Gentlemen:

I have a couple skinny barrels on some small ring HVA commercial mauser actions. I have one of those barrel vises with two bolts which you tighten down on an aluminum or steel split collar. Where can a guy get a collar that will fit these skinny barrels?

Thanks,

Jordan

I make my own Alluminum split collar from 1.5" round stock I got from J&L.

1.5" is the inside diameter on the barrel vice I made, and the inside of the Alluminum I drill and then use a boring bar.

The slot can be made with a narrow bit in the mill, but I like to hack saw it.

For the odd barrel shapes I cast the spacer from wheel wieghts.

Take some 1/8" paneling and drill a hole in it to slide over the barrel to where you want the spacer. This will be the bottom of the mould.
Then in padded jaws in your bench vise clamp the action upright with the muzzle up.

Take your barrel vise and open the halves up to about a 3/16" gap between the halves. Slide the barrel vise over the muzzle and down onto the paneling around the barrel.

Make two pieces of paneling to slip into the gap between the halves of the barrel vise. Center the barrel vise to the barrel and slip the two pieces in. snug up the bolts in the barrel vise.

You now have a mould, melt some wheel wieghts and pore into the opening of the barrel vise to make a correctly fitting spacer. Once it has cooled down, remove the paneling, you are then ready to use the new spacer.

Since my barrel vise is bolted to one of the 6x6" posts in my shop I made an mould like this to match my vise spacer diameter.

Jim Wisner

Thanks!

Jordan

another option is to "cast" a spacer using epoxy. I use the same Devcon aluminum I bought for bedding. HTH, Dutch.