The pursuit of adding lightness.

C-doodle

C-doodle

Well-Known Member
Supporting Member
Multi-Factor Enabled
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
1,556
Location
Pittsboro, nc
Rating - 100%
23   0   0
I've got this nugget of a 10/22 that I'd like to be light and "pointy"

It had the bones of a fairly light rifle but the barrel was awful. It had an 18 inch carbon fibre bull barrel that looked cool but kinda sucked.

I had an 18 inch factory 10/22 barrel lying in the parts bin that I got for free. It had no sights and a little bit of rust all over. I thought I'd see if I could turn it into a pencil barrel. As your about to see I ain't no machinist. Just a guy who probably shouldn't have access to a machine.

My dad has this cute little mill in his office. I'm pretty sure it's about worn out but it still kinda works. I've been wanting to learn how to use it. More realistically I've been wanting to mess with it. Figured this was a good place to start.

I cut the barrel down to about 16 - 1/4 inches. Not today fed boi!!! It still made me feel like the atf was about to ruby ridge my dogs...
IMG_20230912_101117648.jpg

Then i stuck it in the lathe and proceeded to turn down the original taper. This lathe really isn't big enough for jobs like this but I was able to make it work for the most part. What a turd huh? Love it!
IMG_20230912_112812050.jpg

IMG_20230912_114404072.jpg

Its ugly but I feel like I accomplished my goal and learned a bit about the mill/lathe. I'd like to learn how to do better work with it.

Really curious to see if I ruined this barrel. It wasn't exactly accurate to begin with. Kicking around the idea of buying a tool to put a crown on it.

The finished project.
IMG_20230913_142641442.jpg

IMG_20230913_142656892.jpg
 
Figure out how to thread a 10/22 barrel.

Then call me ,lol.
 
Hat's off to ya for gettin jiggy with the Smithy.. šŸ˜ŗ
If ya decide to give threading a shot one of these will greatly help ya get it indicated to the bore.
The bore/OD relationship is not to be trusted even in "custom" barrels. :cool:
 
As much as I would love to be able to thread a barrel there's no way I could do it on this machine. I had to put almost half of the barrel thru the main chuck to make it fit on the lathe. Even then I wasn't able to turn down as much as I wanted to. My goal was to get down to the depth of the rear sights factory dovetail. Then I wanted to take off the taper towards the front of the barrel at that depth. I came pretty close but didn't quite make it happen.

It was a fun project and I'm glad I finally got off my bum and messed with it.
 
I was interested in getting a guided chamfering and crown tool.

My wallet decided I'm not THAT interested.

I don't think this barrel is worth $50. Looks like a decent guided tool setup is atleast three times that. Whole lotta NOPE.
 
I would consider taking it somewhere to have it recrowned. After cutting, you likely have some degree of non-perpendicularity to the bore and light burrs on the rifling that can certainly impact stability and trajectory as the bullet exits the bore. At least consider buying a cheap brass lapping tool and giving it a whirl.
 
If it will hit a 10 inch plate at 30 feet it's good enough for me. That's what I had in mind when I did it.

Your not wrong. I just don't want to spend any money on it. To me the barrel is trash and the whole thing was really just for fun and education. Not taking it seriously at all.

The band saw that I used cuts a pretty decent 90 degree angle. I used a wire wheel on a bench grinder to take the burr off the inside of the bore.

Most importantly I have no delusions about this thing being an accurate barrel. I did have fun working on it and got to spend some quality time with my dad.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom