I've been meaning to post these for quite a while. I found a new program to resize my pictures and that saved me lots of time.

Here's a chambering setup that I came up with. Started with chewing the fat with David Christman. I purchased a video from GreTan and spent some time researching on benchrest central forum. My pumps, gauges and rotary coupling are off flea-bay. Press on hose fittings, hose and filter housing from McMaster-Carr. Oil is Mobilmet 766. Dave Kiff told me to mix it with some Type F. That's why the last picture is red. I bought some super magnets to help pre-filter some of the chips out. I also made a cheap magnetic filter from a 1/2" plastic coupling and two hose barbs. I installed this ahead of my high pressure pump. The bypass valve on the right side of the gauges is from MSC. I couldn't buy a cheap pump motor from flea-bay and purchased a new 1/2 HP one for $100 from Dayton. The pumps are carbonator pumps. I've got about $40 in each. The one that is hooked up now and works very well is a rotary vane that pushes 250psi @ 125gph. Much more than needed and the bypass valve works very well. My backup pump is a gear pump. Also a carbonator pump. I tried the vane model first and it runs very quiet. I'm sure the gear pump would be quite loud in comparison. They both attach to the front of the motor with a simple hose clamp looking thing. Not a normal motor with a shaft sticking out. The shaft is split and a flat key couples the pump and motor. You can see the extra pump on the shelf next to the Deublin rotary union. $70 for 2 new ones on flea-bay. There was a post a while back asking about indicators and the first few pics show some good setups for them. I use two on the range rod so I don't have to run one back and forth. There's a bunch of different ways to set up and chamber. I'm not saying my way is better than any else's. Just a little different. It does speed up flushing the chips out and I only have to pull the reamer out of the barrel 2 or 3 times and the chamber is complete. No pre-drilling and some say you can chamber a 7 mag in 15 minutes. I haven't pushed it that hard yet.

That is one trick, slick, and sanitary setup!

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:
That is one trick, slick, and sanitary setup!

Thanks
It looks quite different than what I'm used to. Most of my chambering jobs have been done on an old 13" Southbend using a steady rest and a few coffee cans of oil using a blow gun to fog my shop with oil mist. I scrubbed my new lathe down to try and eliminate most of the junk I didn't want to pump through the barrel. My first attempt at diverting the oil was the black pan with the white mud flaps. What a mess. There was a return line that tried to keep up with the oil flow. All it ended up doing was overflowing and starving the pump for oil. The new aluminum chute attached with the magnet works pretty slick and flows a lot of oil. It drops through the bed into another aluminum long V shaped pan that runs it right into the drain.

GM what brand is the floating reamer holder?
can you post a close up? I zoomed in and enlarged that section but the photo quality went south. I like that clear cone looking thingy to keep the floating holder clean.
How did you connect the oil inlet hose to the muzzle?

Thanks for the pics and explanation. But I just have to ask-

What kind of crack-headed handle is that on your Aloris!?!

very nice.. the pan is just too darn cleaver

Doug
Here's a better pic of the reamer holder. It's a copy of what they used at the Army Marksmanship Unit Ft. Benning. The only difference is the ball detents I put in to quickly pop off the reamer and dunk it in solvent and clean oil. The AMU model was threaded. The third year instructor at TSJC worked for the AMU for 25+ years. I built this floating holder in school back in 1992. Pretty simple design. The plate with the slots in it is hardened and the rest is soft. The only problem with this kind of holder is that you have very little feel while reaming the chamber. That's why you see me holding the reamer with a baby vise-grip in the last in the string of pictures. Since I haven't chambered very many barrels with the power flush, I'm now holding the reamer by hand for the first 2/3 of the chamber to get a feel of how fast I can push it. Then I put in the floating holder and finish the chamber as close to the size of the reamer as I possibly can. The little splash guard is the top of a water bottle with a cap from a endmill tube pushed in the neck. I drilled the cap the first step smaller than 7/16" on my unibit. The far side of the splash guard is cut out to speed the draining.

The two muzzle cutoffs in the top right of the picture show the attachment. I just turn a nipple on the smaller barrels and pipe thread the larger ones. I would have used the Gre-Tan attachment but, my headstock is too long. The Gre-Tan rotating coupler didn't fit inside my headstock.

When I crown the barrel, I set it up with the range rod just like chambering. I bought some DOM tubing in different sizes and have made some false breeches to screw on the chamber end. I figure It's cheaper to buy a hole than drill it. After cutting the barrels to length, they are sometimes too short to reach the adjusting screws on the left end of the spindle. The false breech also takes the abuse from the adjustment screws much better than the finish polished barrel. I aligned my adjustment screws differently than I've seen others do. They are 45 degrees off the 4 jaw chuck. This I feel, makes it easier to dial it in taking less pressure on the ourboard side to align the muzzle.

We all know that the a chamber on a wood-stocked no-glass rifle that is cut with the time tested method of three-jaw holding the muzzle and a steady rest holding a concentric section of the cylinder with the reamer held with a lathe dog, hand held, creates a very acceptable level of accuracy for a hunting rifle. How's that for a run on sentence?

The only practical benefit I see with getting carried away using benchrest methods on a wood-stocked custom rifle is the extra edge the shooter has hopefully giving them more confidence in shooting. Like playing pool. If you know you can sink it, you will. If you have any doubt then you might not.

Marc
I bought my BXA holder used in "like new" condition. Like new meant the handle was bent like a banana. I made a new handle and had to try out my spiral attachment on my TM-UM Hardinge mill. I spent a ton of time years back machining all the gears and hardware for the spiral gearbox on my little TM-UM. I learned a lot cutting gears, but I've only used them once.

Nice setup James! It takes me a lot less time to do it in the headstock and I personally think I get a much better job.
Butch

I have been wrapping the Copper gimbal around the barrel, I never thought of sections around the jaws.

Thank you for posting that.

I was just busting your chops. When i saw the hanlde I figured you were practicing bolt body fluting.

That is a nice set-up you have there!!!

James would you know where a fellow might get a set of plans for that reamer holder ?

I could give you a few dimensions. If I were to make another one it would be a little different. I'd start by making it a little lighter weight. All the reamers I have are 7/16", I would not make the two piece bushing and housing. I might also try to make the plate work like an oldham coupler. Not the 2 pins on each side of the X-slot plate. I'd also start with a #3 morse taper. If you check the benchrest forums, a lot of those guys use a dirt simple cup that is a little oversize of the reamer shank and a custom lathe dog that is machined square to the centerline of the reamer.