Dimensions for reciever mandrels

Now that I've got my lathe set up to turn between centers, I'm looking to make a couple of mandrells for blueprinting actions.

Has anyone made any for the Remington 700 or Large Ring mausers?

If you do, could you please mic and do a quick thread check and post the dimensions?

I'm sure that other people in this forum might not have made one yet, and might appreciate the specs too!

Thanks for helping a newbie out.

Andy.

Doesn't Brownells or midway have those for sale?

Yeah, but why buy them when you can turn a 5.00 piece of stock to dimensions?

Andy.

The way I made mine for a Rem 700 action was to usw a .750 x 12'' piece of drill rod and turned it to a snug fit in the bore for the bolt. I used longer scope base screw and a longer floorplate screw against flats on the mandrel to lock it down.
I made a shrink fit bronze bushing for the front of the reciever to avoid maring it while it is running in a steady rest to true the lugs.

logan922 said:

Yeah, but why buy them when you can turn a 5.00 piece of stock to dimensions?

Andy.

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Because you don't have the dimensions.

deltaenterprizes said:

The way I made mine for a Rem 700 action was to usw a .750 x 12'' piece of drill rod and turned it to a snug fit in the bore for the bolt. I used longer scope base screw and a longer floorplate screw against flats on the mandrel to lock it down.
I made a shrink fit bronze bushing for the front of the reciever to avoid maring it while it is running in a steady rest to true the lugs.

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You have some pics of the bronze bushing? I'd really like to see it to better visualise how it works. How expensive was the drill rod?

I just checked brownells prices and they've gone up to over 75.00 per mandrell.

Andy.

and if you work for $5 a.h. why not! ok so lets get on with it i have made them for the mauser , springfield and enfield and have had to make more then one for each of them as there not all same size. the mauser! being they have been made the world around is the worst as far as size gos . you will find that you may have to make more then one as in this case one size do not fit all.

I was afraid of that. I'm sure that because of all the makers that the mausers would differ a lot.

What works best to get an accurate reading on the I/D of the reciever? Do you need any special tools, like a depth gauge?

Would a vernier caliper be accurate enough for measuring the I/D, or would you suggest something else?

Thanks in advance!

Andy.

I would suggest measuring the ID of the receiver with gauge pins ;-). If you are just squaring the face of the receiver the arbor or mandrel will just be a slip fit (not sloppy) in the bolt hole and will be actually be aligning to the barrel threads and squaring off the barrel seat down inside the receiver ring.

I made an aluminum ring to clamp on the OD of a rem receiver that does the same as the shrunk on bronze ring, time is telling me I will need several because I just did two actions that my ring would barely work on, one action was almost too small, the other was almost too large.

I think or or less you will be better off making your mandrels with an action in hand, and maybe roughing out a couple spares to keep on hand for WHEN you get one in hand that differs enough so that you need to add a new mandrel to your collection.

No two gunsmiths will completely agree on the "perfect" mandrel because we all think differently, and we are not all doing the same things to actions, the mandrel used to surface grind the top radii on a KO Lee grinder will differ from the one used to completely true a remington 700 action including the threads. One used to hold an action for mill work might be longer than one used in the lathe, etc.

The ones sold commercially are mostly intended to true the front face of the receiver square to the existing threads. I did make a couple for a guy to use on Turk mauser actions because he could not find anybody that sold them commercially. While I was at it I made one for ME too, and it is good thing because I just got a Turk action to rebarrel for a guy :-).

Bill

Thanks for all the info guys!

I will size each mandrell for whatever reciever I have in hand, and maybe mark with a letter punch set some identification on it for which model rifle it works on.

I had an idea to save on machining. If I got a piece of bar, turned it down the entire length to the correct I/D of the reciever, then superglue a sleeve of pipe in the exact section that I need, then cut the 16tpi into the softer pipe materiel.

The same principal behind sleeving a bolt to increase it's diameter. The only thing that I think might cause problems would be if there isn't enough materiel left of the pipe after it's been turned down and threaded. Might be weak.

