Lee Enfield Headspace Gauges 3D Printed

[I Dont Care About You]

Thanks for all the insight.

And yes, I realize the gauges will have a short lifespan but they cost $0.02 to make.

Headspace gauges are precision ground and hardened steel. There is no way a 3D printed part can accurately replicate this kind of tool. The top surface of a 3D printed part will not be close to smooth and the material is way too soft.

Personally I wouldn't bother with headspace gauges and just adjust sizing dies to match your chamber. It'd be way simpler to buy a sizing die for each rifle.

 

[I Dont Care About You]

What's the best method to fireform? I remember one time reading about stuffing the case with oatmeal.

IMO this is a waste of time, powder and most importantly, expensive and difficult to find large rifle primers.

I don't think that I have ever got completely re-formed brass, until I fired it with a bullet and sort of Start level powder load - but that initial "fire-forming" usually gets the brass altered enough to accept that new bullet and loading.

You asked which is "best method" - likely based on what you are starting with - I think I would lean towards the "o-ring" thing if I was firing off factory ammo - and I would use the "false shoulder" if I was starting with brass cases.

O-rings on every case seems like a PIA.

I would load up a starting load and shoot it. Your cases will be fireformed after that. We're only talking about a few thousandths of an inch here. The gun isn't going to blow up.

THIS. I'd seat the bullets slightly into the lands to help hold the case on the bolt face. Then just shoot the thing and you end up w perfectly formed cases in the process. Simple, easy and nothing wasted.

 

[bearhunter]

Headspace gauges are precision ground and hardened steel. There is no way a 3D printed part can accurately replicate this kind of tool. The top surface of a 3D printed part will not be close to smooth and the material is way too soft.

Personally I wouldn't bother with headspace gauges and just adjust sizing dies to match your chamber. It'd be way simpler to buy a sizing die for each rifle.

I don't know where you get your information from but you're wrong on this.

It's quite a common practice to measure headspace with everything from plastigauge to thicknesses of scotch tape.

 

[hobophobe]

I used the oring method on a no5 with out of spec head space. Ended up putting a longer bolthead on it and it was better. It was hard or brass before that bolt head swap. Shooting lower power cast loads sure helps brass life.

 

[bearhunter]

I used the oring method on a no5 with out of spec head space. Ended up putting a longer bolthead on it and it was better. It was hard or brass before that bolt head swap. Shooting lower power cast loads sure helps brass life.

Were you full length resizing or just neck resizing?

 

[woodchopper]

"bolt head swap" - I think in Peter Ladler's write-up on milsurp website - is not just "any" bolt head to swap - also want to check for "clocking" - so that the bolt head is bearing on the bolt body when fired - not that the bolt head threads are carrying the load. As I read - military armourers usually had trays of the things to select from - to find one that "clocked" correctly on that particular bolt body. And, as per another Internet posting, not all the numbered heads are identical lengths, even though they share the same number - still have to go through the headspace check after swapping - from a posting on Internet, there were some with a higher number that were shorter than ones with lower number - maybe a result of someone's attention in the past, or just the vagrancies of the manufacturing techniques, back then.

yes I have a No2 bolt head that someone decided to use as a replacement and then had to stone it down to get the correct headspace, it measures now very similar to a No0 bolt head.

If you have only 1 or 2 enfields or can keep your ammo separated for each of your rifles then fireforming for each rifle is the way to go to keep your brass from being stretched and eventually failing (usually around reload 5)

I have full length sized all my reloads because having a few rifles I never keep track of which brass I fired from which rifle. Heavier brass like IVI and PPU last longer, but I have loaded up a few hundred 1F range pickup brass and just marked it with a black pen so I don't pick it up again to reload, and of all the range brass I picked up I scrapped about 10% of it as over stretched and not worth reloading. Some rifles have really generous oversized chambers.

 

[I Dont Care About You]

I don't know where you get your information from but you're wrong on this.

It's quite a common practice to measure headspace with everything from plastigauge to thicknesses of scotch tape.

I have been building rifles for more than a decade. I'm well familiar with headspace gauges and how they are used.

