bad chamber

T

timhagan

Guest
To fix a chamber that has been cut poorly can i cut off one thread and rechamber. the chamber is egg shaped just wondering if this will do it to salvage the barrel. i thought i had everything straight. but i guess not. it is .003 to .004 on one side it seems. any help would be great.

tim
 
One thread on a remington, 16tpi, is only .0625" long, for an 18 tpi thread, it's only .0555" long. No, that wont fix your problem. A chamber reamer will just follow the original hole. Depending on the length of the flat, you may have to cut the chamber off and start over.
 
Please explain how you can cut an egg shaped chamber in a lathe that has good headstock bearings if done in the headstock. Maybe in the steady rest.
Butch
 
To fix a chamber that has been cut poorly can i cut off one thread and rechamber. the chamber is egg shaped just wondering if this will do it to salvage the barrel. i thought i had everything straight. but i guess not. it is .003 to .004 on one side it seems. any help would be great.

tim

Tim, are you absolutely sure the chamber is 'egg shaped' and how did you determine that? If you simply put a finger type indicator in the aft end of the chamber and measured the runout in that manner, it may very well be that the aft end of the chamber wondered off center as a result of the bore not being straight where the pilot sits, but I cannot see how a reamer could cut an 'egg shaped' chamber.

At one time, I had trouble with this and could not figure out what was going on, but if you are getting .003 TIR, that means that the aft end of the chamber is only off .0015. That's not really very much and I doubt if you would ever know it by the way the rifle shoots.

Gene Beggs
 
Please explain how you can cut an egg shaped chamber in a lathe that has good headstock bearings if done in the headstock. Maybe in the steady rest.
Butch

To cut an egg shaped chamber the pilot on the reamer would have to be nonconcentric with the body. A steady rest would be more forgiving than the lathe chuck. Then it would simply cut oversize.

The Old Guy
 
Egg shaped chamber...

This is an example of why one needs the not use a loose pilotless reamer and a floating reamer holder. Reamer wobbles in and the metal wobbles out. Wa la a out of round chamber. Sounds like a tomato stake to me.
Nat
 
thanks to all for the replies. in my mind it is egg shaped as it only measures out on one part of chamber not all the way around. i use a finger indicator at the back of chamber to measure this. i have shot this gun but it has very hard bolt lift trying to get it smoothed out. it seems the more i shot it the worse it got.

i use a floating reamer holder which i made. new case works fine but once that is fired it has the hard bolt lift.
 
thanks to all for the replies. in my mind it is egg shaped as it only measures out on one part of chamber not all the way around. i use a finger indicator at the back of chamber to measure this. i have shot this gun but it has very hard bolt lift trying to get it smoothed out. it seems the more i shot it the worse it got.

i use a floating reamer holder which i made. new case works fine but once that is fired it has the hard bolt lift.

(Type your answers between these questions)

What method did you use to dial the barrel in when you chambered it?


If when you put the barrel back in your lathe and dial in the muzzle and the chamber neck, how does the camber run half way down the body and just inside the big end?


How do the fired cases fit after you full length resize them?


The fired cases, do they show rings around them?


Can you feel those rings with your fingernail?


Your floating reamer holder is still suspect. Make a floating pusher and try that.
 
As previously stated you will have to remove all the old chamber but may get by leaving the neck. I would check the bolt face to see if it is square with the chamber before I went any further if bolt lift is hard though.
BV
 
When you said "....on one side" that got my attention. I've seen "pregnant" fired cases that had a big bulge on one side. Those usually came from oversize chambers that had a claw extractor that pushed the case to one side before firing.
I assume that you measured a fired case to determine that the chamber is out of round. How much difference did you observe?
What caliber is this?
 
(Type your answers between these questions)

What method did you use to dial the barrel in when you chambered it?
i have used a range rod muzzle and chamber end.

If when you put the barrel back in your lathe and dial in the muzzle and the chamber neck, how does the camber run half way down the body and just inside the big end?
it is the same at both places.

How do the fired cases fit after you full length resize them?
they fit pretty well a little stiff uplift but once open come out fine.

The fired cases, do they show rings around them?
no rings nice and smooth.

Can you feel those rings with your fingernail?
no rings.

Your floating reamer holder is still suspect. Make a floating pusher and try that.

my reaming tool holds onto the reamer and a push block held in tail stock pushes on reamer holder.is this a floating pusher.
 
i have noticed it wants to shine the brass up on the base like it is tight were it meats the bolt face. the cal is 6.5x55.

i can,t cut of the old chamber as i won,t have metal left to cover case. the barrel is profiled.
 
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If when you put the barrel back in your lathe and dial in the muzzle and the chamber neck, how does the camber run half way down the body and just inside the big end?
it is the same at both places.
The same, the same what? Running out?? How?? (what shape is the runout, circular, eliptical??)

The reason I am asking for more detail is you need to find out what caused this problem before you set the barrel back and rechamber.
 
i have noticed it wants to shine the brass up on the base like it is tight were it meats the bolt face. the cal is 6.5x55.

i can,t cut of the old chamber as i won,t have metal left to cover case. the barrel is profiled.
I wonder too if your brass is not a match for the chamber. For example some brands of brass in the BR cartridge have different dimensions from other brands.

The 6.5x55 is an old cartridge and I am sure it has had several evolutionary changes. eg your chamber may be too small for the brass you are using. We need a 6.5x55 expert to chime in here.
 
why not just measure the fired case all the way around the base, if you get a different measurment somewhere then you have done it. If not you just didn't cut the chamber inline with the bore. And how do we know if you are using to much powder, or if your bolt is out of time causing the stiffness. There are a lot of variables to try to trouble shoot over the computaion machine. But if you will measure the case that should tell us everything we need to know.:confused:
 
How do you measure something that's out of round by using a tool with (2) contact points???

Mike Swartz
 
he said that he thought it was egg shaped not off center. If it is egg shaped there will be different mesurements. If it is off center he can probably roll it on a table and see the case head wobble if it is as bad as he thinks it is.:)
 
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