Beginner Lathe or Mill Recommendations for Rifle Barrel work?

[TexasRob]

I've always been curious about being able to mill rifle barrels and understand that a lathe is used but don't know much else.
I'm not looking to turn a steel blank into a barrel or do bore work, I'm mainly interested in what is referred to as "fluting" or changing the barrel profile (i.e. heavy/bull to Sporter or M4 etc).
I'd also like to be able to cut and thread barrels as well as recrown them.
If anyone is familiar with this sort of work, can you recommend a easy and economical lathe or mill?

 

[mickri]

The best answer is it all depends. Being able to do barrel work was one of the reasons I got into this hobby. To do what you want you will need a lathe that is long enough to turn a barrel. The minimum size is probably a 12 x 36 unless you plan to work on muzzle loaders which would require a longer bed. I believe that fluting has to be done on a mill and will require either a rotary table or an indexer/dividing head and other specialized tooling. You also have to decide how you want to do chambering. If you want to chamber through the headstock you will need a lathe with a minimum bore of 1 3/8." If between centers the the bore can be smaller. Grizzly sells lathes intended for gunsmithing. Read their spec's and you will get an idea of what you need. I bought a Craftsman 12 x 36. My first choice was a South Bend heavy 10 but I couldn't find one at a price that I could afford. So I settled for the Craftsman. There is lots of information on the web regarding lathes suitable for gunsmithing.

 

[Tozguy]

Welcome Rob!
With the same intentions as you have, I bought a 12x36 engine lathe with a spindle bore of 1.44'' and it is not too big.
I have not done any barrel fluting but have seen a few set ups on utube. You are headed for a heap of fun. Good luck.

 

[Smithdoor]

I would look for lathe with 36" Centers 22" center will for most work.
It would a options of a Spindle hold 1" if low cash need a steady rest will work.

A small bench will work

If planning try to make live keep your cost down and sell firearms

A torch or small TIG welder is need too.

If you planning working firearm that do own you FFL and state license. They not hard to get. Some will not give for your home but will for portables


Dave

 

[pontiac428]

Fluting is done with a convex mill cutter and a dividing head on your milling machine. Straight flutes are really easy to cut. If you have a universal dividing head, you can do spiral/helical flutes in the same manner. Some folks use a ball end mill, but I don't think that method is optimal. As a gunsmithing project, barrel fluting is a satisfying endeavor. A Chinese BS-0 dividing head and a convex cutter with arbor will only set you back $300 or so, and will equip you to perform a wide range of machining operations.

Edit: If you ever plan on contouring a barrel, you'll need to mount an uncut blank between centers. Through the headstock is ideal for threading and chambering, but it's not a complete necessity. You can still do top quality precision work using a steady rest.