Gunsmithing My first rifle,

[XP1K]

That I built myself.

It started out as a 700 LTR in 308 that I bought used probably 18 years ago now. I left it stored improperly and unused for several years and the bore rusted. Not terrible, still shootable, but it was doing strange things at distance and it was time for the original 12 twist to go anyway.

Factory tube removed.

Mandrel that I made to square the reciever face. This was turned for a pretty snug fit to the bore of the reciever.

Setup and squaring the face.

I made this to square up the lugs in the reciever. Some adhesive backed sandpaper on it. Started with 600 and finished with 1000 grit

Finished product.

WTO switchlug pinned to the reciever.

Setup and trued the bolt face.

On to the barrel. This was a used barrel that was pulled off of my 300winmag at 185 rounds. A whole other story. Barrel was still in good shape, didn't even show any fire cracking in the throat yet. Still had enough shank that I had room to part off 2" where the old chamber was.
It's a 1:9 twist lilja.

Tennon threaded, bolt nose recess finished, and a slight 29 degree bevel to aid in feeding. Ready to start chambering. I chambered it with an m852 match reamer from Manson.

Muzzle tennon threaded 5/8-24. This was an awkward setup I wasn't really fond of but it did the job. I finished this barrel at 20" and the headstock on my lathe is too long with the 4 jaw to be able to set it up with the spider on the back end.

I dialed the breech end in in the chuck and used a live center in the muzzle to turn the 5/8" major od, then set that up in the steady rest. After that was set up I cleaned up and crowned the muzzle. Failed to get a pic of that. Then I used a crown saver on the live center and cut the threads.

Then I had to re bed the action as the WTO recoil lug is much thicker than the factory lug. This is my second bedding job and it was a much better experience than my first. Lol.
I used brownells steelbed and black shoe polish for a release agent. It's what I had at the moment. There was no way I was using the stuff they include in the kit again. That was the bad experience the first time.

Now for the bad part. At some point in the chambering process, the reamer chattered ever so slightly. I never felt, or heard, anything to indicate that had happened, but apparently it did. You can kind of see it in the pictures. Looks kind of like a crown shaped. They're not really deep, but you can feel them on fired cases.

For my reamer holder I made rigid reamer holder modeled after a video I watched from ultimate reloader. It didn't come out as precise as I would have like but it was by no means a sloppy fit on the reamer.

When I tighted the set screw to hold the reamer, there was a couple thousandths movement at the tip of the reamer. So, my solution to this (instead of just ordering a reamer holder) was just just run the set screw in enough to keep the reamer from spinning. I know the hole in the holder I made was as close to center line as it could be so I didn't think it would cause a problem. Not sure if that caused the chatter or not.

But it does shoot. Nothing hit the target sideways lol. There's a part of me that will always wonder if it could be better though. That chamber will probably bug me forever. I've thought about ordering a floating holder from Manson and setting the barrel back one thread to see if it would clean up.

 

[Genin]

Awesome work!

 

[308pirate]

View attachment 8318768
But it does shoot. Nothing hit the target sideways lol. There's a part of me that will always wonder if it could be better though. That chamber will probably bug me forever. I've thought about ordering a floating holder from Manson and setting the barrel back one thread to see if it would clean up.

Meh if it shoots like that I would forget about some reamer chatter lickety split

 

[1911hombre]

Nice work!

 

[XP1K]

Thanks for the kind words.

There are a couple things I want to change in my setup/tooling. I want to get the alignment rod with the tapered bushings to dial the recievers in instead of using the mandrel. And, I want to do something different with my barrel holding setup.

My lathe has a threaded spindle, so I may build something like the fixture from viper benchrest, that threads directly on to my spindle.

 

[iceng]

If its shooting like that now, less than 100 rounds on the chamber (but 185 on the lands as you said) its fine. Ignore it and move on.

100% your chatter came from rigid setup on the reamer. Floating reamer holder its best reamer holder.

Unless you have a brand new okuma or dg mori cnc lathe with a calibration cert, you aint gonna do it, even more so on an old manual lathe. Dial in to what you can, like 0.015mm, and let the floating holder do its job.

Looks good. Hows primary extraction on the bolt ??

 

[XP1K]

If its shooting like that now, less than 100 rounds on the chamber (but 185 on the lands as you said) its fine. Ignore it and move on.

100% your chatter came from rigid setup on the reamer. Floating reamer holder its best reamer holder.

