Since I love following everyone else's projects, I thought it would be nice to share one of my own.
First off, I'm not a gunsmith by any means. Just a guy who likes working on firearms.
In the past I've re-barreled a bunch of Remington 700's and a few Sako 75's.
This is my first Winchester I've owned and first I've ever done any work on. I picked it from a guy for a pretty decent deal. From what I understand,
it was damaged in a flooded basement. The guy I got it from took the old barrel off and decided to sandblast the whole action
and bolt (fully assembled). I've been slowly tearing it down and getting all the sand out of the nooks.
While I usually have someone true up my Remington actions before I re-barrel, this time I figured I'd
do my best to get things trued up before screwing the new tube on.
I built most of the tools I'm using for this job so I figured I'd share everything so far.
This is the lathe I'll be using. Certainly wish I had one in my garage at home. Maybe one day!
Seeing as how I always work on Remingtons, I needed to build myself an action wrench. Voila! Nothing fancy but should work.
Next I made up a small little plug to protect the threads and internal action locking lug area when I eventually Cerakote it. Also gives me something to hang the action from.
Next I wanted to try and true up the action face. I had a few ideas and was originally going to use something like a spider on the outside of the action. Eventually decided to go
with this action mandrel. It fits super snug in the action and threads in. Used a bolt through the magazine area to hold the action on the mandrel when I was spinning it in the lathe.
It was really amazing how the action face cleaned up.
Next I built a lug lapping tool. Lapping the lugs really sucked. Now I remember why I pay something to true up my Remingtons for me.
I figured I've gone this far so I might as well clean up the bolt face. I bought a carbide bolt face truing tool from PT&G and made a little holder for it. I clamped the action down
and used my drill to spin the tool.
I think it worked pretty decent. There were definitely some high and low spots.
I'm now back to square one and ready to get my barrel threaded and the chamber cut.
I'll keep posting pictures as I make progress.
** Update - 5/21/15 **
Got a bit more done last night.
Barrel showed up from Jerry at MysticPrecision last week. Barrel is a stainless Kreiger #3 contour 6.5 cal barrel with a 1-8 twist.
Cut the barrel tennon and the threads. I like to cut the tennon a bit long to start with them trim it to the proper length after
I cut the threads.
I didnt take many pics of the chambering process as it's really nothing more than drillnig a hole in the end of a barrel.
Last year I bought an adjustable reamer stop from PT&G. Works really good for me and it's one of those tools I wish I had bought sooner.
Here is a picture of the chamber during the cutting process. Gage goes in but not nearly enough.
Here is the lasted picture of I have of my progress. Unfortunately I lost access to the lathe to continue my project
so I had to get Henry Rempel to cut and crown my barrel for me. He's the closest gunsmith to where I live and has
an excellent reputation.
I saw a deal on a Timney trigger on the EE so I picked that up a few months ago. Still trying to decide if I'll cut and grind
down the trigger show width as Timneys always seem to be so wide.
The barrel was bead blasted and rubbed down with extra fine steel wool and some Rem Oil. The rest of the parts were blasted with garnet
and were sprayed with Cerakote. The mag box spring, firing pin were sprayed with "satin mag" cerakote and the rest of the parts were sprayed with
"gun metal" color cerakote. It's hard to tell the difference in color in the pictures.
The stock I have is off a Win 70 Extreme and is still in the process of being painting with Duracoat. Forgot the mention, the bottom metal
is just a bare aluminum oberndorf from PT&G which was sprayed as well.
Now the fun begins. Re-assembly.
First off, I'm not a gunsmith by any means. Just a guy who likes working on firearms.
In the past I've re-barreled a bunch of Remington 700's and a few Sako 75's.
This is my first Winchester I've owned and first I've ever done any work on. I picked it from a guy for a pretty decent deal. From what I understand,
it was damaged in a flooded basement. The guy I got it from took the old barrel off and decided to sandblast the whole action
and bolt (fully assembled). I've been slowly tearing it down and getting all the sand out of the nooks.
While I usually have someone true up my Remington actions before I re-barrel, this time I figured I'd
do my best to get things trued up before screwing the new tube on.
I built most of the tools I'm using for this job so I figured I'd share everything so far.
This is the lathe I'll be using. Certainly wish I had one in my garage at home. Maybe one day!
Seeing as how I always work on Remingtons, I needed to build myself an action wrench. Voila! Nothing fancy but should work.
Next I made up a small little plug to protect the threads and internal action locking lug area when I eventually Cerakote it. Also gives me something to hang the action from.
Next I wanted to try and true up the action face. I had a few ideas and was originally going to use something like a spider on the outside of the action. Eventually decided to go
with this action mandrel. It fits super snug in the action and threads in. Used a bolt through the magazine area to hold the action on the mandrel when I was spinning it in the lathe.
It was really amazing how the action face cleaned up.
Next I built a lug lapping tool. Lapping the lugs really sucked. Now I remember why I pay something to true up my Remingtons for me.
I figured I've gone this far so I might as well clean up the bolt face. I bought a carbide bolt face truing tool from PT&G and made a little holder for it. I clamped the action down
and used my drill to spin the tool.
I think it worked pretty decent. There were definitely some high and low spots.
I'm now back to square one and ready to get my barrel threaded and the chamber cut.
I'll keep posting pictures as I make progress.
** Update - 5/21/15 **
Got a bit more done last night.
Barrel showed up from Jerry at MysticPrecision last week. Barrel is a stainless Kreiger #3 contour 6.5 cal barrel with a 1-8 twist.
Cut the barrel tennon and the threads. I like to cut the tennon a bit long to start with them trim it to the proper length after
I cut the threads.
I didnt take many pics of the chambering process as it's really nothing more than drillnig a hole in the end of a barrel.
Last year I bought an adjustable reamer stop from PT&G. Works really good for me and it's one of those tools I wish I had bought sooner.
Here is a picture of the chamber during the cutting process. Gage goes in but not nearly enough.
Here is the lasted picture of I have of my progress. Unfortunately I lost access to the lathe to continue my project
so I had to get Henry Rempel to cut and crown my barrel for me. He's the closest gunsmith to where I live and has
an excellent reputation.
I saw a deal on a Timney trigger on the EE so I picked that up a few months ago. Still trying to decide if I'll cut and grind
down the trigger show width as Timneys always seem to be so wide.
The barrel was bead blasted and rubbed down with extra fine steel wool and some Rem Oil. The rest of the parts were blasted with garnet
and were sprayed with Cerakote. The mag box spring, firing pin were sprayed with "satin mag" cerakote and the rest of the parts were sprayed with
"gun metal" color cerakote. It's hard to tell the difference in color in the pictures.
The stock I have is off a Win 70 Extreme and is still in the process of being painting with Duracoat. Forgot the mention, the bottom metal
is just a bare aluminum oberndorf from PT&G which was sprayed as well.
Now the fun begins. Re-assembly.
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- want some more Remington practice i have a couple more projects to get done ! lol 
