Gonna make my second attempt at re-crowning this weekend. Last time I just shaved off the end of the barrel until it was flat and true. Worked well enough, but upon further research I hear it is a relatively fragile method.

Equipment is an old Atlas workshop lathe with new carbide tip cutters. Rifle is a 1908 Brazillian Mauser, original bbl, pitted crown, about 23" long, shoots 2-3" now in .280Rem.

With this relatively limited equipment and a lot of patience can I get a good crown? Should I stick with a flat face? Taper? Recess? I don't think I can get the nice curved crown one sees in factory rifles, but I might try. If the bore is off center, how does one compensate for that?

Suggestions? I know I could go down and get it done, but where's the fun in that!

Center up the bore using a rod , larger than bore diameter pointed on both ends. Put one end in the bore and the other in a divot in a piece of steel held in the tail sotck. The idea is to be able to see the bore wobble if it is off center. If you happen to have a drill bit shank that is a push fit in that bore use it. Easiest of all is a spud from a bore sighter. Just stick it in and use it. Use a dial indicator to see the wobble and fix it with the four jaw chuck. Turn it over by hand to adjust. Use beer can shims to avoid marring the blue. A spider is not a bad thing to keep the action end centered in the headstock, not necessary though. If you are real lucky the bore is reasonably centered and your three jaw is true. Do check it for trueness all the same. If it is true, forget the whole preceeding paragraph, at least for a run orf the mill deer rifle.



Now that you have it straight you need to cut the crown. I usually make a sickle shaped cutter. I would not have use for the pre-made carbide one here. Grind the cutter as much as you can, on the wheel, and finish with a dremmil. Make the cutting part a concave portion of a circle. It will need plenty of relief on the back of the cutting edge to avoid rubbing on the barrel. This cutter will allow you to make a rounded sporting type crown. Work it in and back and forth, go slow to avoid breaking the cutter. Don't try to ram it against the end of the barrel and make full cutting contact. A bit off the bore side, then the outside of the barrel, the face ad so on. Your crown will look great.



The actual cutting will only take a couple of minuets. You don't need to strip the action or remove it. Just spin it slow enough that the lathe does not jump all over the place. When done polish it with abrasive paper backed by your thumb. Get the cutter far out of the way to avoid accidents, it could cut your hand really badly if something caught and rammed you hand into the tool.



To answer your question a lathe will do a great job of crowning.

CDH
A 90 degree crown is the easiest to make accurate and the simplest to make. That 11 degree stuff is a lot of old wives tales. Using high speed steel might be a better alternative to carbide. You can get it sharper than carbide and produce a better crown. I like a round crown because it doesn't cut holes in the floormats of my truck. You can also lap or deburr any crown with a brass ball on a stick with lapping compound or a round head brass screw. This will seek the center of the barrel even if the crown is way off. It might take a little time, but it's a proven meathod. At least that's what Pete Grisel told me, and I seem to believe him.

gunmaker

The smith I use prefers a "stairstep flat" crown. Start with the bore fairly true to center, and flatten the end of the barrel (center to outside). return to center and infeed .020-.030 (approx) and cut another flat that ends 3/4 of the way to the outside of the barrel. Return the tool to center and make a 3rd pass (again .020 infeed) ending 1/2 way to the outside. The last lathe cut duplicates the first 3, but ends 1/4 of the way to the outside. Finaly "crack" the sharp edge at the bore with a (brass) roundhead screw and some lapping compound.
It's the easiest to setup (and the most forgiving of offcenter errors) for a begining machinest, yet provides a excelant crown to protect the rifling.

"Are you trying the make the cutter the same shape as the crown or........."

Make the radius on the cutter a little bigger than the radius on the crown. It probably would not stand cutting the whole barrel end radius at once. It would probably want to chatter too. Move the cutter a little this way and that to blend the cut on the end of the barrel an make it come out smooth.