Gunsmithing First project on new lathe

[McLarenross]

I started "gunsmithing" with a 7x10 mini lathe, moved to a 10x24 Atlas, and about 2 weeks ago I acquired and placed an 11x37" Rockwell lathe in my shop. Now that I have a lathe that has a quick change gearbox and a 1.4" spindle bore I have started to do some barrel work. My first thing to do was play with an old 10/22 barrel that Im sure most of us have laying around. I cut the barrel to 16.25", moved the front sight base back, threaded 1/2x28, and made a nice knurled thread protector outta the spare barrel piece.

 

[waste_knot]

Nice work. I'm sure that will bring many hours of enjoyment.

 

[ugsly]

Nice work one thing you may have to do is move the lathe to the right more, so when you start sticking barrels thru the headstock you'll have enough room.

Kc

 

[tctlrld]

Nice work. Always nice to be self sufficient.

 

[Gene Poole]

I see you've got no chuck on that. Did you do this between centers or through the headstock? If the headstock, do you have a spider on the outboard end of the spindle? I only ask because I'm trying to build an outboard spider for a SB13 and could use some pointers.

I did some practice on a 5/8 mild steel rod; it was a lot more warped than any barrel I've ever seen. There was a good half inch of runout in the spider end of it to get it straight for the three inches or so hanging out of the chuck. I'm limited to 500 rpm by my phase converter (2/3 of full power won't drive the 1000 rpm cone) which is probably slow for steel of this grade, but I only ran the thread bit (modified 3/32 cutoff blade) at 275 as even at that speed, threading to the shoulder is pretty scary. Sorry I don't have pictures of the experimental spider (made from a 2 inch pipe nipple) or of my finished thread. I had to leave the shop in a hurry when my wife called and complained.

 

[Gene Poole]

Went to the shop today to get my glasses I left behind and took a few shots to make up for the missing ones mentioned above:

 

[McLarenross]

That pic was right as I was setting it in place. The lathe came with a nice Buck Set-Tru chuck. I did the 10/22 barrel between centers cause I just made my rear spider tonight, and am making my front spider based on a spare back plate I have this weekend. As for the work you did, the rear spider looks real good. No reason it wont work and I bet it will work well. I made mine thread onto the end of the spindle. Threading with the steady though is a bit of a trick, and takes a little practice. You seem to have gotten most of it down though. Your threads dont appear to be to full depth though. There are a number of different ways to check thread depth but the best is with a mating part.

 

[Gene Poole]

I just used the steady rest to cut the shoulder. It didn't help. I tried everything to get a decent finish on that mild steel. As far as the threads not cut deep enough, well, I think I just got a little too aggressive cleaning up the points with the file when I was done. A GI flash suppressor fits class 2A or better (best I can tell with my limited experience).

It'll be a good long time before I attempt anything on a real barrel.

 

[rpk762]

How did you move the front sight? The ones I have the frontsight base is part of the tube.

 

[McLarenross]

Mine way like that too. I threaded the barrel back 0.450" plus the length of the sight base, then drilled and tapped the sight base 1/2x28 too and set the shoulder back till it indexed correctly and used some red loc-tite to make it stay put. Settin that shoulder back precisely took longer than every thing else cause I had no way to measure the movement of the carriage along the Z. I snuck up on it very slowly, then lapped the sight base in for the last 1-2*.

 

[rpk762]

That was a great idea. Thanks.

 

[Sealhunter]

I've been looking for a decent priced lathe to play with. Only thing I can find for less than 2k is from harbor freight.

 

[McLarenross]

Craigslist is the best thing. Im from Houston so I know there are a few machines in your area to be had. I found this Rockwell on Craigslist here local to me. Be prepared to pay ~$2k for a decent lathe for barrel work and more than that if someone wrote Southbend on the bed. They are good lathes but I think they are kinda like Colt, alotta nut swingers out there. Remember as well, your gonna spend about as much on the tooling as you did on the lathe itself so try and find a lathe that comes with some amount of tooling.

 

[Gene Poole]

We got our 1966 SB13 for $600 from a foundry where it sat unused for several years. They were going to sell it for scrap. It had very few total hours on it in the 47 years it's been in existence and is as solid as a tank. It was set up with a turret system for whatever it was they originally used it for, so we had to buy: 3 and 4 jaw chucks; a cross slide; a steady rest; a tool post; phase converter and wiring; and a bunch of tooling, micrometers, dial-indicators, etc. We're probably well over $2000 into it by now (it could still use a paint job since it was fire-engine red from the foundry and all the add-ons are SB grey). We had a Chinese Grizzly bought used before the SB13 that probably has another $1000 in it to bring it up to snuff, but it is night and day between the SB and the Grizzly.

 

[2156SMK]

I threaded the barrel back 0.450" plus the length of the sight base, then drilled and tapped the sight base 1/2x28 too and set the shoulder back till it indexed correctly and used some red loc-tite to make it stay put. Settin that shoulder back precisely took longer than every thing else cause I had no way to measure the movement of the carriage along the Z.

I have done a few just like this as well.
Stick a mag base indicator on your bed that measurse the carriage travel.
Better yet, make yourself a micrometer adjustable carriage stop.