I have done many of these relines in both 22 and center fire calibers. If you are going to keep doing this type of work I strongly suggest a mill and lathe. I drill with piloted drills I grind the pilots on myself to fit the original bore than ream leaving .002 to .003 clearance doing this on half the length then the other half. Lessens drill run out. All this work is done on the lathe. I lightly scuff the liner then paint the bore and liner with red locktite. Heat the barrel and cool the liner then shove the liner in non stop then let it set a couple days to cure. Trim the ends cut the extractor cuts and dovetail slots if need be. All machine work is done on mill and lathe for accuracy.
Yup, freehand barrel drilling reeks of "Bubba" gunsmithing! Having to pound it in means there's a tight spot or maybe 15 of them in the liner now. Pretty amateur IMO.
Lock tire? In the old days we heated the barrel and drove the liner through. When it cooled we would silver solder in to place at the muzzle and breech.
The modern adhesives are very strong. It is just easier to do it this way. To give you an idea, we once stuffed up a liner after sticking it in with green locktite, we decided to try and heat the barrel to break down the Locktite to remove the liner and have another go at it. Turns out we could not remove the liner, no matter how hard we tried. We had to drill the liner out again and start again.
I had no idea that one could accurately drill out a barrel by using a hand drill. I know people file out a dovetails, but I could never do a good job of it myself. Since it was an antique I assume was why the original barrel needed to remain.
At 8:54 in the video (as published at the time of my comment), you make the statement: "the stock itself is a stock that's been made by us" The reality is that I machined that stock for Sam and can easily prove so through photos and written correspondence. The wood is unique and photos I hold easily demonstrate it is the same set. Gordon Cusens Australian Classic Rifle Stocks
9 months to get to that point. I feel good now. My 1873 has taken me about 2 years :). I finally finished rust bluing the barrel last week and all I need to do know is reassemble. What species of wood is the stock made from? Thanks for the video!
I am thinking that with the fit that tight you would want to apply some green to the inside too, otherwise I think mostly the green gets scrubbed off during insertion. As you probably know liners were/are traditionally installed with acraglass, the bored size large enough for some acraglass to fill in between the liner and the old barrel. I get to wondering what kind of metal distortion the tig welding did??
What a butchery! The Barrel should be held in a centred 3 Jaw chuck in a lathe, and a proper boring toolused frm the Tailstock. Once the new bore is finished and smooth, the barrel is heated to expand it, and the Liner cooled with Dry Ice ( solid CO2). Then the liner is slid into the Barrel Without Hammering! Once the two are in place, ends May be TIG welded,but usually heat shrinking is sufficient.
You will not hold an octagonal barrel in a 3 jaw chuck, I think you mean a 4 jaw independent chuck, which is the correct way to hold the barrel, this pistol drill stuff is pure bodgery.
Well done. I was surprised you filled the old dovetail before cutting it back in. I wold be a bit worried that the tig weld would make some sort of asymmetrical change to the steel structure of barrel at that point. I assume you have experience here, did you do something to mitigate the effects or is it simply not enough damage to the liner to ruin the trajectory of the bullet?
I cant believe you used a pistol drill to open up the bore! There is so much risk of run out even with a pilot, why not just use your Lathe and do it properly. and surely a hydraulic ram would be better than hammering it in with a club! You would also be better if you heat the barrel and freeze the liner, is this the first time you have attempted this?
The drill bit is piloted. We had no runout issues. No need to do all of this additional work of hydraulic rams, heating and cooling etc. Just keeping it simple.
I'm sorry but using a hand drill and a vise, then drilling from either end, is not the optimum way of relining a gun barrel. Using a full length drill bit and then a reamer in a lathe would seem to me to be the proper way. Drilling from either end, even though you have a caliber sized guide can't possibly give you a dead straight bore, and drill bits alone can't give you a properly clearanced bore into which to put a liner. I would bet that that gun will never shoot straight again.
Look at the bottom of the frame. It is rounded and solid. The 94 is flat and the bottom drops out when cycled, pivoting on a pin at the front of the frame. It's a 92.
