Turning barrels on a lathe
- Thread starter Fixit
- Start date
center it up as best u can supporting it as much as possible. just use a deburring tool to crown it as best as u can, turning it slowly. then clean it up with a piece of fine emery cloth. works great cause your tool is not fixed, so it will follow the original shape, and be as good as original. u should be able to get it so close that nobody will ever notice. sounds like cheating, i know, but i've done it many times, will turn out good. only works on shotgun barrels though, rifles are too thick, and there is too much material to remove.
shatthatkilledelvis
Regular
- Location
- in the bby
Indeed, but sometimes you have to make do with what you have.
My lathe isn't huge, but its not a hobby lathe. I have a 48" bed lathe and the headstock spindle is about 15" long + 4" for the chuck + the spider - so there is your 20". If i need to work anything smaller it can always be done between centers. Its good to know a few different ways to skin a cat.
There isnt much you could have done with it with what you said.
only option would have been a Steady rest. and that isn't a sure bet all the time. (also without the right tool makes a mess of the barrel finish) couldn't have used a Center on it as you couldn't have done the crowning job. so 12" out with some chatter isn't to bad. can also use a file and sandpaper for a finish if you want. shotgun barrels are a bit of a pain as they are so thin, they create a resonance in the steel which makes really bad chatter.
only option would have been a Steady rest. and that isn't a sure bet all the time. (also without the right tool makes a mess of the barrel finish) couldn't have used a Center on it as you couldn't have done the crowning job. so 12" out with some chatter isn't to bad. can also use a file and sandpaper for a finish if you want. shotgun barrels are a bit of a pain as they are so thin, they create a resonance in the steel which makes really bad chatter.
You guys with your 3 and 3.875 inch bore headstock machines need to stop gloating!
Come on now. Machines with that size of through bore on the headstock are the sort of machines found only in super heavy duty shops. It's the sort of thing I'd expect on a lathe with a 6 or more foot long bed.
My 10 x 36 inch lathe has about a 1.5 inch headstock bore. And that's pretty much typical of that size from what I've seen. It also means that the headstock center is a MT5 which is about as big as you'll find for an MT headstock.
Come on now. Machines with that size of through bore on the headstock are the sort of machines found only in super heavy duty shops. It's the sort of thing I'd expect on a lathe with a 6 or more foot long bed.
My 10 x 36 inch lathe has about a 1.5 inch headstock bore. And that's pretty much typical of that size from what I've seen. It also means that the headstock center is a MT5 which is about as big as you'll find for an MT headstock.
Here are some alternatives use a steady rest, if your limited to a chuck use a 4 jaw and true but face jaws with a mallable material sucg as lead so you have contact along a tapered barrel, just an old fartall the best Art
Yeah. A cutaway solid center. You take a solid center and grind away a portion of the side of the tip, so you can reach the bore with a long(ish) tool. The countersink for the center to ride on must extend a wee bit deeper than the facing of the end will, to provide support while the end is faced.
A cat head and a steady rest together is a better bet for set-up accuracy, but is fiddly. But between a cat head and a four jaw chuck, you could set up each bore of a double, at least for internal work.
Another idea (not tried this one, but I think it would work...) is to build an expanding plug that would be inserted into the barrel and allow you to turn with a center support. The practicality of that would depend on the contents of your scrap box, as well as whether you were doing this for fun or for pay (Time spent making tools..).
Cheers
Trev
I made this for when I re-chambered my Parker Hale. The OD of the barrel wasn't concentric to the chamber. Dialed the holder true to the tail stock (windage & elevation, so to speak), then dialed in the chamber bore to the tail stock. Wish I would've made it with a bigger hole, though. Not big enough for a break open action barrel. There is a set screw in the steady rest bearing groove to stop the unit from turning.
[/IMG]
