Barrel replacement illustrated

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Blastattack

Concerning the dimensions for your receiver block; did you reverse engineer them from your receiver(s) or did you take them from a blueprint, and shrink them a few thou?

The former.

Edit: I've added some more inserts for the barrel vise, more ground drill blanks for the barrel reinforcements, and use a dial indicator for the taper. I replaced the Grade 8 bolts in the barrel vise with Grade 8 studs and nuts/washers.

A few of the two-piece inserts are for Nambu, Lahti, Mauser, and M1911/Star BM/Tokarev. The single-piece inserts are for rifles that I will never own (they came with the barrel vise).

Because different Luger barrel lengths have different tapers, I make my own inserts. I use 1 1/2" 6061-T6 aluminum rod bored to the specific taper of the 4, 6, 8 inch 9mm barrel; 30 cal 'pencil profile' uses different inserts.

I reinforce the bore with ground steel rods [drill blanks]. If you don't reinforce the bore, it will squish.

Figuring the taper for the odd insert is easy. I mount the barrel between centers and mount a dial indicator on my compound rest. I run the dial indicator along the barrel taper and adjust the compound rest until I get zero along the entire length of the taper. Tighten down the compound rest & tool post, drill out the chunk of aluminum rod to about 7/16", then bore the taper using the compound rest travel. Perfect taper for that barrel.