Grrr... Rifleing

I can't remember the name of the process when ya "polish or smooth the rifling" of a barrel. I know this but can't remember, Alexa ain't helping either.

Lapping

Thank you!

Stumpkiller, kill this if ya want, I was having a "duh" moment.

I ain't Stumpkiller but I'm going to leave this topic just in case someone else forgot that lapping is the process of polishing the bore.

No worries.
Since I'm here, use a patch or go bare to lap?

Specifically a lap is a lead plug that is dipped in a mild polishing abrasive that smooths the rough areas of the lands and grooves. My explanation is way to simple to describe the pouring of molten lead onto a lapping rod and having a means to expand the lap as the rough areas are polished out.

Most of us use a polishing device such as a scotch abrasive pad wrapped over an undersized cleaning jag to do the polishing. Sometimes we use a patch dipped in polishing compound to do the polishing in the bore.

Fire lapping is done by putting the polishing compound on a patch to be used with a ball and fired from the rifle. For that matter fire the rifle about 200 times with a standard patch and ball.

All of these work to remove roughness from the bore and take the edges off the lands. A lead lap offers far more control and a degree of choke (0.001 to 0.003" at the muzzle) can be worked into the barrel. To a great extent, less is better than more and polishing compound is better than valve grinding abrasive.

At this time I don't have a brand name for the polishing media. There should be some listed in the Brownell's catalog.

"thumbs up"
Going with fire lapping, got plenty of powder, caps and balls. Thanks.

If fire lapping, only fire a couple shots. Then clean thoroughly. Examine results with endoscope if you have one. Fire a couple live shots for accuracy to check results.

Don't over do the lapping. You can always take more material off, but ya can't add none.

I just did a refurbish on 2 rifles. Lapping is good but I went a step further. Took a dowel rod.
, 1, .5 for 50cal and 1, 7/16 for 45cal. Cut a groove at angle to match twist and same width of groove. Cut a bit for each from a file. Put a piece of leather in the dowel groove to act like spring tension. Ran the bit 100 plus strokes in all grooves. Polished with steel wool. Produced very nice defined deeper grooves an land edges. Both rifles shoot markedly better than before.

I sure would like to see a picture of that rod, bang. I think I understand but a picture would sure help my tired brain.

Ditto, Bang.

Here ya go.
Very important for the bit to be held firmly and squsre in the groove.

Now that's neat, I'm gonna try that.
Thanks Bang

Grenadier1758 said:

Specifically a lap is a lead plug that is dipped in a mild polishing abrasive that smooths the rough areas of the lands and grooves. My explanation is way to simple to describe the pouring of molten lead onto a lapping rod and having a means to expand the lap as the rough areas are polished out.

Most of us use a polishing device such as a scotch abrasive pad wrapped over an undersized cleaning jag to do the polishing. Sometimes we use a patch dipped in polishing compound to do the polishing in the bore.

Fire lapping is done by putting the polishing compound on a patch to be used with a ball and fired from the rifle. For that matter fire the rifle about 200 times with a standard patch and ball.

All of these work to remove roughness from the bore and take the edges off the lands. A lead lap offers far more control and a degree of choke (0.001 to 0.003" at the muzzle) can be worked into the barrel. To a great extent, less is better than more and polishing compound is better than valve grinding abrasive.

At this time I don't have a brand name for the polishing media. There should be some listed in the Brownell's catalog.

Click to expand...

I used a brick of red rouge (jewelers) and got excellent results. I simply impregnated a heavy cleaning patch with it, added a bit of FP10 oil and polished a bore that I thought was a goner. I got it back to smooth and increased the ball size .01 and got a great shooter!

Blogman said:

Now that's neat, I'm gonna try that.
Thanks Bang

Click to expand...

Can't take the credit. Got the idea from another. Wish I had written their name so I can give proper credit. Only thing I changed was applying a springy material to maintain pressure rather than add paper to shim. I highly advise side wrapping bit with just enough paper to hold the bit firmly so the bit doesn't tilt. Also bevel the ends of the bits so they won't hang up. Because of that it's extremely important to use same number of strokes on each groove to maintain even cut. I ran 150 strokes. It made a marked visual difference. The improved smoothness of ramming is vey noticable. I did the overal lapping first to make sure roughness on land was corrected. Then the groove cuts to deepen grooves. I think I can say for sure the depth increased .003-.005. Needless to say the more strokes the more depth so you can get however you desire. The process took little over a week for 2 barrels. Thats 900 strokes per barrel. I would do one barrel 50 strokes per groove a night, 300 strokes. Clean, polish and blue. Trust me 900 strokes per barrel in one day will wear you out. I'm considering repeating the process but probably not since all I do is shoot target for fun. From the results I got it's most likely the best I'll get considering my age and eyes. Both went from 4 inch group at 25 yards down to inside 1.5 inch and some touching in that.

I will check this out. I have three that needs spiffyed up, one for a friend and my two. Thanks for the info, Bang.

Blogman said:

I will check this out. I have three that needs spiffyed up, one for a friend and my two. Thanks for the info, Bang.

Click to expand...

Good luck. I'm sure it will work. One other thing. When you make the first few strokes go slow and make sure the dowel is turning. I found that once I was accustomed to it I could turn my hand with the twist. When it's all sure hold a marker inline with the bit and stroke to make spiral line on dowel. This will let you know if the bit jumped out of the groove. Really nothing you can do but pull it out but it helps to know that you get total number of strokes per groove. The bit I used cuts both directions. So if it jumped 2 times to another same groove thats one stroke for that groove.
I also removed barrel and clamped on a table with cushion under it that way I could use the wall or cabinet to create a backstop so the dowel would stop right at the bit just protruding at the muzzle. Before I did that it was difficult not to pull the dowel all the way out then the bit would fall out and of course would go under anything just to piss me off. Made keeping up with which groove was in work too. Figured out putting tape around barrel and numbering the grooves helps a lot. But making a backstop was the best because you can really get after it when it's all working right, along with spiral mark. You may have to remark the spiral occasionally.
To get the bit angle I lightly oiled about 2 inches of the barrel then put a narrow piece of paper, about 1/4 barrel circumference, in the barrel then slid something that would lightly press the paper against the bore without moving the paper to get imprint. Important to keep paper centered inline with bore. Graphite the back of the paper. Put the paper on the dowel centered inline. Mark over rifling lines leaving transfer on dowel. I used a dremel but an exacto and a jewelers screw driver the right width and sharpened is easier to control to get snug fit groove. The bit doesn't have to be more than 1/2 inch long. Too long and it will be difficult for it to follow the groove. If there is roughness a few drops of oil will help. Once the roughness stops you shouldn't need oil.
I recommend doing 50 strokes per groove then clean. Then repeat. The build up of loose metal will start wearing on the dowel rod thus why you will need to remark the spiral.
Let me know how it goes.

Thanks bang, makes sense to me now!

Bang,
What you are doing is actually not lapping, it's freshing a barrel. Not a new or unknown procedure. This was done by many gunmakers to do what it is called, freshing a partially worn barrel to extend its longevity. I have a rifling machine dating to the late 18th century and about 150 different freshing heads that were used with this machine. My theory is that barrels were not cheap or readily available so even small bore rifles were made out of larger than needed barrel blanks to give them the ability to fresh or drill out and re rifle barrels as needed.
Mark