Hi guys,  some of you might remember my .223 remington chambered Savage heavy barrel 1-9twist, 26" that wouldnt shoot in reloading section.  It will only shoot 60gr bullets and heavier without keyholing   Anyway,   I have  575 rounds down the tube now and its still copper fouls extremely badly and starts stringing vertically/diagonaly after 10 shots,  The best thing thing will shoot is a 1.5 MOA, one with a 60gr 100yd load, and about the same with a 69grSMK load and RE-15 at 200 for 10 and groups are opening up rapidly.     Just looking down the barrel it apparent the throat is about gone already,     I slugged the muzzle and come up with .223, and the throat area is .2245.     Looking at the profile of the riffling itself it almost seems like the top of the rifling is higher on one side, this might just be a junker at this point...     This thing is stupid heavy to carry in the field out here as well...

So now for the gunsmithing related section.    I have finish chambered a .308 mauser by hand that turned out to be a great shooter,     part B of this exercise is to get some lathe chambering experience.

So given this,   I have a HF 9x20 lathe,   the barrel is too large in diameter to fit through the headstock, and obviously too long as is to chamber in a steady on this lathe....      BUT  suppose I were to cut it down to make it lighter to carry,  If I were to cut to 20" or shorter,  would it be a good idea to take 1" off the muzzle and the remainder off the chamber end eliminating the entirety of the current chamber.    

I'll have to see if I can even get the toolpost to the right end of the steady rest to see if I can even do anything with this lathe,    but supposing I could,  what would be  the proper order of operations?

How to  indicate and hold the bore centered so you can cut the threads concentric to the bore in a steady?    Can you?  

1.)  dead center in headstock with lathe dog to drive,  live center in new bore to machine flat for steady rest to run on chamber end
2.)  face chamber end
3.)  thread tennon
4.) drill bore just smaller than roughing reamer
5.) single point bore same depth?
6.) roughing reamer
7.) finish ream

tips, suggestions, what would you guys do?

A 223 improved is not going to clean up that throat.  Sounds like the barrel is junk and a prime candidate for inhouse gunsmithing work!

Given a 223 barrel should be set back to rechamber a 223 improved, I don't see how this is possible with this lathe.  I rechambered a Howa to 223 improved, but as the barrel was metric I did not set it back and brass looks funny with the double angled shoulder.  I did this about 15 years ago, where I got bad info from the reamer seller.  I might run the reamer deeper to make a sort of 222 magnum improved someday.

Bottom line is a 9x20 is just not enough lathe for barrel work.  I would think through carefully before cutting a barrel to 20" to fit the lathe bed.  I would guess a 14" barrel would be max that could be turned on this lathe.  If I were to use this lathe for running a reamer into a barrel, I would drive the muzzle end with a chuck, and hold the rear with a spider, and freehand drive the reamer into the barrel.  That will be a far better choice than holding the barrel stationary, but it will force the reamer to follow whatever chamber is there - aligned to the bore or not.

Given parts for the 9x20 are cheap, I might buy a bed extension and mount the tailstock further out on a piece of steel to turn whatever length you need.  There are a thousand different good ways to do it, and some of the best machinist stories are using tools to work beyond their design.  

I bought a 11x36 Rockwell for work like this, and it is more than I need.  It is the right tool, though.

Those prechambered barrels would be the way to go with a Savage, saving the cost of a reamer and gunsmithing costs.

No, my wife has instructions of how to get rid of my lathe after I die.  I have as much fun working on machine tools as using them.  I just gutted the lathe of that 1960's CVT speed control, about 100 lbs. worth.

I put in a high quality 2 hp 3 phase motor for low speed torque, link belts, and one of those thrice-cursed Hunguang VFDs.  I sized the drive pulley to be at  100% of original full speed at 30 hz with a ramp up and down speed around 3 seconds for smooth operation.  Around 25 hz the lathe is almost silent except for air rushing around the chuck.  At other speeds, I can hear other things in the headstock that need attending to.

Yeah, it is worth it.  The neighbor said he used to hear my lathe run late at night, and now it can make incredibly smooth cuts without that single phase telegraphing.  Some of those difficult cuts on hard or unknown steels seem to go better now.