Chrome lined shotgun barrel ream or not?

[Spcamno]

I was thinking of lengthen the forcing cone on my shotgun barrel but its chrome lined and I aware not too many smith will do a chrome lined one.

My question is if I can find one will do should I do it or not?

Any why most people don't want to touch it was it just the reamer has to be a carbide one or its not good for the barrel?

Thx

 

[BCRider]

First off is that if it's quality hard chrome the cutter will be ruined just getting through the chrome film. A good quality chrome job will put up a good fight even with a carbide reamer. Likely it'll chip the reamer and produce a less than ideal cut. That'll mean you end up re-sharpening once roughed out to finish the cut IF it can be re-sharpened and stay in spec.

And even if you sacrifice the cutter and forge on and it comes out decent enough the chrome will not be a continuous layer anymore. I'd be worried about the pressure and pellets flaking or peeling at the edge of the cut area that leads to the bore.

So I'd have to say don't do it unless you're willing to have the chrome removed first, do the chamber mod and then re-chrome the entire barrel.

 

[Spcamno]

First off is that if it's quality hard chrome the cutter will be ruined just getting through the chrome film. A good quality chrome job will put up a good fight even with a carbide reamer. Likely it'll chip the reamer and produce a less than ideal cut. That'll mean you end up re-sharpening once roughed out to finish the cut IF it can be re-sharpened and stay in spec.

And even if you sacrifice the cutter and forge on and it comes out decent enough the chrome will not be a continuous layer anymore. I'd be worried about the pressure and pellets flaking or peeling at the edge of the cut area that leads to the bore.

So I'd have to say don't do it unless you're willing to have the chrome removed first, do the chamber mod and then re-chrome the entire barrel.

Thanks for your detailed explanation!

I guess I will just pass on this project due to the trouble / cost involved.

Cheers

 

[Bobby Ironsights]

Or you could just strip the chrome out first.

You see, there is a reason that both chrome and nickel plating are common, even though chrome is slightly prettier. They have different qualities, and are used in different environments.

Chrome is very hard, and resists abrasion. Nickel is quite hard, but while not as hard as chrome, it resists chemicals too.

You can strip the chrome right out of your gun barrel with hydrochloric acid easier than stripping paint, even the muriatic acid sold as concrete cleaner in your hardware store will do just fine. You can also get proper chrome stripper from caswell canada, that isn't anywhere near as stinky.

You can't strip nickel however, the only way to get it off is to grind it, or use the workpiece as an anode in an electroplater, and actually pull the chrome off the workpiece and onto a piece of scrap, like a length of copper pipe.

 

[Algonquin]

Chrome alone

Agreed: leave as is. A carbide reamer likely would shift the plating easily but the results would be bad since you would set the bore up for further flaking and bad stuff like that.

The jury is still out on the value of lengthening forcing cones. In some instances you reduce velocity. Better to invest a few dollars in a variety of factory loads and pattern to see which your gun likes best.