Has anyone tried thick leather cut to size with rosin to help it grip the reciever? I have successfully removed barrels with hardwood blocks cut to size and clamped with rosin to keep it from slipping, but I haven't tried leather yet. Vegetable tanned leather scraps are super cheap and can be used for all sorts of non-marring surfaces. I bought a couple yards of it for about 15.00.

Let me know what you think.

Andy

I made my blocks a little over sized and have to use sheet lead spacers to get them to grip properly.
Check out Dave Manson's web site he has a system that is almost foolproof.

Mandrel for Large Ring Mauser is 14-14.5 long. Mine is .690 dia. Need about 4" from threads to end. 1.100 x .625. 1.100 major .985 minor. 55 deg Whitworth threads. Buy one from Brownells or Midway and it will be 60Deg threads. Cut flats between threads and tailstock end to tighten into receiver threads. I use mine with a 5C collet. Pre threaded barrels are almost always 60deg threads.



Can be used on a dividing head to mill off rear receiver stripper guide and clean up front receiver ring if you lock the mandrel and receiver together.

Old Doug

For Rem 700 mandrels one of each of the following OD would serve you well: .699", .701", .703". Tried leather once, lead works ok but drywall paper tape with rosin works great, is cheap and a roll lasts a long time.

IOWOLF said:

Because you don't have the dimensions.

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Doesn't seem that hard to figure it out from pictures or readily available references like John Hinnant's book, or Richard Franklin's video, especially if one has a receiver in the hand. Most of this tooling is really pretty simple to make if one is willing to spend some fun time in the shop and had a reasonably stocked metal archive. I sure couldn't see spending close to a grand to get tooled up so I'm making my own.

As far as the receiver truing tooling, the only real mandatory design data is available from measuring the bolt bore in the receiver and making sure the truing sleeve has a bore big enough to accept the receiver and some shims for padding and walls at least half an inch thick or so and wall thickness enough to avoid distortion when tightening the centering bolts.

A piece of half inch drill rod or presision ground shafting would make a removable mandrel to be used inside of bushings. Machine bushings to fit the bolt bore on each end, machine or ream the hole in the bushings to juuuuuuuuust slide on the drill rod and it should work just fine for aligning the receiver in a truing sleeve.

Based on what is done in the Franklin video I'd think a person could machine some inch long bushings with a slight taper, say .701 to .707 (or a couple of thou under to a couple of thou over the measured bolt bore for the receiver in question) over the length to get a snug fit in each end of the bolt bore. Machining them to fit might be best, but the taper will probably work nearly as well. I think Manson used to sell a mandrel with tapered bushings but I may be wrong about that.

The receiver truing sleeve isn't that hard to make either. It's a couple hours work if one has a chunk of metal, lathe, and drill press or mill available. A 6" long 3" to 3.5" diameter rod end is all that's needed.

There are a at least three versions of them out there, maybe more. When I asked him in an e-mail what size the one he uses in his video is (I have it - very informative and only twenty four bux including shipping), Richard Franklin very helpfully wrote back that the one he uses in his video is 3-1/2" OD with 3/4" thick walls and about 3-1/2" long. I made one of those and another one 3" OD, 1-5/8" ID, 6-1/2" long with two sets of centering screws on one end for long and short actions. I'd never made one before but it wasn't that hard. As I recall, Richard also uses a mandrel with tapered bushings.

I haven't made the mandrel and tapered bushings yet, the holiday sort of got in the way, but a half inch drill rod mandrel and bushings will be in work here shortly.

If one just wanted to machine the receiver face, a mandrel like that in John Hinnant's book would work fine, at least it works for him. Another excellent source of tooling information. John has drawings for enough tooling to do the whole job in that book he published.

Fitch

Thanks for all the info guys! I appreciate all the help I'm getting. This should be more than enough info to go off of to make a decent mandrell.

Andy.