Dies & Taps?

[Awgeodude]

What are the dies & taps used for?

And when I say dies I don't mean the type of dies that you use for bullet reloading.
- Alan

 

[Dave King]

Threading metal, male and female type parts. A die put threads on a metal rod (male), a tap puts threads in a hole (female).

 

[Awgeodude]

Thanx, Are there any websites that tells you or shows you how to thread a rifle barrel and other gun related items?

-Alan

 

[Dave King]

I imaging there are but I'm not aware of any right off hand.

A rifle barrel is generally threaded on a lathe and not with a die I believe but I could be wrong and I imaging there are some exceptions.

 

[chris matthews]

You're not imagining things, they are single point cut on a lathe.

 

[4ked Horn]

I have a question chris. Is there any secret to threading a bbl for mounting it in a remington type receiver? When I was in college machine shop class I had a desire to make a copy of a 14" rem xp100 in .223 but I was going to add a 3 rnd blind mag. (now savage has this for sale).

I went in search of advice to a local gunsmith shop that I found out later was disliked by all who crossed their threshold. They asked me who was going to thread the bbl? I was the best student in the class so I confidently told them that I was going to do all the work myself short of making a rifled tube. I was going to machine everything except the springs. They laughed and walked away.

Needless to say I never launched this project after learning that it was against the law to make my own guns. And I never went back to that shop either. But I always wondered what is so hard about threading a bbl as opposed to any other item I single pointed as a machinist.

 

[chris matthews]

The big secret is to get the threads perfectly concentric with the bore.
The actual cutting of the threads is the same as what you did, but there is a lot more involved.

 

[4ked Horn]

OK thats what I thought. Same as normal idea just a ton of accuracy concerns.

I was concerned that it had something to do with leaving the lathe lead screw engaged and cutting backwards with an upside down tool or something odd like that.

What kind of fit is there between the bbl and the action. Some have said it is a very close fit while others say the fit isn't critical as long as the shoulder and receiver face are parallel and the bbl is torqued to around 200 ft/lbs. Or is it both or neither?