Those aluminum vise jaws

[brstevns]

Has anyone tried those aluminum vise jaws as seen on flea-bay to use in barrel removal?

[Bzcraig]

Bought a set from Midway but haven't used them yet.

[brstevns]

Want to help a cousin remove a Savage barrel. Thought maybe these would work along with a pipe vise I have?

[Bzcraig]

Sure bring it on over in the morning!

[Ballistics in Scotland]

It is unlikely that gripping the barrel with any kind of flat jaws in an ordinary engineer's vice will work, unless it is quite loosely screwed in. Gripping the flat sides of the action should be fine, although you should make sure they rest on something pretty solid. In this case your problem is going to be gripping the barrel. I have had good luck with drilling a hole in a 1in. thick aluminium block, as big as you can get into a large adjustable wrench, and then epoxying it in place, which was about as far as I could hammer it down a tapered barrel. That won't damage a barrel you want to reuse, and possibly not even the bluing.

[brstevns]

It is unlikely that gripping the barrel with any kind of flat jaws in an ordinary engineer's vice will work, unless it is quite loosely screwed in. Gripping the flat sides of the action should be fine, although you should make sure they rest on something pretty solid. In this case your problem is going to be gripping the barrel. I have had good luck with drilling a hole in a 1in. thick aluminium block, as big as you can get into a large adjustable wrench, and then epoxying it in place, which was about as far as I could hammer it down a tapered barrel. That won't damage a barrel you want to reuse, and possibly not even the bluing.

These already have a channel cut to place barrel in.

[KCSO]

I bought a set and they are rounded for the barrel and work fine, but I ended up getting some aluminium stock and making a couple sets of my own for different barrels. I now use some machinable dense plastic stuff that doesn't need rosin and like that better.

[claude]

When, if, one uses wood blocks, a very liberal dusting of powdered sugar will protect the bluing and increase grip strength.

[KCSO]

RENSHAPE is the name of the stuff I make my blocks from you need NO rosin at all and they really stand up to the pressure. It is easy to machine and cuts with a carbide blade in a table saw. I haven't used the wood or aluminium since I got started with these. A friend works for an aircraft co and saves me their scraps.

[country gent]

My barrel vise is 2"X2 1/2" steel bars with 3/4 x 16 threaded rods to clamp. It is boltted to bench with 3/4" bolts and 1/2 X 2 plate under side of bench. In this I use 2" aluminum jaws bored to fit barrels od snugly. A little powdered rosin on the blocks and good to go. I also have a set of 2" wide steel jaws bored 2" hole and a fixture to hold them and a rod matching barrel countour to pour in with soft lead. I coat these with rosin also but not sure they need to be.

[brstevns]

The aluminum jaws worked out great. Took the barrel action out of the stock and put some liquid wrench around the barrel and nut, let set a few days then put a little more on and let set for 3 more days. Wrapped the barrel in some leather before placing in the jaws. Tighten down in a vice , run the nut wrench up on the barrel nut and gave it a good whack with a 2 lb rubber hammer. That was all it took.