Thinking of buying a lathe, how hard is it to chamber a rifle?

[dustbag]

Setting up the runout is the critical part

 

[Coyote Shadow Tracker]

That is great that you want to chamber, thread you own barrels. There are a lot of informational videos on the internet. Some GOOD and some not so good.
How hard is it to learn to chamber a rifle???
Very hard unless you have the knowledge and proper equipment. This is not just turning a piece of metal on a lathe or doing some threading. There are several different processes for manufactures of the Actions and also the Cartridge you are chambering for.
I suggest that if you can find a Good GS shop in your area or friend that already chambers barrels, and ask if they would let you shadow them while chambering a barrel. Then practice is essential. There are a lot of so called "Tricks of the Trade" and when chambering to 0.0001 you have to have the knowledge and equipment.
I also know a top GS that is offering private classes on Chambering. He sold his business last year and recently purchased all new machinery just to do teaching.
Doing it for a HOBBY or business is very expensive. It is almost a never-ending purchasing process for tooling and additional equipment/machinery.

First off is do you have adequate space and electrical for the machinery.
Do you plan on chambering barrels for the public and charge for services? You need to check out Zoning for Business license and an FFL.

Personally, I get a lot of enjoyment in building a rifle and working with machinery and I am still learning.
A good friend of mine told me many years ago that if you plan on being a Gun Smith and making a million dollars you should have at least two million in the bank first so that you can end up with one.

There are several good gunsmiths and rifle builders on LRH and I am sure that they can give you guidance and information.
I already sent you a PM.

Thanks
Len & Jill

 

[Darryle]

I'd be willing to bet that the majority of members with above average mechanical abilities can set up and get minimum runout, I'd also bet that cutting a shoulder and indexing threads would overwhelm the majority of people with above average mechanical abilities.

At one time I had a Cincinnati 15" lathe, a Bridgeport single spindle mill, a Sajo mill and a 3 spindle Bridgeport profiler and I still have no desire to cut and chamber my own barrels.

But knock yourself out

 

[shortgrass]

If you want a "do it yourself" challenge , why not make a stock by hand from a blank? There's plenty opportunity to "learn something new" with that endeavor. Many, many chamber, few can make a stock by hand from a hardwood blank. A much lower cost in tools, to begin with. I can not begin to put into words the immense satisfaction I got after making my first rifle stock from a nicely figured Black Walnut blank. Even a nicely finished pre-inletted stock, that's properly fit, shaped and finished can be immensely satisfying . Many here will say synthetic are better. I guess that's why those who make the trip to Africa carry wood as much or more than they carry synthetics.

 

[LVLAaron]

Nothing is hard if you know how to do it.
My two cents... if you're going to spend the money on a good lathe and all of the tooling that goes along with it, spend a little extra and go to Gordy's week-long class.

 

[JP_Gunner]

Find someone locally you can go see the process or try it. I'm fortunate enough to have a few buddies with a lathes, that have/will let me use theirs. it's not a difficult process but it is tedious. The worst part for me is dialing it in to be concentric. After that it's just monotonous small cuts/passes until you get to proper diameter then cutting threads over multiple passes.

It's kinda like buying a tractor and cultivating a garden, picking, snapping and canning beans... when you can buy a can at the store for $0.89. Is it worth it.... not financially, but if you take pride in the process and like being able to see it from start to finish then it may be worth it to you.

 

[GT Accuracy]

I was once in your shoes. Contemplating the pros and cons of building my own rifles to save time and money from buying new custom rifles. 12 years later and literally over $200k in investment (when factoring in labor hours missed while learning), I don't regret it. I now have a shop with 3 lathes, soon to be two mills, an apprentice, and teaching classes for people like yourself.

All that being said, I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND you look long and hard about whether you want to do this professionally, as a second career, or just a tinker hobby shop for yourself. If it is the latter, have at it but know that it is a lot of time, energy, money, learning, and failing before you put out consistent results.

I started with a Grizzly lathe, I wouldn't do it again for all the money in the world. Not that they don't work, but I just would rather buy once, cry once. The Clausing 8027J is a stud of a lathe, after that the higher end Taiwan lathers like the Sharp or Acra 1340 variable speed lathes are great. If money is no object, learn to write g-code and go with a Haas TL 1.

Don't get discouraged. It is a wonderful hobby/career and you can meet some amazing people. Especially in the older generations. I just did a repair job on a WW 2 era rifle and the 96 year old who commissioned it would sit by the door, drink coffee and tell amazing stories from various conflicts.

Chambering the rifle isn't a rough process but like others have said here...the work to get to running the reamer is the hard part. It took my apprentice over 4 hours to dial in his first barrel. He learned quickly what it meant to "chase the rabbit" on a .0005 indicator on a 5 groove barrel. Maybe it won't take you that long, or maybe it will take you longer, but you'll know the meaning of frustration when someone with years of knowledge does it in 10 minutes. But then, when you can do it in 10-15 min you'll look back and giggle at the simplicity of it. Learning the muscle memory and the feel in the hands just takes time.

