Is this easily done? Let's say I order a pre threaded and chambered barrel.I am getting tired of waiting many months just to get a new barrel installed.On the subject,can someone who has never used a lathe before chamber and thread his own barrel?

The simple answer is yes.

You just need to know what you are doing.

I have never had any formal training.

Just bought a lathe and started using it.

Before you start working on expensive barrels, you need to learn how to run the lathe and other machining skills. Fitting barrels is nothing but basic machinist work. But yes you can if you can master those metal working skills.
If you are all thumbs and do not know one thousandths from ten mm, then, no.
Now, for the pre threaded and chambered barrels, they are either short, or long chambered. For short ones, you only need a finish reamer. For long ones you only need a lathe. And you need headspace gauges.
Too bad you are in canada; otherwise I would help you.

Just wondering if a headspace gage is required.

I have used them before, but have stopped using them quite a while back.

But, I never make anything commercially.

All rifles that we build are for our own use - sort of a very big extended family, where everyone bring some expertise to the group.

I use a new case for the caliber I am chambering.

Once the bolt closes on that, it is done.

We have built a lot of rifles, and many of them use factory ammo, and no one has ever complained of any problems.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Just wondering if a headspace gage is required.

That's a loaded question. On a bench rest gun using an unfired case is actually advantageous. On a hunting rifle or a dangerous game gun it's an invitation to trouble. In using an unfired case you have to keep in mind that that brass sizes change from run to run and from one manufacturer to another. So if you buy a new batch of brass you may suddenly find that you have to stand on your bolt handle to get it to close. You may also find that in larger cartridges your reloading dies will no longer full length size your cases. Brass has a certain amount of spring to it and the die makers figure this magic out against SAMMI or CIPs dimensions for cases and chambers. On top of that some factory loads simply may not chamber. SAMMI and CIP usually allow about .004 inch between accepted chamber sizes and excepted ammo sizes on the delta measurement. Think of it as the GO gauge being .004 inch longer than the average unfired case. On a gun that was going around the world I would personally prefer a loose chamber. That sounds odd coming from a gun plumber and ex-BR shooter but when I get off the boat to shoot a Zimbawee-death-gopher and I need to buy ammo because I forgot to ship mine or some fool lost it, I'd like what I can find to fit. It's sort of the same, over thinking logic that drives people to use double rifles, controlled round feed or straight line ram feed.

But, to each their own.

We were all, at some point, novices and retained this classification for our first few barrels; so the answer is, yes.
Gauges are an aid to maintaining dimensional consistency but not a guarantee of same. Regards, Bill.

Edmonton is only 3600 Km from Montreal. Can you say "road-trip?"

Seriously, DCPD nailed it. Machining skills first. Gages-yes. You can rent them for reasonably cheap.

I do it with a bit of frequency......

.

It can be done and fun.

If it is short chambered just rent a reamer and remember don't take off a lot at a time,you can't put it back on.
If the chamber is to long one can remove a thread or two as well as taking metal off the shoulder where it joins the receiver.

It would not hurt to get some stock a little larger than the threaded shank to practice the thread pattern.

Its not that hard and you get to use the lathe for practice.

Start cutting! Just like before I start working on my truck's engine, I would suggest watching a few youtube videos Seriously though, I have a DVD Grizzly put out awhile ago that is fairly detailed which I found educational even after chambering barrels for years. I'll loan it to you if you like. Just PM me. There's several different methods of chambering so expect to find some strongly held beliefs that there's only one "right" way to do it. I personally would suggest not going the pre-threaded/short chambered route. If you're going to learn the skill you might as well get to know the whole job.

Depends on the action also. Will you need to cut an extractor slot? Coned breech? Start with something simple with a squared breech end like Ruger or CZ. Oh yeah, metric threads.

When something is in writing, all of a sudden it becomes gospel. The use of for cartridges for headspace is full of possible errors.

Pay attention to what Speerchucker says,

Those of us old enough can remember the outrageous problems with 416 Rigbys. No standards, so ammo was almost never interchangeable between rifles. When standards were set for ammo/chambers, all those problems went away. Ditto with 500 Jeffery.

