Sleeving Progress

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tiriaq

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I mentionned in a previous post that I had acquired a rather nice English 12 bore single ml gun, that unfortunately had sufficient pitting in the bore that I would not consider shooting it. Marked "George Wood London", but with B'ham 1813 pattern proofs. So I suppose it pre-dates 1855. Still has its original rosewood? ebony? ramrod; one rr pipe is detached, and will have to be resoldered.
At any rate, the breechplug unsrewed without difficulty, and the bore really was hurting. Muzzle ID was .730". I obtained a spiral fluted .750" chucking reamer. I carefully turned it into the muzzle for the depth of the fluted portion, to start the job. Turned a collar out of brass to fit the bore, bored it to slide onto the reamer shank, and drilled it for a steel drive rod. Soldered the assembly together. Ran the rod through from the muzzle, with the bore sized collar leading, used an electric drill to pull the reamer through. It was cutting backwards, so to speak. When the barrel had been breeched, the bore had been threaded - wasn't counterbored. So, I reamed until the cutting portion of the reamer reached the threads. Installed the plug, reversed the reamer, and used it to slightly face the plug, so that the sleeve will make even contact with the plug. With removing the reamer regularly, cleaning chips, and wiping the bore, it took about 45 minutes to ream the bore end to end. I removed at least .020", and many of the pits are still prominent.
I plan on using a piece of 3/4" x .049" wall cr-mo seamless tubing for the liner. Aircraft grade cr-mo is rated at 90,000 psi tensile, so it should make a good sleeve. Will bond it in with Acraglas gel or JB Weld.
 
Very interesting, tiriaq. There's probably not a lot of meat in the original barrel walls, so it must be a delicate process. When you are finished, you should be able to fire modern steel shot out of the Cr-Mo sleeve.
 
On the 2 or 3 barrels that I have sleeved, I made up a series of D bits and pulled them through the barrel using a metal lathe. Biggest problem was needing to clear chips very frequently. In your case I would be tempted to sleeve the gun with a rifled liner from TOW and keep the gun as a rifle. Also I secured one liner using a green loktite intended for holding bearings and two points; you need at least .003 or .004" of clearance and you need to be extremely fast once the liner starts going in; think have a large hammer handy if necessary.

cheers mooncoon
 
The muzzle is .87", the breech is 1.115" across the flats. Basically the gun is now about 11ga, with pits. The reamed surface is very smooth, and has a nice finish. Were it not for the pitting, I would be inclined to use it as is. The gun is quite slender and light. A bit of extra metal in the barrel isn't going to be a bad thing. If I use the .049" wall tube, the gun will be .65 calibre.
Reattached the ramrod pipe this evening, that went well.
I checked TOW, none of their sleeves seem to be .750".
I remember your lathe setup for doing bore reaming. I was going to set the barrel up in the Palmgren milling attachment, and use the lathe. Thought I would try it as described above. The reaming went quite quickly, so I decided to just go ahead and finish the job. You are right about having to clear chips frequently.
If the tube isn't a clean slip fit, I expect that I will dress it down on the lathe. Probably use a lathe file.
 
The first one reamed so well, I did a second 12ga. single yesterday. Engraved "EGG" on lockplate, but this one had nothing to do with Durs. This shotgun is quite rough outside, I wasn't too optimistic about bore condition, or plug removal. Plug came out without incident, bore was pitted, but not as badly as the first one. Heavy breech, 1.24". Reaming eliminated all pits. I would consider just polishing it and using it as an 11ga, but while the breech is heavy, the muzzle isn't. It is rather thin, too thin fo rmy liking. So, sleeving will be the way to go. The stock is going to need some work, and the rib is missing. Milled steel under ribs are available, but are more for rifles. I will probably have to make a formed sheet metal rib - like an original - for this one. Should be interesting.
 
I made a rib from 1/2" square stock, if my memory is correct, for a single barreled fowler, earlier this year. I seem to recall the rib was no more than 3/8" high but close to 1/2" wide. Took a lot of milling and filing particularly because I had to grind the hollow in the ramrod side of the rib. :>( (didn't have a round nosed mill). I milled a shallow slot in the underside or concealed area of the rib to reduce weight. The rib was heavier than an original but by the time it was on the gun the difference was not noticeable.
Also I silver soldered the pipes on the rib so that I did not have to worry about them falling off when soldering the rib to the barrel.

cheers mooncoon
 
That is the route I may go, unless I decide to try to form one from light stock. I was thinking I could form some sheet into a square channel, and swage a shallow groove for the rod. The channel would have to be tapered front to rear, and spread, front to rear. Edges would have to be bevelled to fit against the barrel. Silver soldering the pipes on is an excellent idea.
The package from Aircraft Spruce arrived today (great customer service!) and the Acraglas gel is now curing. The tube as received was too tight, so I spun it in the lathe and used a lathe file to slim it down a bit - not much, thousandths of an inch - until the tube would slide into the bore. Faced the end to fit against the breech plug. Tomorrow I will face off the muzzle, and it will be time for proof testing.
 
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I think to go the sheet metal route, you would need to make at least two sets of swages; the first to create a square U channel then a second pair to create the hollow for the ram rod and finally possibly a third pair to give a bevel to the sides from the original 90 degree U. I think even going to a swage cavity that was say 2" long (doing it in segments) you would still get noticeable dimples along the length from the series of swagings that would be necessary to create the length you need.

cheers mooncoon
 
Had the gun out today, and it shoots just fine.* Comfortable to shoot with 1 oz, which is about right for upland hunting with a 17ga.* Should be great for hunting.* It gained a bit of weight with the sleeve, but I only notice it because I had handled it prior to sleeving.* Cleanup was a breeze.* Given the thickness of the sleeve, I think that polishing in a jug choke would be in order.* I will use a bit of the leftover tubing to make a wadcutter.* When I do the second gun, I will use a thinner liner.* There are no pits remaining, and it is heavier to start with.
 
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