Good luck !!!! We need more people in this wonderful profession

 

[ridge86]

You can buy a lot of barrels for the cost of a lathe and tools haha

 

[jrock]

I agree chambering is not about being hard itself as much as learning the tricks and getting your ducks in a row. If you know a bit about machining, you can sift through dozens of forums and thousands of posts to find many different ways to skin the cat. Try them all, learn what works best for you. There are books and dvds as well to help you gather more data points on how to set things up. If you are looking at something bigger than a 12x36 lathe to start out, you probably have the money to get a good piece of equipment and tools.

 

[yoteslayer]

If you are mechanically inclined then it's not that hard every one has to start some where but like mentioned before buy some round stock and practice and pay attention to every detail and go in to it with the mind set that only perfect is good enough sometimes that can't be achieved but get as perfect as possible every one starts with minimal knowledge so learn where ever you can there is a lot of info on the web these days so if you get stumped you can probably google it as for the cost it's no different than buying a utv or snow mobile hobbies always cost money the biggest thing is to have fun doing it try to buy good equipment that will make life easier just my 2 cents and good luck

 

[25WSM]

Its easy to do a chamber job and have a perfectly safe functioning rifle. Not so easy to make rifles that shoot in the 1's consistently. Everything is in the setup like butterbean said. The machining is nothing out of the norms of machinist work. I was a machinist before becoming a custom smith 30 plus yrs ago. You can learn all the machinist basics and do the cutting no problem. But how you put your work in the lathe and dial it in is the big difference. I went to the PA gunsmith school when Chief was still there every day. I picked his brain relentlessly. All I wanted was to build accuracy. He taught me. I now do my barrels completely different. You will learn what needs to happen to make accurate rifles. Then you will learn how to do it better and more efficiently. You will work to your strengths and to your machines limitations. Some lathes are better at chambers in the headstock and some are better between centers. For a beginner I fully recommend learning between centers. Much less margin of error in setup and lathe alignment. Once you get going you will fully understand what I just said and why. If you can take a few days of vacation I would help you out to get you going. But only after you get some equipment and are proficient at basic machinist work. What I show you wont mean much until you get to that point.
Shep

 

[lyle2231]

I have a little bit of experience of running a lathe, but not much. However, I think I could learn. If I know the basics of running a lathe, is it hard to thread/chamber, install muzzle breaks etc on a lathe? I'm leaning towards buying a grizzly lathe:

13" x 40" Gunsmithing Metal Lathe w/ DRO - Grizzly Industrial

<h1>G0776 13" x 40" Gunsmithing Lathe with DRO</h1> <h2>A precise lathe with a spider mount and DRO.</h2> <p>The G0776 13" x 40" Gunsmithing Lathe with DRO is called a "gunsmithing" lathe because it has features typically not found on standard lathes, such as a "spider" mount system and a large...

www.grizzly.com

If you can find a copy: The complete illustrated guide to precision rifle barrel fitting
By John L. Hinnant. It will start you in the right direction. HTH

 

[sureshot21]

I have a little bit of experience of running a lathe, but not much. However, I think I could learn. If I know the basics of running a lathe, is it hard to thread/chamber, install muzzle breaks etc on a lathe? I'm leaning towards buying a grizzly lathe:

13" x 40" Gunsmithing Metal Lathe w/ DRO - Grizzly Industrial

<h1>G0776 13" x 40" Gunsmithing Lathe with DRO</h1> <h2>A precise lathe with a spider mount and DRO.</h2> <p>The G0776 13" x 40" Gunsmithing Lathe with DRO is called a "gunsmithing" lathe because it has features typically not found on standard lathes, such as a "spider" mount system and a large...

www.grizzly.com

I've chambered a couple barrels on my lathe, it requires patience and the right tools. Make sure whatever lathe you buy has a large enough spindle bore( through the headstock behind the chuck) to pass a blank through and can have a spider attached to the rear.
This greatly simplifies the process.

Lots of videos on you tube, lots of books. Brownells has a video series.

This is a good one.

Chambering Rifles for Accuracy (book) - 4D Reamer Rentals

Third of many planned works that provide instruction in the correct and safe methods of gunsmithing. Specifically, this essay discusses several methods that can be used to accurately chamber a rifle barrel. In Part I of the book Fred Zeglin teaches you all about accurate hunting rifles and...

4drentals.com

Barrel blank through headstock and in spider below.

 

[xsn10s]

There are summer courses you could take on gunsmithing. Last time I looked they ran about a week for each course. Or take a local machining course at the local college. If you get in good with one of the instructors they could help you find a used lathe at a good price. Geared lathe at around 2k-2.5k. I have a buddy who is a master machinist and would teach me once we have the time. For now I'll settle to get a short chambered barrel or a remage and install it myself.