Barrel vise help needed.

[ReAX222]

Seeing as how my home made vise did not do the trick, I ordered a wheeler eng barrel vise. I mounted it to a table picked the bigger of the two bushings, inserted my remington 700 barreled action, tightened with a wrench, set my action wrench, but when I atempted to turn the action the barrel moved two. The more I tightend and the more the barrel spun in the vise the bigger the wrench I used to tighten the vise. I ended up with an impact gun and two very compressed pieces of oak. The action and barrel are still together. Any tips? I would like to seperate them myself sence I bought the tools to do it, but so far I must not be doing something right. :drowning:

[noway]

Did you degrease the barrel surface and use rosin on the insert when you tighten them up?

[ReAX222]

degrease yes, but the instructions for the didn't say anything about rosin. Rosin as in a wax or a hardening agent?

[noway]

Neither as i'm aware, not sure what a hardening agent is . It's used as a gripping agent and is normally in loose form. Every thing I've seen and read requires rosin on the barrel when using a bbl-vise.

Brownells sells and so does midway-usa.

[Allman]

Oak bushings are not really usefull if the barrel is on tightly or has had something like locktite used on it.

Several things you can try with an oak bushing though. First, try to match the bore in the bushing as close to exactly as possible to the taper of the barrel. You should be able to do this with judicious use of sand paper or a sanding drum on a dremmel. This will give a significqantly greater grip on the barrel than just crushing a straight bore eown on the taper. Second use rosin or, as I have tried before with limited success, double sided carpet type tape on the barrel (the thin stuff, not the foam stuff).

Since you are apparently rebarreling, do you have access to a lathe? I'll assume so and describe how I made my barrel vise for my remingtons and mausers (will work an anything with a round barrel)

I think the wheeler vise is basically two big square bars with one bolted to the other by two bolts to clamp a square bushing in between?

If so, make a large square bushing using an aluminum block ( 1.75 square by 2 inches long is what I used, it's what I ahd handy) that will fit comfortably between the bars. Bore a hole through it (using a lathe with a 4 jaw or mill with a boring bar or very large drill bit) 1.25 to 1.375 inches in diameter (dimensions aren't critical as long as it will fit the vise and barrel). Slit with a hacksaw or mill one side along the bore so that it can be compressed tightly on an insert bushing that will be used to hold the barrel (slit should be about 3/16 wide).

Next, the clamp bushing needs to be fitted to your barrel with an insert bushing.

Obtain a piece of very thick walled aluminum tubing (id of teh tubing should be at least the minimum diameter of the barrel where you intend to clamp it) that will fit closely the bore you made in the aluminum clamping block. Meassure the taper angle of the barrel (using angle blocks and a caliper or just a caliper and doing the math) cut a piece of the tubing long enough to extend a little out of the clamping block and bore the inside of the tube to the exact angle you measured the barrel to be.

Slit the side of the insert bushing with a mill or hacksaw so that you have a parallel to the length slit running the entire length of the bushing. This should be only a hacksaw with wide or about 1/16 if using a mill. the slit should be as close to paralel to the length as possible, but a slight angle will not hurt it.

You could also use a solid aluminum bar if you can't find a suitable piece of tubing, but that is extra work if you can avoid it by using tubing.

You now have a clamping block to put between the vise bars, and a fitted barrel insert to put in the clamping block bore that fits your barrel taper exactly.

Put the clamping block in the vise and tighten ever so slightly just to hold it in place. Insert the insert bushing with the slit lined up with the slit in the clamping block, insert the barrel through the whole assembly till it is solidly against the taper in the insert bushing then tighten firmly. Make sure evertyhing is aligned, that you action wrench will go on without hitting the bench, and then tighten very tightly.

You should be able to remove the barrel now.

I've removed both polished blue and matte finish stainless barrels using this arrangement without leaving a mark on the barrel (aluminum grips VERY well and doesn't slip) but it might be desirable to try putting a piece of thin, rough paper around the barrel if it is critical to avoid marring it (I don't know if this would reduce the grip or not).

If you don't have access to any machine tools, you could obtain the materials, precut them to length, do the appropriate angle measurments, and have the boring done by a machine shop, doing the slitting yourself with judicious use of a hacksaw and file yourself. This is very simple machine work and shouldn't cost much, basically being just the boring of two holes in some aluminum.

[Lazy D]

This is the one I bought and I love it. Have used it a number of times an it works great. I do use the Rosin it helps on really stubborn barrels. I have looked at the Wheeler vise, it looks like $H!^. Oak is tough, but not for this application.

Barrel Vise.
http://cgi.ebay.com/BARREL-VISE-W-4-INSERTS-GUNSMITH-PARTS-MAUSER_W0QQitemZ7231763752QQcategoryZ73962QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Brownells Rosin
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=1123&title=ROSIN