Home-made 7.62x39 reamer sucess!...

MiltonBradly

MiltonBradly

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
11   0   0
Location
Hamilton ON
Just wanted to thank everyone who helped me with input and info in my quest for a home made chamber reamer a while back...

I still gots' all my fingers and can shoot my enfield fer-cheap now :D

While the end result was a little rough around the edges and slow cutting, my saving grace was the similarities between the .303 and 7.62x39 cases... not too much metal to remove to go from one to the other.

762x39reamer1.jpg


762x39reamer.jpg


I know my pilot is way too short. If I were doing it again.... I had to polish out a slight burr/ridge formed at the base of the shoulder/neck transition in the chamber to ease extraction of the spent cases, otherwise I'm calling it a success!

Thanks again to everyone who helped me out... One more step achieved in my path to firearms tinkering nirvana.

MB
 
Nice work! While I don't imagine that sort of reamer cutting a match-grade chamber like a multi-fluted reamer would... that wasn't the point of the exercise, was it?! :)

If it gets you out shooting your Enfield on the el-cheapo (just remember to clean after using that corrosive dope) then that's what it's all about!

Kudos for a project totally in-line with what I think is the spirit of the shooting sports.

-M
 
MiltonBradly said:
Just wanted to thank everyone who helped me with input and info in my quest for a home made chamber reamer a while back...

I still gots' all my fingers and can shoot my enfield fer-cheap now :D

While the end result was a little rough around the edges and slow cutting, my saving grace was the similarities between the .303 and 7.62x39 cases... not too much metal to remove to go from one to the other.


I know my pilot is way too short. If I were doing it again.... I had to polish out a slight burr/ridge formed at the base of the shoulder/neck transition in the chamber to ease extraction of the spent cases, otherwise I'm calling it a success!

Thanks again to everyone who helped me out... One more step achieved in my path to firearms tinkering nirvana.

MB
Click to expand...


Just by grinding and\or filing? ie: no milling machine work involved?

I am suitably impressed :)

Kudos to ya, mate!


Jim
 
Nice job!

Although a lot of folks would consider a D reamer to be crude it's actually pretty darn slick. I've done a couple of them for jobs of my own. Nothing as fancy as rechambering a Lee Enfield but the results came out just fine.

What did you do about the barrel bore difference? By rights the 7.62 bullets should be pretty loose in the .303 barrel what with them being .003 smaller.
 
Now what are you doing for the magazine? Thanks for posting your experience so far. We all seem so hung up that tools must be made by CNC equipment or professional 35 years in the trade machinists. Man, if the Pathans/Pakistanis can do it, why can't we?.
 
DOH! Silly me for thinking that these things used bullets sized per their names. Nothing else seems to use the names for the bullet size so why would they start now.

Hmmmm... 7.62 mm's converts to 7.62/25.4=0.30. And .303 is... well... .303. And now I find that both of these are using bullets sized to .311 or close to it in the case of the 7.62. It's all so confusing.... :D

But it does provide ideas for a future project rifle.

EDIT, OK, I've done my homework this time and looked up the size drawings of the two cartridges. A question, how are you dealing with the much shorter length of the 7.62x39 cartridge? And going from a rimmed extractor to a rimless? I guess I'm looking to find out more about your conversion. Or are you redoing the whole mounting end of the barrel by shortening the chamber and extending the threading and shoulder further up the outside of the barrel to adapt it to this new caliber?
 
BCRider said:
DOH! Silly me for thinking that these things used bullets sized per their names. Nothing else seems to use the names for the bullet size so why would they start now.

Hmmmm... 7.62 mm's converts to 7.62/25.4=0.30. And .303 is... well... .303. And now I find that both of these are using bullets sized to .311 or close to it in the case of the 7.62. It's all so confusing.... :D

But it does provide ideas for a future project rifle.

EDIT, OK, I've done my homework this time and looked up the size drawings of the two cartridges. A question, how are you dealing with the much shorter length of the 7.62x39 cartridge? And going from a rimmed extractor to a rimless? I guess I'm looking to find out more about your conversion. Or are you redoing the whole mounting end of the barrel by shortening the chamber and extending the threading and shoulder further up the outside of the barrel to adapt it to this new caliber?
Click to expand...

You got it on the last part. The barrel was removed, cut back, threaded, remounted and the chamber was cleaned up/cut to the new profile.

As for the rest of the work Pic's say it best...

My51.jpg


My52.jpg


My53.jpg


My55.jpg


My54.jpg


HTH
MB
 
Good Job!

Looks good. I've beeen toying (as stated) the notion of using chamber adapter for the same/simlar end result...

It doesn't look as if you had to do too much with bolt-face or, extractor. Was there any bolt mods required to feed and, extract?

If not, I'm goin' full speed ahead!
 
camster said:
.............. It doesn't look as if you had to do too much with bolt-face or, extractor. Was there any bolt mods required to feed and, extract?

