Quote:
Goodsteel, while machining a Green Mountain 1.270" round blank into the heavy octagon barrel for my High Wall I was amazed at the ease with which even a heavy barrel can be deflected. With about 3/4 of this 32" barrel extending past the steady rest on my lathe I had my dial indicator set up at the muzzle and by gently pushing with my finger tips I could get .020 to .030 deflection with almost no effort at all!
That's true old red. Now, set up a barrel in your steady rest spider only, so that it is rigid enough that you could machine it if it were attached to the chuck side spider. Now, run an indicator mounted in the chuck, and tell me how close you are to zero.