I posted a question a bit back asking about the process and this is what is happening with my project. This is intended to be a photo-journal of how it goes, and will be a work in progress for some time to come likely.
I had originally intended to borrow the lathe of either a friend or my son-in-law. Neither of those avenues seemed to be working.
So I bought a 1965 Rockwell-Delta 11x36 lathe at auction. The lathe was filthy with caked on oil residue and years of grime, but once cleaned up it looks pretty presentable.
The lathe did not come with any tools or tool holders and only a lantern post holder. Instead of buying tool holders for the lantern style holder I purchased an AXA Quick change tool post that fit my machine. The QCTP had a base pad that needed to be machined for the t-slot of the compound slide and I had my SIL mill it out for me, as I watched and learned.
I turned a dead-center shouldered 60 degree dead center for the headstock.
The lathe came with a very nice Rohn? live center for the tailstock.
I did not have a lathe dog for turning the barrel between centers but did have a chunk of scrap brass with a 1-3/8" hole in the center that seemed to be a good candidate for my barrel blank. A bit of drilling and tapping and so far it seems to be working fine.
I have only been able to get the barrel reduced in diameter from 1.250" to 1.060. I had to do a bit of messing around with adjusting the tailstock to get it turning straight. Originally it was .027" smaller on the breach end of the 18.5" cut. Possibly ok for this project, but I wanted it closer. I have it down to an error of .002" smaller on muzzle end and called it good enough there.
I am trying to make small enough cuts that I do not need to use the steady rest in the middle because it really diminishes the length of travel. I will monitor the diameter in the center to make sure it is not getting bigger, hence bowing away from the cutter.
I am also stopping cutting when I can feel any heat in the barrel to alleviate the barrel getting longer/tight between centers and bowing out. I really do not know what is the proper heat threshold to stop at, so when my cold hands feel a bit of warmth I stop. It seems to work out well, because by the time the barrel gets warm, my toes are frozen from standing on the unheated hangar concrete floor. Everyone is ready for a break.
I will edit this post with pictures inserted later. For some reason I cannot get them off of my phone.