Ok so here is the barrel set up in the Colchester lathe:-


I clocked up the chamber using a DTI (Dial test indicator "Clock") then  trued up the tenon and turned the shoulder back by 0.050"


The counter bore for the bolt head had to be deepened to 0.274" to match that of the Monarch's take off barrel. I also skimmed off the face to true it up. The barrel wae turned around and the lands clocked up then a spigot turned and threaded 1/2"UNF:-


To accept either a Sound Mod or Muzzle brake should I wish to use one then the barrel was polished to remove a lot of the finish profile turning marks but it still requires finish polishing:-








As you can see more polishing is required or those lines will show up in the blacking

The stock off the recently acquired Majestic is being used as the barrel channel had been butchered and this CF2 barrel is of slightly heavier profile. The chamber area is much heavier than the Monarch barrel was. I had to do quite  a bit of inletting to get the action to sit down in the stock and the barrel channel at the action end needed quite a bit of wood removal. I have to do a bit more yet and make sure the action is sitting level in the stock:-


As it appears to be correct this side but:-


Slightly high this side and not quite down in the channel as yet:-



Oh yes I have roughly polished off the old blacking from the action as we might as well do the whole thing if the barrel is to be blacked it would probably show up the old blackign on the action. We now await the arrival of the expensive .280 AI reamer and head space gauges

You make sound so simple.

Quote from: Alboy;108731You make sound so simple.

Alboy apart form the lathes it's all done with hand tools. I really do need to get some stock inletting chisels. I only have three bevel edge straight wood chisels and I have to carefully use them with the stock on my lap hence the barrel channel is rather rough. Gives a good key for the glass filler though. I shall be using glass reinforced body filler to bed this rifle. Not the norm I'll grant you but as the stock is so thin the glass fibre strands should help stiffen and support it.

The machining is actually quite straight forwards.... remember I have been a machinst for quite  afew years. . Precision rifle smiths would probably cringe at the way I have done it. I cannot get to the muzzle end with the barrel in the 4-jaw as the headstock of the Colchester is too long to do so. My aim precision wise when the rifle is finished is for it to group in under MOA or close to MOA which I feel should not be unreasonable given it's a normal production barrel and action. no blueprinting has been done to it.

I have made enquiries about a new BSA replacement stock should this proove not to be viable due tot eh sanding done by some previous owner and a brand new BSA stock from John Knibbs is £117.50 with tax. I have asked if he can pull a few out so i can go and select the one I like the best.

Hopefully the reamer and gauges will arrive about the same time as the shop get teh .280 Rem ammo in for me. In 25 years they ahve never been asked for any .280 Rem ammo . it's not what one could call a common cartridge here .
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Looking good BH. Keep us posted as the work continues.

Thanks for the pictures, BH! Good job! Looks great!.

Maybe you can show me how to make reamers.

Paul

It is always rewarding to watch someone who is:

• good at what they do, and
• passionate about their work

even if by photos posted on-line. Great photos they are too. Watching with interest and admiration,
 
Marcus

Hmmm I will see if I can find the place as there was a site I visited which someone had done a presentation on how he made a chamber reamer out of drill rod for a specific project.

The hardening is the trickiest bit as I see it. Milling the flutes is pretty straight forwards BUT ................................ you would need a dividing head or indexable horizontal chuck to get the flutes correctly spaced although it can be done using a pointer type rest or by clocking the flats of the drive square level.

  I suppose having worked on commercial places so long I tend to think of using the "right stuff" for the jobs rather than how it can be done. We have a dividing head and the tail stock centre to support such jobs plus I picked up a T-bo indexing head and PCD drilling fixture from one place I worked. It can be set to do up to 32 divisions and is what I woudl use for milling octogon barrels :kiss:.

The next biggest problem with making a chamber reamer is getting the sizes and tapers correct and with something liek an optical comparitor it's difficult to check them. The one I used to sue magnified the part 50X and had a graticle on the screen so you could take measurements plus it had to DTI's for measuring the X & Y axis.

As these are old hat now and lots of firms no longer use them I was hoping to pick one up but nothing has happened on that score due me not goign lookign for one :o. Right now we have nowhere to set one up as do take a bit of room like the big ole Colour CRT TV's.

I have a dividing head but I haven't settled on a tailstock for my mill.

I have a programmable oven that goes up to 2200 degrees F. It's pretty skookum, but its kinda small. A Mauser action is the max I can put in it. Of course that's plenty room for a reamer.

I made a simple reamer in an attempt to cut a bullet-forming die. I doubt that thing would cut hot butter. But... it was made fro 12L15, and I am told you can't make that sharp. I have some 4140 rod. It's about 1.25" in diameter, so it'll have to be turned down quite a bit for a reamer.

QuoteI suppose having worked on commercial places so long I tend to think of using the "right stuff" for the jobs rather than how it can be done.

Bingo!

QuoteThe next biggest problem with making a chamber reamer is getting the sizes and tapers correct

Bingo again!

I also don't have a grinder to sharpen the flutes (not that kind of grinder anyway).

Looking forward to seeing more on this project.

Paul

Gitano,

           Just had a thought on reamer steel. Can you get "Silversteel"? it comesin short lengths of 12-18" normally and soemwhere we have a piece of 1/2" diameter it's a type of toolstell and so hardens well but would need a little bit of tempering or it would be brittle. Stubbs is one manufacturer and the one I am familar with:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_steel

Just found this supplier:-

http://www.knighton-tools.co.uk/acatalog/Silver_Steel.html

A 13" length of 9/16" is £7.18 + VAT. Methinks I'll order a couple of rods.