You just gotta use gages

Realize that you can also get killed or maimed on lathes. A friend of mine got his jacket caught whilst turing a barrel and it pulled him in; killed him. Shouldn't have been wearing a jacket, but too late.
Leave a chuck key in and it will be thrown through your eye socket at worst. Wrap a piece of abrasive cloth around your fingers and you will break a few of them.
Amateurs like to pull off the spiral cuttings; once it grabs you will have a severe laceration as a result; (use chip breaker inserts).
Point is, aside from working on barrels, lathes can be dangerous pieces of machinery. 99% of the guys I know should not be running anything more complicated than an electric tooth brush. I don't know about you.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Realize that you can also get killed or maimed on lathes. A friend of mine got his jacket caught whilst turing a barrel and it pulled him in; killed him. Shouldn't have been wearing a jacket, but too late.
Leave a chuck key in and it will be thrown through your eye socket at worst. Wrap a piece of abrasive cloth around your fingers and you will break a few of them.
Amateurs like to pull off the spiral cuttings; once it grabs you will have a severe laceration as a result; (use chip breaker inserts).
Point is, aside from working on barrels, lathes can be dangerous pieces of machinery. 99% of the guys I know should not be running anything more complicated than an electric tooth brush. I don't know about you.

Everyone has a WONDERFULLY FRIGHTENING lathe story. Just to show I'm not holding back. About 30 odd years back I worked part time in a jobbing shop running a Hardinge screw machine. They had an old TOS Oil Country machine, the first I had seen with a magnetic brake built into the forward, reverse leaver that worked by moving the leaver to the center position, sliding it to the right about 3 inches and then pulling it up to engage the brake. There was no chuck mounting system on it. Just an MT6 center and a huge face plate. Once in a while we would need it for pipe and the guys would take an old 20 inch chuck which was screwed on to a face plate and bolt it to the face plate on the machine, but most of the time it just ran stuff on centers. One time one of the guys was reclaiming some flanges on it and had the chuck bolted on and was turning at about 600 RPM when some one on the intercom called him to the phone. Well of course when everyone heard his name they looked over at him and right at that time he lost track of what he was doing and not thinking he threw the leaver over and sucked the brake up which locked the spindle solid. We all stared and watched the chuck unscrew off the face plate, drop to the apron and blast off right by the guys shoulder and down on to the floor. Once it hit the floor the 150 pound chuck dug into the concrete in a shower of sparks and started race-caring, hell bent all over the shop at about 80 MPH. We all jumped up on whatever machines we were working on and watched the thing run around for what seemed like 30 seconds or more. No one was hurt but a lot of damage was done to the tool carts. Had the guy been standing over 6 inches to the left we would have been fitting him for a pine box.

Never mind about all the scary stories but do be aware.
There are times when the use of a cartridge case as a gauge is OK but a real gauge is always better.
Everyone has to start somewhere. If you can find someone competent to offer instruction, that would be good. Regards, Bill.

You said , pre threaded and chambered barrel . You mean like a savage ? Then the answer is yes . If anything other than one using a nut or a custom that has known specs , I would have to say no . I don't mean to offend but R from what experience has taught me is , if someone asks if I can , it usually means he doubts his ability , otherwise he would have already been working on it .
Ones age , background, employment, mechanical skills are all questions that need to be answered before I could change my mind .
Yes I live in the United States and still pay liability insurance, many years after retiring.

My approach to life, in general, is if I think I can, then I can.
That said, I'm very cautious, and listen to folks who earn a living doing these things.
......and I have a machining background, engineering education and 37 years of manufacturing experience.

A couple years back, I re-barreled a 1909 Mauser in 9.3 x 62.
I hadn't run a lathe in 35 years. And I waited a long time for that >$200 Lothar Walther barrel, so be assured I was damned cautious!

OTOH, I get a lot of work un-dicking projects that the energetic but less mechanically adroit, start and do major damage to.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
OTOH, I get a lot of work un-dicking projects that the energetic but less mechanically adroit, start and do major damage to.

The best to date was a barrel brought to me by a machinist who had decided to rebarrel his 700. He threaded it and brought it to size on the wires and then after going .010 inch under the wires he still couldn't get it to thread on. So, he brought it in to me to see if I could figure out what was wrong with the threads in his action body.
His action body was fine. There was also nothing wrong with the 1-1/16 x 14 TPI threads he had cut on the barrel. Other than them being .010 inch under size.