Plastigauge does not rely on feel of the bolt closing or a failure to close. A couple of thicknesses of scotch tape is backed by a smooth and hardened steel gauge. A fully plastic, 3D printed "gauge" is none of these things.

 

[Zee705]

I have been building rifles for more than a decade. I'm well familiar with headspace gauges and how they are used.

Plastigauge does not rely on feel of the bolt closing or a failure to close. A couple of thicknesses of scotch tape is backed by a smooth and hardened steel gauge. A fully plastic, 3D printed "gauge" is none of these things.

The 3d printing community literally uses PLA+ to make firearms.

 

[I Dont Care About You]

The 3d printing community literally uses PLA+ to make firearms.

I have a 3D printer. Well familiar with the engineering properties of PLA.

 

[bearhunter]

I have been building rifles for more than a decade. I'm well familiar with headspace gauges and how they are used.

Plastigauge does not rely on feel of the bolt closing or a failure to close. A couple of thicknesses of scotch tape is backed by a smooth and hardened steel gauge. A fully plastic, 3D printed "gauge" is none of these things.

I've got at least 50+ years into it and haven't screwed up a headspace yet, doing hundreds of those jobs.

Some folks get hung up and can't see outside of the box.

 

[I Dont Care About You]

Its not about thinking outside the box. Its about the correct tool for the job. Jobs can be done in a half assed manner or they can be done properly. The choice is yours. When it comes to the containment of 65,000 psi, I prefer to do the job properly.

 

[Zee705]

You must be fun at parties.

 

[bdft]

Holy sh!t. You should get down off that high horse before you fall and hurt yourself. I ignore headspace completely because it isn't that big of an issue.

 

[hobophobe]

bearhunter:

Neck sizing. O ring was just for the initial firing of new brass. Then neck size, and about every 3 firings I bump shoulder back with a redding shoulder bump die. The new no5 is much tighter and my no4 has a slightly longer spare bolthead I had kicking around to tighten it up even more.

 

[I Dont Care About You]

Holy sh!t. You should get down off that high horse before you fall and hurt yourself. I ignore headspace completely because it isn't that big of an issue.

60,000 psi pushing little bits of metal out the back of a rifle is no joke. I've experienced it twice and was lucky to not get injured but you are welcome to do you.

 

[bdft]

Are you sure you understand what headspace is? In order for the gun to blow bits of cartridge back in your face the headspace would have to be huge. Normal headspace issues in the 303 may cause eventual case head separation but not much else. BTW, 303 Mark VII SAAMi spec max pressure is 49000 psi.

 

[bdft]

Down the rabbit hole I go.

Several generations of American shooters have been convinced by bad information that something mysterious and scary called "headspace" should be checked and re-checked on almost any surplus rifle, especially Lee-Enfields. The truth is less interesting but still worth knowing.

For some reason CGN bans the word blog spot so put it in yourself or google evaluating headspace lee enfield rifle. Good article.

http://riflechair.########.com/2011/03/evaluating-headspace-lee-enfield-rifle.html

www.forgottenweapons.com/headspace-operated-prototype-rifle-yeah-its-as-weird-as-it-sounds/

 

[OkayShooter]

60,000 psi pushing little bits of metal out the back of a rifle is no joke. I've experienced it twice and was lucky to not get injured but you are welcome to do you.

You want people to trust your advice, and listen to you. You been building rifles for more than a decade. Yet you admit you blew up 2 rifles? Perfect person to take advice from.

 

[I Dont Care About You]

You want people to trust your advice, and listen to you. You been building rifles for more than a decade. Yet you admit you blew up 2 rifles? Perfect person to take advice from.

I did not say I have blown up two rifles. I said I had experienced case failure twice. Nice try at a smear though.

One event had nothing to do with me, and I wasn't even shooting the rifle. I was standing behind the shooter and still got crap in the face.

The one I was responsible for was during the development a novel wildcat for which I did not have a set of headspace gauges and it was my screwup in sizing the cases that caused the case failure. The rifle itself did not blow up.

When you have chambered and installed your own barrels, then maybe we can have an intelligent conversation. Until then you are simply talking out your ass.

 

[bdft]

Please explain how a "case failure" gets out of the gun and into your face without the gun disassembling itself. That is a long strange trip for an errant piece of brass to go on.