To turn the taper you would have to set the tail stock over or use the compound slide. Moving the tail stock is the correct way but then of course you have to clock it back true which can be a right PITA so for the length if you don't mind feeding by hand the compound slide method will work with care. You will have to leave it at least 0.010" plus for grinding and stoning. The reamer will require a small undercut at the junctions of angles to get the sharp profile in the chamber. The junction of shoulder and neck will usually have a small radius. chamber prints will show this.

It's a wonderful project and a wonderful caliber. I'm interested in what method of blueing you will use and why the break? The 280AI has long been on my to do list as it's a near ballistic twin to the 7MM Rem Magnum. Please keep posting the pictures as the story unfolds. Regards, Rick.

Ahhh Rick,
 
Well as the muzzle has been threaded just in case I want to use a sound moderator. The one I have now won't fit as 6.5mm is the largest it can handle, the .270 bullet cannot pass through so a .284" bullet has no chance, however as it's modular I can order the baffle section which has the threads and so just swap them when needed but for this one as I am fitting the BSA Ramp sweated on foresght it will require a muzzle can to I intend to make one.
 
I made them years ago to fit a Crossman 766 sir rifle to quieten the sharp crack for rabbiting and this one will just need to be bigger and stronger that's all. the Muzzle brake is because I can and it will be nice to get my own back on certain tacticool wannabes at the range .
 
No sign of the reamer of gauges as yet :cry:. meantime the rifle is in the RFD's storage as my temp permit has expired and we don't want to fall foul of the law. I rang the licensing dept a few minutes ago and will post it back to them for extension. I explained that we are waiting on some tooling to come in from the US.
 
Of course with the cargo plane scares it might be delayed :cry:.
 
My next job in the work shop will to make up some muzzle thread protectors. Will make them oversize and overlong so I can turn them to match the barrel diameter and fit the spigot perfectly so from a short distance them will be almost un-noticable .

Sorry for the delay and I didn't get any photos today ..................... too darned cold .
 
Despite the temp being -8 degrees C. I ventured into the unheated workshop and reamed the chamber to the .280 Ackley Improved this morning. Used neat soluble cutting oil as a lube for the reamer and cleaned it off after every short cut. I have calculated the measurement for the Go Gauge and it seems I got it correct as I have just assembled the rifle and tried three of the Factory Remington ammunition and it closes with a slight resistance and it leaves a shiney ring at juncture of should and neck where it's pinched slightly in the chamber as per Ackely's instructions in his notebooks.

Next step is to test fire and examnine and measure the formed case which will hopefully be done tomorrow . Assuming it all goes well it's then get it to the gunsmith chappie who is going to be submitting it for proofing and then bluing it including the final polishing. Oh once I fire-form a few rounds I can make couple of them into dummies to check feeding from the magazine before it goes to proof and bluing. Doubt I'll get it done before Christmas now but at least we are moving forwards at last.

Quotebut at least we are moving forwards at last.

Sounds like it, BH. Looking forward to seeing the final piece.

Paul

Well I polished the chamber slightly this afternoon and have fired a total of 6 rounds through it now. Three of the cases will become dummies to test feeding from the magazine. Three are wanted by the proof house to use to make up proofing rounds. Here is the first one fired before the chamber was polished:-
 

 

 

 
Alongside the factory Remington 156 Grain bullet. The expansion rings measures 0.468", the shoulder 0.454" dia. The shoulder is 2.090" from the head of the cartridge and the fired neck mesurement is 0.315" which is nice as the unfired factory ammunition measures 0.311" so it gives 0.002" per side clearance so should a different make of cases vary slightly in thickness at the neck it should cause a problem yet it's tight enough hopefully to help with precision. Rolling the cases across a flat surface shows no noticable neck run out but I'll need to check with a Vee block and DTI to see how good it actually is.
 
Considering I have to cut a few corners in the chambering set up and could not do it the best possible way I am pleased with the result .
 
The bullet in the dummey was Remington 175 Gr Semi Spitzer. It's since been changed for a 139 Grn BTSP Hornady as I did not get the sizing set turned down enough and the Remington bullet was just a trifle lose. A slight adjustment to the die cured that little issue . Right now the barrel is soaking with Forest Foaming bore cleaner to remove any copper left behind by my fire forming shots. I scrubbed the bore first with P-H 009 then patched it out but I want it almost spotless to go to proof. Hopefully it will only be a week before it's returned. I could make an appointment and take it myself but they charge double for that and it will take most of the day as they would have to load the proof ammunition whilst I waited and adding the traveling time to Birmingham and back. Although i would like to go and see the place right now I cannot spare the time.
 
Of course next thing is to get some powder and check load data for the Ackley Improved. Ackley suggests 63.0 Gr of IMR 4350 behind the 140 grain bullet for a claimed 3320 fps. I'll check more sources for data and borrow the clubs chronograph to see what this 23" barrel gives velocity wise.

Edit:-  Just did a search and found some interesting data. The Nosler site was very useful and it seems that IMR 4350 is a very good powder. H 4831SC gets a lot of mention but IMR 4831 shades it for velocity in their listings so we shall see what I can get locally. OH the Vhit N160 and N165 also seem contenders.

Glad to see this project shaping up, BH. Are you going to put Schmidt-Bender glass on it?

Paul