AmericanLongRifles Forums

General discussion => Shop Made Tools => Topic started by: sonny on January 23, 2009, 07:55:46 PM

Title: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: sonny on January 23, 2009, 07:55:46 PM

hello........i have a gun that has small lade indentations on the crown.Is there a way to make a perfect crown job on a barrel already in a rifle??? thanks..sonny

Title: Re: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: D. Taylor Sapergia on January 23, 2009, 08:39:48 PM

Sonny, if you could take a close up picture of the crown and post it here, it would be easier to comment.  The answer to your question is "yes, you can recrown a barrel right on the rifle" by hand.

Title: Re: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: bs2 on January 29, 2009, 03:39:34 AM

(https://webpages.charter.net/fam-strick/CrowningTools.jpg)

These have been posted before, it has been a while ago.
 
The cutter is a old broken center drill split and shaped.

I cross drill [45 degree] a pc of brass [360] and set screw for the cutter.

Thread the stem for some type of knob to spin it with, also thread the body for an adjustment nut.

Use some sort of bushing with clearance for the cutter.

I have made them from .32 to .875 diameter..........simple and work great.

The crown is always on center with the bore.

(https://webpages.charter.net/fam-strick/Crown.jpg)

Picture of my .62 crown

Title: Re: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: P.W.Berkuta on January 31, 2009, 04:37:51 AM

Hey bs2 that is real slick. Very nice simple tool and by the looks of it -- does a mighty fine job 8).

Title: Re: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: LynnC on January 31, 2009, 12:33:07 PM

I made one from pics bs2 posted on the old board - Worked like a champ!
Lynn

Title: Re: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: bs2 on January 31, 2009, 04:53:28 PM

Lynn,

Glad to hear they work for you!

It helps to have use of a lathe, but I made the 50 cal in the bench top drill press.

Bruce

Title: Re: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: erdillonjr on May 09, 2009, 09:00:52 PM

I use a round carbide cutter available thru MSC. They come in different sizes that will fit any caliber.

Title: Re: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: J Shingler on May 10, 2009, 05:16:10 PM

That cutter looks real slick but all I have used for years is a ball stone. Willie Boitnot (Now there is an old time gunsmith) showed me 25 years ago how he did them. Just a round ball stone turned in a hand crank drill. Start straight on and the revolve around slightly as so the same grit of the stone don't scratch the in the same spot. Oiled of course and it takes longer to find the hand drill in the drawer than it does to cut it the crown. 1 min tops.

Title: Re: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: ironwolf on May 20, 2009, 02:34:33 PM

  I do like shingler.  Then I follow with a chunk of brass rod of the same diameter as the stone, chuck it up and turn the end down to a sphere.
 Load this up with compound and polish the crown you've made with the rock.
  You can also use your thumb with some fine paper, works very good.

  Kevin

Title: Re: hand crowning a barrel
Post by: ehoff on May 20, 2009, 05:12:50 PM

After seeing bs2's crowning tool, I turned one out on my lathe to crown my smoothbore. It made short work of cutting the crown.