CONVERTING THE LATHE

You will need a lathe with a hole through the head stock of at least 1 1/4 inch. This is so you can take the
26-inch or longer barrel blank through the spindle. You will also need to get a gear train so you can
reduce the feed of the lathe down to at least .0005 feed per revolution.

This slow feed is necessary to be able to drill the 17 cal. barrels. From the 17 cal barrels, the feed will
be speeded up as the cal. gets bigger.

In addition, if you have plans to make quite a few barrels it would be wise to get the right size pulleys to
be able to increase the speed of the spindle up to 3000 RPM. Now you might say, and some of the
people who manufacture the bearings for the lathe, that the bearings will not take this kind of speed.

My drilling lathe was a 10-inch Clausing, 36-inch bed, which I used 8-9 hours a day. Sometimes 7 days
a week for almost 5 years before I had to change the bearings. The Key to this is GOOD OIL AND
PLENTY OF IT. There is little pressure on the bearings when drilling or reaming, just a light push or pull
on the spindle.

Also if you have plans to make quite a few barrels using cut rifling, it would be wise to get the right size
pulleys to be able to increase the speed of the spindle up to 2000 RPM to handle the smaller caliber's
such as 30 caliber. My drilling lathe for reboring was an older South Bend with a 60-inch bed, which I
used 8-9 hours a day. This lathe was excellent for reboring and liner making, and proved excellent for
cut rifling. Sometimes 7 days a week for almost 5 years before I had to change the bearings.

You want everything to be easy to change so when you go back to reaming or regular lathe work there
won't be any problems.

OIL TRAY

If your lathe doesn't have an oil tray or chip pan underneath, you will have to construct one. The tray
needs to extend a few inches past the head stock spindle.