I've been running lathes in the competitive world market of machining for nearly 30 years.

Shootaway,

I wish you all the luck in the world

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Realize that you can also get killed or maimed on lathes. A friend of mine got his jacket caught whilst turing a barrel and it pulled him in; killed him. Shouldn't have been wearing a jacket, but too late.
Leave a chuck key in and it will be thrown through your eye socket at worst. Wrap a piece of abrasive cloth around your fingers and you will break a few of them.
Amateurs like to pull off the spiral cuttings; once it grabs you will have a severe laceration as a result; (use chip breaker inserts).
Point is, aside from working on barrels, lathes can be dangerous pieces of machinery. 99% of the guys I know should not be running anything more complicated than an electric tooth brush. I don't know about you.

True dat. It might be better if George, if he can't get a gunsmith,to ask a skilled turner for assistance.

Or send the bbl to Rod he's a whore for paid work . jc

Well,if your name is already Bubba -- why not? Depends on how handy a person is. Me? I need an expert (so have to wait.)

Which make and model lathe would suit a novice like me? Something that doesn't take up too much space.Not that I am planning on purchasing one but just to have something to think about.

You really need an accurate, good lathe to work on rifles.

When I decided to setup my workshop for gunsmithing, I asked one of the best accuracy gunsmiths around today.

My friend Dwight Scott.

Dwight has built many rifles that have won championships. And he is in the Hall Of Fame too.

He suggested I buy am EMCO lathe. Apparently they are one of the best on the market, but rather expensive.

It has been working like a charm now for many years.

I use it mainly for gunsmithing work, and friends use it to make parts they need.

When I decide to make our own bullets, we thought we could get away by using a small table top CNC lathe.

That was an exercise in futility!!

We could never get two bullets the same size!!?

Not to the tolerances we want anyway.

So again, we bought an EMCO CNC lathe.

And the quality of our bullets rival anything made commercially.

So to your question, I think getting a decent lathe is going to cost you money.

And you are the only person who can decide if that price is worth your while.

Get the best you can, if you skip on quality, you will not be happy.

Good luck.

Of course Saeed is right; and the smallest lathe suitable for barrel work will weigh minimum of 750 to 1000 pounds. Those are the light ones. Need to consider that in your planning.
A friend thought he would do barrels so he bought a 9x20 because is is small and cheap. It is now a boat anchor; yes it threads, and yes it turns, but it not suitable at all. He can crown a barrel; that's about it.

quote:

fine. There was also nothing wrong with the 1-1/16 x 14 TPI threads

Ouch!


.

Some things are important to a hobbyist, some things are not. Spend your dollars where you need it. Worry about flash latter.

What you do need:
Minimum 40 inches between centers. A Southbend/Boxford style gear box. A Clausing/ Cholchester gear box is fine but you will do gear changes for every thread and feeds and if you are just learning to run a machine it's a PITA. A good Jacobs chuck. Steady rest. Follow rest. 3 jaw chuck. 4 jaw chuck. A back gear lathe is nice to have for ridged tapping but not a must have. Four position tool post.

What you don't really need:
Swing is not important. A quick change tool post is of little or no value to a hobbyist. Collet chucks are generally of little value to a hobbyist. DRO is of little value to a hobbyist. Taper turning attachments. For the most part, carbide tooling outside of a few cemented carbides are not needed.

I could add things to both lists for days, given time to think. But those are the basics.

Maybe a little of subject, but I make the point of bad judgement in a DYI project (sometimes)

The 4 WD folks wanted $400.00 to install my winch..."Screw that!" "I'll do it myself" So..about $200.00 in special tools and 6 hours later, finally have all the crap out of the way so I can start with installation, but still not done....By the way, the folks who put on a Dodge Ram bumper REALLY like their job!

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):
Maybe a little of subject, but I make the point of bad judgement in a DYI project (sometimes)

The 4 WD folks wanted $400.00 to install my winch..."Screw that!" "I'll do it myself" So..about $200.00 in special tools and 6 hours later, finally have all the crap out of the way so I can start with installation, but still not done....By the way, the folks who put on a Dodge Ram bumper REALLY like their job!

