Steel or Brass ???

B

bhp

Guest
I'm goin to try a Brownells hand held muzzle crowning cutter on one of my CMP 52Ds and they have both brass and steel pilot's...what material will work best?
Any tips will be greatly appreaceated....

Thanks, Bernie...
 
Having used both the brownells hand muzzle crowning tool (11 degree) and a lathe, I highly, highly recomend using a lathe to cut crowns. I'd go so far to say that you are much better off taking the money the tooling costs and paying a smith to cut the crown for you.

I used a small lathe to make the pilots for the reamer, and still never produced good crowns. The cutter very quickly sets up a chatter, and accuracy was mediocre ~2 moa.

Others may have better results. Perhaps if you used a 90 degree counterbore where lack of conentricity shouldn't have the same effect as the 11 deg cutter will produce better results.
 
Paul H said:
Having used both the brownells hand muzzle crowning tool (11 degree) and a lathe, I highly, highly recomend using a lathe to cut crowns. I'd go so far to say that you are much better off taking the money the tooling costs and paying a smith to cut the crown for you.

I used a small lathe to make the pilots for the reamer, and still never produced good crowns. The cutter very quickly sets up a chatter, and accuracy was mediocre ~2 moa.

Others may have better results. Perhaps if you used a 90 degree counterbore where lack of conentricity shouldn't have the same effect as the 11 deg cutter will produce better results.
Click to expand...

The old saying, if it sounds to good to be true, seems to fit here...

Thanks, Bernie...
 
use a dremel or pay somebody. it won't be very high to pay somebody so may as well do it the first time.
 
Paul H said:
Having used both the brownells hand muzzle crowning tool (11 degree) and a lathe, I highly, highly recomend using a lathe to cut crowns. I'd go so far to say that you are much better off taking the money the tooling costs and paying a smith to cut the crown for you.

I used a small lathe to make the pilots for the reamer, and still never produced good crowns. The cutter very quickly sets up a chatter, and accuracy was mediocre ~2 moa.

Others may have better results. Perhaps if you used a 90 degree counterbore where lack of conentricity shouldn't have the same effect as the 11 deg cutter will produce better results.
Click to expand...

i use their crown cutters in a floating reamer holder and have had excellent results. i cut at around 60-80, cleaning frequently. use them for both handgun and rifles.
 
AMMASHOOTA said:
i use their crown cutters in a floating reamer holder and have had excellent results. i cut at around 60-80, cleaning frequently. use them for both handgun and rifles.
Click to expand...

AMMASHOOTA (to) :) Do you think it's possable to use a floor mounted drill press and floating reamer and get good results??? My drill press has veriable speeds that can get down to very slow....

Thanks, Bernie...
 
bhp said:
AMMASHOOTA (to) :) Do you think it's possable to use a floor mounted drill press and floating reamer and get good results??? My drill press has veriable speeds that can get down to very slow....

Thanks, Bernie...
Click to expand...

i have tried that and have not found the results to be satisfactory. too much play in the bearings. you may be able to pull it off if you have a better one than me. i would suggest trying it on an old barrel first.

I have a Rem .30-06 that i need to recrown properly because that method did not work (I was too lazy to take the barrel out of the action).
 
I've never had much luck with piloted crown cutting outside of using them in the lathe, and sometmes these chatter badly even in the lathe. In my opinion, the best way to crown is to use a single point cutter in the lathe.

Not mentioned here is the crowning ball method of producing a crown. I have often used the method of making a hemisphere on the end of a brass rod and then lapping in a crown using abrasive grit while using a hand drill to turn the rod. The hemishere is rotated at various angles to the bore and is reversed periodically (this keeps the ball round). This method is self correcting and almost foolproof, but it won't remove a great deal of material quickly.

Scott
 
Scott I touched it up the first time using 600 grit SC compound on the end of a brass round head machine screw. Just thought I wanted to try clean it up a bit more...

Thanks a bunch to all for the info.....I'll leave it as is for awhile...:)

Bernie...
 
I have used the Brownell hand tool to true up several barrels, including my benchrest barrels. I use the hand tool with the 45 degree cutter and the brass pilot to fit. I do not use the hand tool to cut the crown. Just to re-true. I finish by lapping with the brownell muzzle crowning lap.

I remove very little metal.

I have had very good results with this technique.
 
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