Unless you have a brand new okuma or dg mori cnc lathe with a calibration cert, you aint gonna do it, even more so on an old manual lathe. Dial in to what you can, like 0.015mm, and let the floating holder do its job.

Looks good. Hows primary extraction on the bolt ??

Not gonna lie, I had to look up primary extraction. I was pretty sure I understood what you were asking but I looked it up anyway. Like I said, first time doing this.

After what I saw in some videos, mine is kind of middle of the road. It's not horrible, but it's not the best either.

Well, after a second look, it may be worse than I thought. Hard to tell in the pics with the scope on. There is .035" clearance between the bolt handle and the back of the reciever. Measured with feeler guages.
And don't look at the rust on my scope rings. That camera flash really brings it out. I keep them wiped down, but this se Texas humidity just eats stuff up.

 

[XP1K]

I need to order a firing pin spring also. Pretty sure this one is oem.
Recommended source ? I was thinking gretan. I like the idea behind the tubs springs, but I'm not sure it makes that much difference.

 

[camocorvette]

Hey good job. It sounds like it was a great learning experience. That's pretty important in itself, and hey you made a sweet rifle!

 

[iceng]

Gretan is good. Used a bunch of them.

The tubb spring is good, but benchrest and fclass are the main demographic for that.

 

[marsgoose]

Looks drop dead gorgeous. Congrats bud and thanks for sharing the detailed pics.

 

[FisherT&C]

A lot of new reamers will chatter. The edge can be too sharp and needs "conditioned". The old wax paper trick works or take a piece barrel blank and break it in. Nice work!

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

Pipefitters and Machinists. Where talent meets practice and experience = skill. Nice work.

 

[XP1K]

A lot of new reamers will chatter. The edge can be too sharp and needs "conditioned". The old wax paper trick works or take a piece barrel blank and break it in. Nice work!

Good info. Thanks.

An older gentleman I know, that built a couple rifles for me, and sparked my interest into doing it myself said he'd had a reamer chatter on him one time told me of another trick.

I think he said his case was a 270win chamber. Also a Manson reamer. He called Manson and Manson referred him to a man with the tech department at brownells. The person he talked to told him to take a cleaning patch and fold it in half, make a small cut in the middle, and slip it on the reamer down to the neck/shoulder junction.

He tried it and it cleaned up on the first attempt.

I can see how a fresh reamer being super sharp and new might be a little grabby.

 

[XP1K]

Those out there not running a pressure flush when chambering, how deep to you plunge your reamer on each pass ? Saw some people plung .100", most around .060", I went .030" each pass.

 

[FisherT&C]

Those out there not running a pressure flush when chambering, how deep to you plunge your reamer on each pass ? Saw some people plung .100", most around .060", I went .030" each pass.

If you are not pressure flushing and feeding by hand you really can't set a definite feed rate or "depth per cut" you can feed it as fast as the tool will cut. The deeper the reamer goes the more contact it has so the depth per cut may need to get shallower the closer you get to final depth. You have to watch your flutes fill up and get a feel for the tool. There is a difference in feel between a 223 reamer and a 338 Norma. Many reamers between BR, 308 and Creedmoor families will be similar. However if the reamer is getting full, withdraw and flush; watch the cut not the dial.

 

[iceng]

An old trick with large drill bits (50mm) on a drill press is to use a piece of emery cloth, face down, and then drill through that. Works like a charm, so a patch would be same principle.

 

[Praeger]

A lot of new reamers will chatter. The edge can be too sharp and needs "conditioned". The old wax paper trick works or take a piece barrel blank and break it in. Nice work!

Gotta say I've never heard of a reamer being "too sharp". If the reamer is chattering, it usually means the bushing is undersized. It could be a mis-cut reamer where one cutting edge is cutting more than the others, or the primary cutting angle is too shallow. As an outlier, I'm sure you could get a reamer to chatter by presenting to the bore off center so that the lateral pressure is bending the reamer slightly.

 

[lariat]

Gotta say I've never heard of a reamer being "too sharp". If the reamer is chattering, it usually means the bushing is undersized. It could be an mis-cut reamer where one cutting edge is cutting more than the others, or the primary cutting angle is too shallow. As an outlier, I'm sure you could get a reamer to chatter by presenting to the bore off center so that the lateral pressure is bending the reamer slightly.

Tools can be too sharp, especially anything with a high rake. Back in the day some tool reps would hand out “cards” or “sticks” that were fine abrasives to take the edge off of endmills before initial use to dull them just enough to prevent chatter. Sounds completely counterintuitive but it’s a thing sometimes.