The thing that always bothers me about DIY projects is that after I'm done and add up my time spent, and multiply it by my shop rate, it usually costs me 4 times as much to do it myself. If I had simply gone to work that Sunday and let the mechanic do it, I would have actually MADE money on the project! LOL

Yes, it can be done -even without a lathe - it won't be great, it won't be perfect, but if you can watch holland's videos on doing it, then perhaps, yes -

it won't be cheaper than paying someone else to do it, it MIGHT be faster, but it will be satisfying

and it's HIGHLY dangerous

quote:

The thing that always bothers me about DIY projects is that after I'm done and add up my time spent, and multiply it by my shop rate, it usually costs me 4 times as much to do it myself. If I had simply gone to work that Sunday and let the mechanic do it, I would have actually MADE money on the project! LOL

Yep. We all tend to forget to value our own time.

do it during the time you would instead be watching TV and it won't cost you anything.

A good friend of mine barrelled a bunch of rifles on his Myford super 7 lathe. Another friend contoured, threaded and chambered a barrel for his '86 Winchester on a six inch Atlas by mounting the tailstock on the bench and turning half of the barrel at a time. Both of these guys were hobbyists and both did good work. The second guy went on to become an accomplished barrel maker.
There is a tendency, nowadays, to try and make everything sound overly complex, dangerous, or downright impossible. In reality, barrel-fitting is a relatively simple combination of machining operations although it probably should not be the first job one attempts on his new lathe. Regards, Bill

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Leeper:
A good friend of mine barrelled a bunch of rifles on his Myford super 7 lathe. Another friend contoured, threaded and chambered a barrel for his '86 Winchester on a six inch Atlas by mounting the tailstock on the bench and turning half of the barrel at a time. Both of these guys were hobbyists and both did good work. The second guy went on to become an accomplished barrel maker.
There is a tendency, nowadays, to try and make everything sound overly complex, dangerous, or downright impossible. In reality, barrel-fitting is a relatively simple combination of machining operations although it probably should not be the first job one attempts on his new lathe. Regards, Bill

Very true.

All one needs is a bit of common sense and working to close tolerances.

So true! I just finished a 8'x8' shed for a chicken coupe. Home Chepo sells them for around $1200. I scoffed at that price and decided to build it myself. $800 in materials and two days worth of time later and it's easy to see how it would have made more financial sense to just buy the one from the box store and spend those days in the shop. But there's something to be said about doing something yourself and being proud of the outcome. What I have to avoid doing is calculate out how much it cost to raise chickens versus how inexpensive a dozen eggs is right now That would be down right depressing.

Bottom line, yes it will cost you more to do the job yourself and yes there's inherent risk in running a lathe and chambering a barrel, but if it's something you desire to learn it can certainly be done and there's a satisfaction in doing a job well yourself.

One more warning: If you have any assets worth protecting (or simple don't want to injure anyone) I would avoid doing barrels for your friends and acquaintances until you've gained a lot more experience.

"The thing that always bothers me about DIY projects is that after I'm done and add up my time spent, and multiply it by my shop rate, it usually costs me 4 times as much to do it myself. If I had simply gone to work that Sunday and let the mechanic do it, I would have actually MADE money on the project! LOL[/QUOTE]

quote:

Originally posted by MNR:
What I have to avoid doing is calculate out how much it cost to raise chickens versus how inexpensive a dozen eggs is right now That would be down right depressing.

[/QUOTE]

Just wait until you get summer eggs and no one will eat them because they begin tasting like stink bugs, grass hoppers, garter snakes and stink weed. I had farm eggs at a friends place a couple of months ago and they tasted just like sow-thistle ! His kids told me it was because the chicken pooped them out of the wrong hole by mistake. LMAO

That's hilarious! Sounds like something my kids would say too.

quote:

Originally posted by speerchucker30x378:

[/QUOTE]

Just wait until you get summer eggs and no one will eat them because they begin tasting like stink bugs, grass hoppers, garter snakes and stink weed. I had farm eggs at a friends place a couple of months ago and they tasted just like sow-thistle ! His kids told me it was because the chicken pooped them out of the wrong hole by mistake. LMAO[/QUOTE]

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
You really need an accurate, good lathe to work on rifles.

When I decided to setup my workshop for gunsmithing, I asked one of the best accuracy gunsmiths around today.

My friend Dwight Scott.

Dwight has built many rifles that have won championships. And he is in the Hall Of Fame too.

