Lathe choice for home gunsmithing

[Brad Y]

Im looking at setting up a lathe in my shed for home gunsmithing. Im going to apply for a repairers license in WA which allows me to rebarrel calibers I own and legally do trigger work etc. Its going to be for my own use only as being an f class shooter I go through a barrel or two each year. So after a couple of years it should have paid for itself and also any other bits and pieces I can use around the house.

Now being limited on space, Im looking at the hafco metal master AL250 or 320. I intend on chambering through the headstock with a spider on the outboard side. It might not be everyones preferred ways, but its the way my current smith has shown me how to do it and Im comfortable with it. Plus the results have spoken for themselves in the way his work performs.

Would appreciate peoples thoughts and possibly experiences on those two machines.

Cheers

[kickinback]

I take it you only have single phase power?

[justjeff]

Brad,

I bought the AL336. The foot brake comes in real handy cutting a thread up to the shoulder. Mine also has coolant pump, which helps make the tips last longer. I needed the 38mm spindle to do exactly what you are talking about, barrel through the spindle to a rear spider, work end in the 4 jaw. Having said all that, I recently chambered a 2" diameter maddco for a new heavy gun, just had to use the 3 pos steady and lots of lube.

Make sure you have good measuring gear, you need to read in tenths of a thou for competition work. It's not as hard to do as you might think, if you haven't used a lathe before.

Good Luck

Jeff

[Brad Y]

Yes single phase but I can get that upgraded if need be. I do have 6mm mains from my sub board to the shed which has its own sub board that feeds the back deck power and lights. Room for more circuits if need be.

Jeff. Yes I do use 1.25" barrels on my f class rig so that is important. And I will probably use similar or HV profiles for 1000ydBR LG and my varmint guns. I know lots of people do go the route of the steadies and lots of lube to chamber but I prefer it this way. I have used a lathe before back at school (a few years ago now!) but over the last few years have been doing odd bits and pieces on friends lathes like turning custom neck turn mandrels. I have followed the gunsmith here a fair bit and paid quite alot of attention to him doing my barrels on the shops AL330. Yes 1 thou and 1/10 thou dial gauges are on the list. Do you use carbide or HSS for your tooling? I see that I will need parting, threading, turning tools and left and right bars and holders to suit, plus a spider, mill ends, floating reamer holders- all the good stuff. Im slowly expanding my reamer collection so it all kind of makes sense. Hopefully the 308 and a new dasher finisher will arrive in a couple of weeks then I have 6BR and thats all the calibers I have here. I also need to get depth micrometers etc and all the gauges/pilots needed to suit the bores of each barrel. They say tooling is the most expensive part and I can see why!

[Milo1976]

I could be wrong but I think it costs a few grand to get three phase hooked up. May take a while to recoup that cost.

[Brad Y]

Lucky I work in that industry!

[Milo1976]

Fair enough, wasn't aware of that.
Cheers

[Ol 55]

When I bought mine I went to Hare & Forbes and fondled all of
them the Taiwan tool room quality ones are defiantly smoother in
the gear train and hand wheels.
I bought the AL 1000D and am very happy with it.
Ol 55

[kickinback]

Make sure you have good measuring gear, you need to read in tenths of a thou for competition work.

Good Luck

Jeff

Just buy/use metric. I have to use both at work and metric is so much easier. Just multiply/ divide by 25.4. Mitutoyo is the preferred brand now it is readily available again.

[Brad Y]

All my life I have learned and used metric. The main thing I have found is that with using actions that are made in USA where they use imperial measurements, its easier to work in imperial measurements. I know its more than possible to change them over. But I work headspace in thousandths so would rather keep it all in imperial. And alot of gunsmith tooling comes from the USA anyway which is already in imperial.

[curan]

I'm from the screwed up generation that was taught imperial in primary school, metric in high school, learnt to machine in imperial at work, and taught a mix, but mostly metric at trade school.
And then I went to work in the oil industry where most of the gear comes from the US.....back to imperial.
My favourite rough conversion is 39 thou to the mm.

And because of that history, I still prefer to machine in thou. But I measure timber in mm..........

[Matt P]

Brad
Look at the AL960B, single phase and all the features you'll need. One thing make sure what ever you buy has and imperial lead screw, cutting imperial threads with a metric lead screw is PITA.
Regards
Matt

[Brad Y]

Hi Matt

Thanks for the tip, the AL320 which I was looking at due to size and spindle bore has a metric. I wouldnt have picked that up without doing this sort of checking first. I might have to take a look around a bit more. Out of interest are you doing your work through the headstock as well?

[Matt P]

Brad
Yes through the headstock, IMO it's the best way but many winning barrels have been done in a steady, I just prefer where possible to do it through the headstock.
Regards
Matt

[MISSED]

My suggestion would be a Skinny Latte




My bad I just put the spectacles on and reread the Heading