This is not a "how to" question but a perspective/possibility idea! I will buy a video lesson on "how to" if need be. How hard is it to thread and chamber a rifle barrel correctly? A friend has a fair lathe. No mechanist training between us. He is a retired diesel mechanic, I am just retired! I have the above rifle and am trying to get it rebarreled. I have a 5R stainless barrel. About to give up on smith that has it and try it myself.

I can feel the flames starting already, but I'll answer anyway. Threading and chambering a barrel is about as low on the machinist scale as you can go for complexity and precision, as long as you understand how to correctly headspace the barrel and use go and no go gauge to check it.

You need a lathe, a correct chamber reamer for the cartridge, a dial caliper and a depth mike. To go up in accuracy on the chamber, a barrel alignment tool from Brownells and a dial indicator helps. To go up another level of precision, a tight bore fitting rod and a dial indicator is needed. You can get all fancy and use a micrometer, thread wires, etc, etc, but the basics will do the job nearly as well.

I can fit a barrel to factory level precision with only a lathe with 3 jaw chuck, live center, steady rest, reamer, dial caliper and a go gauge.

Read up on it, (skip the internet, go to Dunlaps
"Gunsmithing") and give it a try. Worst case, you can set the barrel back an inch or so, and try again. You'll learn a lot more about your rifle in the process.

If you read up on how to thread and chamber on the internet, you'll come to the conclusion you need a few thousand dollars worth of tooling and a PHD in machining theory to do it.

True.
You picked a perfect rifle for your first barrel job; no extractor cut.
It's really easy. But I've done a hundred of them.
Best way to learn is in person, from someone who knows how. Reading a book is good. Internet; have to be lucky.
The "No machinist training" needs to be reversed.
Oh, do not make your first attempt on a good blank; use a take off barrel to practice on. Cut the threads off and start over. Or Guess if your blank has enough shank to practice on, ok.

Get a copy of John Hinnant’s “The Complete Illustrated Guide to Precision Rifle Barrel Fitting”. It’s as close to a step by step explanation as you’ll find.

Get some 1018 cold rolled steel rod and practice cutting threads on it. You could even drill a hole in it and practice cutting the chamber. Make chips with cheap steel until you are comfortable enough to do your own barrel.

If you buy steel to practice, I recommend paying a few pennies more for 4130 or 4140 as they are more representative of the barrel you want to thread than 1018.

I think the thing that took me the longest time to grasp as a beginner is that slow and patient is rarely the best way to cut metal. Cutting tools work best at particular speeds. Follow the recommended feeds and speeds and you will get better surface finishes.

Be careful; if you just get a piece of 4140 it will not be the same as a barrel; rifle barrels will have been stress relieved whereas bars from a mill, won't.
Again, best practice material is, old barrels.

As mentioned, fitting and chambering a barrel like this is basic machining. Set up is relatively simple and all steps are common sense.
I'm sure step by step instructions of various methods have been posted on here before. I may even have done so. Regards, Bill.

Another vote for getting John Hinant's book. Lots of pictures and good explanations. Practice threading and chambering on scrap first. If you can find somebody close to show you the first time, it's way better; you'll have all sorts of questions on which speed to run at and how tight to adjust steady rest and what kind of lubricant to use on it and for cutting, etc etc. You'll forget to switch lathe over to threading and won't understand why it's not working...all that goes away if you just have somebody that's done a few there with you.

quote:

Originally posted by Kolo-Pan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNCH2FvYcQg

Another VERY good example as to why you shouldn't turn to YouTube and the internet for every answer.

Slivers

Mybe you could enlighten us as to what that guy is doing wrong in your opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by Kolo-Pan:
Slivers

Mybe you could enlighten us as to what that guy is doing wrong in your opinion.

Pretty much fact, not opinion, as I am the 'lead man' in a busy job shop. #1 He has way too much barrel sticking out of the chuck. If you're going to work through the headstock, work as close to the chuck as possible. #2 The guy has long sleeves on. When working around rotating equipment, lathes, mill, drill press, short sleeves, remove the watch and rings/jewelry. If you watch enough Youtube you can find some serious machine shop accidents just because something was overlooked or the person just did something stupid. Respect the machinery, or suffer the consequences. I have been machining since '73. Still have all my fingers. Bothered to attend and graduate from MCC 2 yr gunsmithing program 32yrs ago. Chambering isn't difficult, as others have said. But there are some basic principals and safety precautions that you need to know before you begin, and YouTube is no place to learn, unless you want to learn the half-azzed way.

Thanks for all the replies! I am not at the point of doing it myself yet! Friend with the lathe has cut threads before and has all the measuring tools. He is just reluctant! The rifle and barrel are at the second smith right now. First guy gave me a time line but went three times over. He had some dandy excuses! With a visual health scare I went and got it. False alarm on the health scare. I did not even ask the second guy how long!

One of the simplest actions to fit a barrel to. I have many books and a few videos that cover barreling, one of the best resources I’ve used is Richard Franklin’s video on rebarreling, or metalworking for gunsmiths, can’t remember what it was called. He’s not smithing anymore but still sells his videos. As an addition, his video on pillar bedding is excellent also.