued an action all my own stuff. And a bunch of other stuff. Then you will see what tooling to get for chambering. You don't have to buy everything at once. Ebay is a good place for used stuff. PM me for my phone if you want to talk. I have really enjoyed my learning experience so far. You can make all sorts of stuff with a lathe and a mill. Good luck.
 
Yea I figured that $1500 would be a stretch. I started to look at indicators and quickly stopped...LOL.

Maybe in a year or two...
 
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