Barrel threading issue

[Airw4ves]

Looking for some help to come up with a potential fix for an issue I'm having. I had ordered on of the Terminus Zeus actions earlier in their production, and had a barrel spun up for it by my gunsmith. He torqued it on, and I used it for a couple rounds no problem. Then I had to send my Zeus back for some finish issues, and due to the border shit show that is living in Canada right now, I received a completely new action as a replacement. Now when I went to thread my barrel into the action, I get maybe 1/4 turn into the threads and it seizes up. No hard stop, but a definite increase in resistance. I thought it may be a small amount of the coating, so tossed in the torque wrench for leverage, and VERY lightly turned the action 1/8th of a turn. Resistance did not change, so I backed off and pulled the barrel. I have a small amount of coating removed from the front threading of the action, but otherwise, no damage to either. hand threading still seizes at the same spot. My question is who should I look at for a potential issue. I would believe Terminus to hold strict thread pitch, and coating tolerances, so I'm leaning more towards the gunsmith. But with that, how would it have threaded into my last action, and not this one, being the exact same action.
Any help would be appreciated, and forgive me for my lack of gunsmithing knowledge. Also, I would love to hit up the gunsmith first, but hes a 4hr drive round trip to drop off, and another to pick it up, so if I can figure something out here, Id like to see before I dedicate my time, and $ to send it out.
Thanks all

 

[Needaheart]

Looking for some help to come up with a potential fix for an issue I'm having. I had ordered on of the Terminus Zeus actions earlier in their production, and had a barrel spun up for it by my gunsmith. He torqued it on, and I used it for a couple rounds no problem. Then I had to send my Zeus back for some finish issues, and due to the border shit show that is living in Canada right now, I received a completely new action as a replacement. Now when I went to thread my barrel into the action, I get maybe 1/4 turn into the threads and it seizes up. No hard stop, but a definite increase in resistance. I thought it may be a small amount of the coating, so tossed in the torque wrench for leverage, and VERY lightly turned the action 1/8th of a turn. Resistance did not change, so I backed off and pulled the barrel. I have a small amount of coating removed from the front threading of the action, but otherwise, no damage to either. hand threading still seizes at the same spot. My question is who should I look at for a potential issue. I would believe Terminus to hold strict thread pitch, and coating tolerances, so I'm leaning more towards the gunsmith. But with that, how would it have threaded into my last action, and not this one, being the exact same action.
Any help would be appreciated, and forgive me for my lack of gunsmithing knowledge. Also, I would love to hit up the gunsmith first, but hes a 4hr drive round trip to drop off, and another to pick it up, so if I can figure something out here, Id like to see before I dedicate my time, and $ to send it out.
Thanks all

The only variable that changed is the Zeus so I think you have your answer right there.

 

[Rubicon Precision]

Did your gunsmith fit the barrel to the action or to a spec? Neither are wrong as long as you know the end use/expectation of the customer.
If it was fit to the old action, the new action may well be, and probably is in spec. The barrel may need to have the threads chased. Who’s responsibility that falls on us between you, your smith and the action maker (if their first action was really replaced under warranty).

 

[celltech]

Had a barrel I thought was cut too loose and got a cheap 3 wire set off eBay so I could measure it. It was and the maker spun up a new barrel for me.

 

[candyx]

Your old action was slightly larger then your new action, you gun smith threaded the barrel for a tight fit to the old action. The trick now will be if the gun smith can recut the barrel threads which might only need couple of thousands of a inch to be removed to fit the new action.

 

[Airw4ves]

Thanks gents! This puts me at ease knowing the action is not at fault and that it can be fixed with some work on the threading. This build has taken 13 months to get the parts, and with the warranty, so was feeling a little miffed if I would have had to send the action back.
I'll get in touch with the smith tomorrow and get it sent off.

 

[Vodak]

How much resistance are we talking? You said it wasn’t a hard stop. If it’s still threading in, and isn’t requiring a lot of force to do it, grease it up with anti seize and thread it in.
Edit to add-
The guys below are right. I wasn’t considering the stainless/stainless aspect of this at all.

 

[loveha]

How much resistance are we talking? You said it wasn’t a hard stop. If it’s still threading in, and isn’t requiring a lot of force to do it, grease it up with anti seize and thread it in.

I personally wouldn't. Seeing as the Terminus actions are stainless, and most barrels are as well, I would be extremely fucking cautious. Emphasis on the word fucking. I would go heavy with the anti-seize. Working maintenance in the food industry, I have seized my fair share of stainless bolts to other stainless items. The moment you start to feel them seize together, they are galled, and nothing you do will get them apart. They are now become one item and you are fucked. Even attempting to unscrew it the moment you feel them gall together, it is in most cases to late. In the rare instances you do get them apart, the threads are trashed.

Am I being pedantic, probably, but we are talking about $2,000+. I would not risk it over a simple fix. Barrel should thread on by hand, if it doesn't that is cause for alarm in my brain.

https://www.fastenal.com/content/feds/pdf/Article%20-%20Galling.pdf

If you are brave, and do choose to do it, I would be very slow about it, and use the best ant-seize you can get.

 

[1moaoff]

How much resistance are we talking? You said it wasn’t a hard stop. If it’s still threading in, and isn’t requiring a lot of force to do it, grease it up with anti seize and thread it in.

Please don't. And if you do I hope it works out.

 

[supercorndogs]

Slow wont matter. By the time you feel something, its too late. Stainless likes to gal if you look at it wrong. Don't get impatient, or you might have your gun smith cutting a barrel stub out of the action for you.

 

[Vodak]

I was not considering the stainless/stainless aspect of this at all when I posted last night.
I should not have made such a cavalier suggestion.
It makes the “how tight is it?” A much bigger issue. If it’s just a little beyond what you can do by hand I personally would lube it up and thread it in. But if it’s taking any significant amount of force then the risk of sticking the two probably isn’t worth it.
Now that I’ve written all this, is this one of their set screw retained actions or switch barrel? If that’s the case it definitely should be loosened up.