Neck turning on a mini-lathe

adamsgt

adamsgt

Jerry Adams
Tried my hand on neck turning using my 7 X 10 mini-lathe. For my first attempt I decided to trim most of the neck at the .22 diameter of the 220 Russian brass and take off the remaining 2-3 thousandths with my K&M after expanding to 6mm. Am I wasting a step by not taking all of it off on the lathe? I did it this way because I thought I might get better results by expanding a thinner neck. Comments? :confused:
 
Like Butch I expand and fireform before turning.

You're not going save much effort in the necking up process by making the necks a little thinner I don't think.
 
Less Work

I know you are already heavilly invested in the thinner necks, but a .269 neck sure makes neck turning a breeze.

When I went to a .269, I went from "absolutly hating neck turning" to "I can almost tolerate neck turning":D..........jackie
 
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adam

Back to your original question - there is no reason that turning necks in a small lathe, in one pass, will not work. You simply need to make one, do the measurements with a bullet seated, then another, until you get the desired results.

The final accuracy will depend on the accuracy of your lathe. Several years ago I bought a really good 6" Atlas for less than $100 and set it up specifically for turning necks. If I turn them on a mandrel I make a new mandrel for each session. It stays in the chuck until I'm done. For lesser quality cases, such as turning necks for live-varmint ammo, I simply chuck the case and use a turner with it's own mandrel such as the K & M.

JMHO

Ray
 
I stepped into this game three years ago when I bought a used gun at Raton. It is a Grizzly action and came with two barrels w/.262 necks. The owner had a .269 reamer and agreed to open up one of the barrels to that neck size. So I made some brass to fit that. Two years ago I bought two more used guns at Raton, one a LV and the other a HV both Bat actions and barrels w/ .262 necks. Last year I let my desires run roughshod over my wallet and ordered three Kreiger barrels from Bruno, a 6 Beggs reamer w.269 neck from Dave Kiff (on clearance) and 6 Beggs dies from Gene.

I'm not yet ready to do the new barrels as the ones w/.262 necks still shoot better than my capabilities and I'm not confident enough yet in my machining skills to risk butchering expensive barrels. So I find myself needing to make more .262 neck brass even though I would rather be using .269. However, it's getting too cumbersome to maintain brass with different neck diameters and I need to get off the dime and go with one size.

Maybe I should practice chambering with one of the barrels on the Grizzly as I'm not shooting that one much right now.

On a side note, is better to have a separate die set for each gun?
 
Probably the same way I do

.220 Russian seater die, and .22 caliber bullets. Usually the least expensive, bulk-packaged, FMJ bullets I can find in front of a case full of 322.

Fire them outta the 6mm barrel and your done. Although my barrels are now .268 neck, I used to do it that way with a .262 neck too.

Lisa
 
Didn't Jackie have an article in one of the Magazines about turning cases on the lathe? Or was it on one of the BR .coms?

If I remember correctly he turned a mandrel to hold the case, then just turned the case neck while the case was on the mandrel. Pulling the case off the mandrel might take a tool of some sort.

Paul
 
pbike said:
Didn't Jackie have an article in one of the Magazines about turning cases on the lathe? Or was it on one of the BR .coms?

If I remember correctly he turned a mandrel to hold the case, then just turned the case neck while the case was on the mandrel. Pulling the case off the mandrel might take a tool of some sort.

Paul
Click to expand...

I found a .308 shellholder that had a threaded stud and hold that in a chuck in the tailstock. This allows the case to spin easily but makes it easy to pull the case off the mandrel.
 
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