What method did you use to dial in your barrel? Grizzly rod, bushed range rod, indicate the diameter, the bore? Lots of ways to get there. Just wondering what you chose.
Short answer...
I used a #2 Grizzly Rod and bushing from Pacific Tool and Gauge that just fit the bore.
Now, the rest of the story is that this was a lot of work and I'm not certain that I really went about it the most efficient way and I'm open to suggestions. So, here's what I did.
I dialed it in to <.0001" using a Mitutoyo with the bushing just inside the muzzle and then 3" deep. ...alternating in and out until it was dialed in for both locations.
Once I was within about .010" of the calculated maj/min dia, I started taking .001" cuts until I was just able to thread the break on by hand with anit-seize to prevent gauling. I guess I should really use the compound to feed in at 29-30 deg, but I went straight in using the cross-feed and the threads look/feel clean with no discernable chatter.
Next, I removed the barrel and chucked the brake dialing in the OD and faced it back to where the OD at the end of the brake matched the OD at the shoulder on the barrel and removed the first 2 threads. Doing so boogered the lead thread and I didn't have a small enough inside thread tool. So, I had to clean up that lead thread by hand.
The OD and amount of facing was based on where I had calculated that the tapered barrel and tapered muzzle should meet up with the same OD and still allow the muzzle to come within about .060" of bottoming out inside the brake.
When I took it out of the lathe and assembled it, the timing was about 1-2 degrees over rotated. Feeling blessed that it had worked out like that on the first attempt, I let that slide and went ahead dialed in the barrel bore and drilled the brake with a .260" bit and reamed it to .2877" for the .264 bullets. (6.5x284)
Finally, I polished the brake with 400, 600, 1000, 1500, and 2000 wet/dry plus WD40 at 1400 rpm in the lathe after covering the ways with aluminum foil.
That 1-2 degrees is really eating at me and I'm thinking I'll need to go back and fix that before I'm truly done. I was just confounded as to whether I should face some from the shoulder, the brake or both in order to have the OD match up at the intersection. ...or, not worry about it and just turn the OD of the brake to match the barrel using the compound rest after timing it.
It just seems like I did a lot of re-chucking and re-dialing. Any suggestions for an easier method of procedure would be appreciated.
thanks!
richard