He suggested I buy am EMCO lathe. Apparently they are one of the best on the market, but rather expensive.

It has been working like a charm now for many years.

I use it mainly for gunsmithing work, and friends use it to make parts they need.

When I decide to make our own bullets, we thought we could get away by using a small table top CNC lathe.

That was an exercise in futility!!

We could never get two bullets the same size!!?

Not to the tolerances we want anyway.

So again, we bought an EMCO CNC lathe.

And the quality of our bullets rival anything made commercially.

So to your question, I think getting a decent lathe is going to cost you money.

And you are the only person who can decide if that price is worth your while.

Get the best you can, if you skip on quality, you will not be happy.

Good luck.

....so why would you skimp on gages? (Grin)

quote:

Originally posted by Duane Wiebe (CG&R):

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
You really need an accurate, good lathe to work on rifles.

When I decided to setup my workshop for gunsmithing, I asked one of the best accuracy gunsmiths around today.

My friend Dwight Scott.

Dwight has built many rifles that have won championships. And he is in the Hall Of Fame too.

He suggested I buy am EMCO lathe. Apparently they are one of the best on the market, but rather expensive.

It has been working like a charm now for many years.

I use it mainly for gunsmithing work, and friends use it to make parts they need.

When I decide to make our own bullets, we thought we could get away by using a small table top CNC lathe.

That was an exercise in futility!!

We could never get two bullets the same size!!?

Not to the tolerances we want anyway.

So again, we bought an EMCO CNC lathe.

And the quality of our bullets rival anything made commercially.

So to your question, I think getting a decent lathe is going to cost you money.

And you are the only person who can decide if that price is worth your while.

Get the best you can, if you skip on quality, you will not be happy.

Good luck.

....so why would you skimp on gages? (Grin)

I do have all the gages, I just do not see the need to use them.

It all started when I had a tip from one of our members here, regarding chambering belted magnums.

He suggested I use a new case to finish the chamber, rather than cut deeper for a GO gage to fit.

I have been doing that ever since, with all my chambering, and have never had any problems whatsoever.

And our belted magnum built rifle never develop a second belt as they are reloaded several time.

A novice can install a barrel, with minimal tools, if he is willing to understand the process and do the work correctly with what tools he has available.

It all depends on what he wants to accomplish. If the goal is just to get the rifle rebarreled, he would be a lot better off paying someone else to do it professionally. If he wants to learn something in the process, and maybe tier off that to do more work in the future, I'd highly recommend doing it yourself.

I did my first rifle myself because I wanted to learn. I didn't pick an easy project, because I wanted to do something interesting. I invented a wildcat cartridge (already had been done, but I didn't know it) and made my own half shell type reamer on my newly acquired 6x18 atlas lathe.

I bought a $20 barrel blank from Numrich, and paid $35 to have it threaded for a mauser action. Then, I chambered it by hand with my homemade reamer, without a lathe. Turned the reamer with a crescent wrench while holding the barrel upright in a bench vise. Polished the chamber with a drill, dowel and emery cloth. Assembled the rifle and it worked correctly, and amazingly enough was relatively accurate. I learned a lot in the process, and the primary thing I learned is that I needed a bigger lathe.

I'm not a pro, still really a novice, and don't have top equipment, but I've chambered a few hundred barrels since then. I would never have learned if I hadn't just started and done what I needed to.

I'd highly recommend gages for a novice. They make the work of getting the chamber correct a lot easier, and give some assurance that it is reasonably to standard.

On Saed's suggestion to not chamber a magnum with a gage, I agree. I chamber magnums always to just "almost" close on the GO (edited, had it wrong). The belt is always way too far back on the brass cases, and I've never seen a piece of brass that wouldn't fit in a barrel chambered to almost take the go. The brass will last a lot longer that way, and I believe it is more accurate once you reload the fired cartridges, as long as you just neck size and just barely push on the shoulder of the case as you size.

However, on a conventional case that headspaces on the shoulder, I much prefer to use a gage. Cases are way too non-uniform in shoulder location to reliably use them.

On rimmed cases, I don't use a go-gage, I use accurate measurements and cut to the rim thickness I want, plus .001 to .002" clearance. But, I only work on obsolete rimmed cartridge rifles, and don't have to deal with factory ammo.