Hey guys,
So I got this 1873 winchester with a sewer pipe bore. B/P cartriges tend to rust bores to hell if not cleaned properly.
Not wanting to totally ruin the collectible value of this old gun, I decided to do a reline job, vs. just fitting a brand new barrel. It at least retains the original patina, barrel markings, and look that belongs with this 100+ year old rifle.
First thing was to get a new barrel liner of 32-20 from brownells.
The other tool needed is what's called a subland drill. It's a normal drill bit that has a pilot ground on the end. This ensures when you drill out your old barrel that it follows the bore and doesn't wander. This is a MUST have tool. You cannot properly drill a 24” hole in a straight line without it.
Brownells wants 80+ dollars for one. Ouch! I think I'll shop around. Found one on ebay in the 1/2” diameter with a 5/16” pilot for 25 bucks. That's more like it! 5/16=.312” which can be ground down, but really didn't need to be ground down because the bore was so rusted!
Next is a length of drill rod, about 3 feet long. You drill the back end of the drill bit on the lathe the same size as the drill rod. (It's unhardened on the shank.)
Next, I used low temp plumbing solder to attach the drill to the drill rod extension. The way I look at it, if the drill catches and twists hard enough that it will fail at the weakest point. (solder) instead of twisting everything to hell or breaking my expensive drill. (Brownells says use silver solder...)
Center your barrel in the chuck. It doesn't have to be dial indicated in, the ground pilot on the drill bit will follow the bore. Just a 3 jaw is sufficient. Place the bore guide in the bore and then attach the drill rod to your tool post holder.
Oil your bit with good quality cutting oil, and start drilling! 1/4” at a time and listen for any chatter or squealing sounds. If you get any resistance when drilling, back out the drill! Don't force it and clean your bit every time you withdraw it with a shot of compressed air.
Do the same to the bore to clear chips out. Re-oil and repeat for the next 4-6 hours. If the barrel starts to get hot, turn off the lathe, go online and read or watch you-tube and wait for it to cool down again.
I started from the muzzle end, and drilled the entire way to the chamber end.
Next step is to take your barrel liner and measure it. My liner was .505” diameter, meaning I could either buy a reamer a little over that size and waste another 20 bucks and wait another week, or I could just turn the outside diameter of the barrel liner between centers and use sandpaper to get it down to final diameter.
I didn't take pics of that process because it takes forever, and I needed both my hands.
You basically just hold the barrel liner between centers on the lathe, cover the ways with plastic to protect them from grit, and get a small belt sander and start going from one end to the other. Stop occasionally and check the diameter with calipers. If you don't have a lathe, you could build a barrel spinning jig to hold the barrel and go at it by hand with a belt sander as well. When you start getting close, take it off the lathe, clean and oil it, and try to fit it inside the barrel. You NEED to oil these parts to prevent galling and getting it stuck together! Wherever you see tight spots, mark them with a sharpie and concentrate your sanding on these areas. It should fit tightly when oiled and take a bit of pressure to press into the barrel. If you get a lot of resistance, take out the liner and mark the scratches and keep sanding until it fits together. Keep it oiled during the fitting process!
As you can see, the two oiled parts fit together quite nicely! Next, to bond them together:
Get a good quality epoxy, such as acraglas or if you know someone who builds and repairs aircraft, some aircraft grade epoxy. The wal-mart stuff might work, but I don't trust it with a gun barrel is involved. This isn't the place to go cheap!
Get your supplies laid out ahead of time and think it through how you're going to proceed.
I highly recommend multiple pairs of gloves, q-tips, strong paper towels or cotton t-shirt scraps, modeling clay, 2 parts of equal amounts already pre-measured epoxy, a cleaning rod with patches, a scrap of cardboard to mix your resin, and a throw away syringe. (Thanks to Darryl Holland for his tip on syringes!)
It's important that both the barrel and barrel liner have been triple cleaned with grease cutting solutions such as simple green, brake cleaner, acetone, or anything that will cut any traces of oil off of the steel surfaces. Wherever there is oil, the epoxy will NOT stick. Once you start mixing the epoxy, you are at the point of no return, so think everything out ahead of time!
Use white vinegar for cleanup of un-set epoxy! (Careful, as vinegar can remove bluing if left on long enough.)
Continued...
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Originally Posted by DUKE NUKEM