If not, I'm goin' full speed ahead!
Click to expand...

Actually, if you look at the picture, there has been an extensive amount of machine work done to the bolt face!

Ted
 
camster said:
Looks good. I've beeen toying (as stated) the notion of using chamber adapter for the same/simlar end result...

It doesn't look as if you had to do too much with bolt-face or, extractor. Was there any bolt mods required to feed and, extract?

If not, I'm goin' full speed ahead!
Click to expand...

Why not? said:
Actually, if you look at the picture, there has been an extensive amount of machine work done to the bolt face!

Ted
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on what you consider "extensive". The hole for the ejector has to be drilled. I used a 1/8" surplus carbide drill bit from Princess Auto to get through the hardened bolt head and then and another 1/16" one to drill the ejector retaining pin hole in the side of the bolt head. The collar is silver soldered in place. The extractor is almost stock save for some grinding and shaping to minimize contact with the barrel cut out and insure a full grab of the case rim when opening the bolt. A custom extractor would no doubt be preferable but is not necessary to get it to function.

Really that's all that I had to do... The ejector could be omitted if a single shot was to be built...

A fancier version could involve counter boring the bolt face (provided there is enough meat there to support the case head) to form the collar. A new shorter extractor would need to be fabricated and the firing pin would need to be re shaped and the barrel could be set back farther and seated fully against the inner shoulder... lots of measuring and precision to go that rout...

MB
 
Why not? said:
Actually, if you look at the picture, there has been an extensive amount of machine work done to the bolt face!

Ted
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm seeing a new extractor that is shorter and sits in the opening of the big lug along with the recessing to house and support the smaller rim (.447 vs .540 for the rim) so it can be pulled out without moving sideways. The ejector I'm not sure about and would have to look more closely at my friend's LE bolt to see if you modified that as well or not.

I'm not sure of the correct terminology but since you're not pushing the new casing all the way into the chamber does this make it so that it's correctly called "not fully supported" or some other term?

You did a great job on this conversion. And using the carbine version is an obvious thought that didn't register on me from your earlier posts if it was mentioned. And finally, a use for unpinned bannana clips! :D For my own part I'd far rather get to have 10 or more bolt loaded shots than a measely 5 in semi mode.

EDIT- I see you answered most of my questions in your reply that you wrote while I was typing my own questions above
I've saved all the pictures and text in a "project file" for the future for when I get caught up on about 30 or 40 other things. And if you have any links to other conversions using the LE carbine or some other rifle where you got your info or inspiration I'd be all eyes. Thanks.
 
BCRider said:
I'm not sure of the correct terminology but since you're not pushing the new casing all the way into the chamber does this make it so that it's correctly called "not fully supported" or some other term?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure myself if it is considered unsupported or not. I tend not to think so as the case does stick out the rear of the chamber, however the entire volume of the case is fully supported inside the chamber leaving no section of case wall "unsupported".

Here is a shot of the modified bolt head next to the "stock" bolt head of my tanker Enfield (which was heroically donated its extractor spring untill I can get a replacement). You can see that the bottom of the collar is shorter than the top in an attempt to ease the problem of the case jumping out of the rifle if slowly cycled. As the case leaves the influence of the feed lips it is driven upwards by the front end of the following rounds in the magazine. The tapered collar forces the spring loaded ejector to load up on the case and give it a boost into the chamber as the case comes free from the feed lips. The cases actually overlap the ejector enough when resting in the mag that the bottom edge of the collar is unnecessary, however I included it to provide extra surface to solder to. I also figured I'd rather have a collar to trim back than find I had to deal with poor feeding and the regret that I hadn't built the feature in to begin with. While far from "battle ready/rock steady" it functions well enough for plinking and range fun as is. I would only trust my life to the first shot as a followup might not feed as reliably as one might like...

boltheads.jpg


MB
 
Thanks! Pictures are worth more than 100 words here!

Thanks for the great and, comprehensive replies! I'm more of a Mauser dude. My girlfriend has a .303. I was gonna get her to bring her bolt over but that orig bolt beside your modified one is worth more than a thoudand words!

Thank you...quite inspirational! On the prowl for a donor rifle now!
 
If you would have hollow ground that reamer, say on a 6" wheel, it would have probably ended up working better, its probably not that sharp as is?? Anyway it looks like it worked and that's quite a neat project.
 
JD, the secret for D reamers is to grind or cut them so they are just a little bit under a semi circle. That way they form their own proper cutting angles and cut up to the point that the shape is achieved and once the diameter matches the reamer's radius it politely stops cutting. No need to hollow grind the face. In fact I can see where it would hurt how it works and risk chatter and other issues.

When I did my two projects using home made reamers one was to ream a block of aluminium. For that one it was made from mild steel on my lathe, cut and filed to a touch less than half the diameter and it cut like gangbusters. Keeping in mind that a reamer is only supposed to be used for the last few thou.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom