Newbie Question on rifle barrels

Hoov300 · Sep 18, 2017

Hello and THANK YOU for your time.

I had a question and I believe you guys could help me out. I am a long-distance and tactical shooter amungst other things. I have often contemplating buying the equipment to chamber and thread my own barrels because of the MANY poor quality self acclaimed gun-smiths and the many months I have to wait for the work.
My question to you all would be can some of you recomend the type of CNC equipment and training needed that someone could buy/under go? I am NOT trying to disrespect any tradesmen with decades of experience, etc.... I just want to know if with the right piece of equipment and some training is this possible?

Thank you for your time.

Heath

SteveF · Sep 18, 2017

This thread will probably get moved over to the Gunsmithing sub-forum.

Of course it's possible. Going to cost quite a bit for the equipment needed, far more than having MANY barrels installed. Plus the cost of learning how to do it.

A CNC lathe isn't needed. No telling how many tens of millions of barrels have been done on manual equipment. There are quite a few videos on YouTube that show how it's done and what equipment would be needed. All you need is the equipment and then it's a matter of mastering the knowledge and gaining the experience to do it well.

Steve

Monarchist · Sep 18, 2017

Hoov300 said:
thread my own barrels because of the MANY poor quality self acclaimed gun-smiths and the many months I have to wait for the work.

Well.. rather than become a fair imitation of YET ANOTHER one of those, why not invest your energy into finding one of the BETTER gunsmiths to do it FOR you, and better?

72bwhite · Sep 19, 2017

not really that hard to do, just need a decent lathe
and the right tooling, and not be in a hurry.
plenty offinfo on the web on how to do it.

Cole2534 · Sep 19, 2017

Well, probably the first couple things you need to decide is if you'll be chambering through the headstock or with a steady rest, the maximum diameter barrel blank you wish to work with, and the minimum length blank you intend to work with.

Answering that will narrow down your choice of lathes and the rest is documented in PM's gunsmithing forum.

If chambering is truly what you desire, I'd choose to work through the headstock. The first lathe project I'd make would be a rotary oil fitting for the muzzle so that you could force oil onto the chamber reamer, flushing out chips.

Jim Williams · Sep 19, 2017

There is a book about Pope, one of the kings of rifle barrel making. It is interesting reading, and you will learn a lot about barrel making

ulav8r · Sep 19, 2017

Manual lathe cost could be less than $1000 to as much as #15000. $3000 should get a nice used lathe with the needed tooling if you are willing to wait until the right one becomes available. CNC would be more like $5000 for a barely useable old machine to well over $20,000. You could learn to use the manual machine quicker with less chance of ruining a barrel blank. For your own use, a manual machine will perform the work quickly enough.

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Newbie Question on rifle barrels

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Jim Williams

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