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Posted: 10/2/2010 4:47:54 AM EDT
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Can a barrel that is chrome lined be chambered? I am looking at the demilled SG-43 barrels that are up for sale. https://www.apexgunparts.com/product_info.php/products_id/1412 To me the barrel looks like an excellent stock for making Pistol barrels, for either AK pistols, 7.62x25 pistols, or .32 NAA or ACP pistols. The question I have is can these be chambered? The barrel itself is chrome lined.
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Quoted: I'm sure they can. I imagine all you'd need to do is bore a few thousandths over groove diameter with a carbide boring bar to an adequate length and then chamber as usual after that? I was thinking along the same lines. Will the chrome flake, at the front edge of the cut?
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I doubt it. The chrome plating process used in barrels is probably a very different animal than that seen on car bumpers, etc.
I think it's probably pretty tough in regard to its' bond to the barrel steel. A peek with a borescope after chambering probably wouldn't be a bad idea though, just to make sure everything's kosher. |
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While I was never called on to do a chamber job on a chrome lined bore, I've been told by other smiths that it can't be done.
The hard chrome is VERY hard, actually as hard or harder than the chambering reamer. The reamers tend to just slide and dull instead of cutting, ruining the reamer. Those M1 Carbine chrome lined barrels were made during the Vietnam War and the ones for sale were defective. The chambers were off, which is why they would need the chamber cut to head space. I have heard of people using these barrels on Carbines, but I never really heard how they did it. Whether there's some type of carbide chamber reamers, or they fitted a barrel by trimming the receiver or the barrel itself, I don't know. If you have a rifle barrel that's chromed, you can probably use it for pistols or other rifles if you can cut an entirely new chamber. You can use carbide or ceramic cutting tools to cut through the chrome, and once through, you can use standard tooling to work them. You'd have to make sure the chrome is removed far enough up the bore to allow a chambering reamer to cut only bare steel. As for the chrome flaking.... Nope. Unlike bumper chrome, hard chrome is bonded directly to the steel and actually bonds INTO the steel. Since it's bonded to the steel it can't chip, crack, peel, or flake off. |
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