I read y'alls posts yesterday. Sorry I didn't answer right away, but I left work early to go to the range. Still working on loads for deer season which starts in 4 weeks minus!
Well, driving home yesterday I couldn't stop thinking about fitting that barrel. So I figured I'd do that instead of going to the range. I had looked up the reference to the "Goop" super weld, but had JB at home so I decided I'd just use that. I also thought about Pete's interesting idea of wrapping the pin so I stopped and picked up a case of cans. I wanted to be sure to have plenty of material to experiment with!
After quickly readying the first beer can for the operation, I cut a strip out and measured it's thickness with my calipers; .005! TWICE the thickness I needed!
I soon abandoned the idea of trying to slice the strip in half widthwise, but only after learing how thin a layer of skin can be cut from the human thumb. I then embarked on a quality control check of the cans used by the Miller Brewing Company.
As best I remember it must be pretty good as I don't think I ever found a can made of metal less then .005 inch thick... I did learn, however, that dial calipers get hard to read after the sixth or seventh time you measure beer cans with them...
So Pete, I abandoned your method. But it was not all for nought! As soon as I woke up I used one of the beer can clippings as a template for my shim. I cut the shim out, checked the fit, heated it to cherry red, note: use something other then your fingers to hold the shim when you do this or it will add new meaning to the term "getting all fired up!" prebent the shim, roughed up the contacting surfaces, mixed up the JB, spread it on the underlug, stuck the two together, fiddled with making something to hold them together, got mad (my head was killing me!) and just locked the barrel on the receiver and went to bed.
This morning I went down to my gun room to check on my handy (PUN!!!) work. About the time I walked in I saw a can of release agent sitting on my work bench and realised I forgot to spray down the pin area before clamping that JB oozing underlug to the pin!
But not to worry, it (the rifle) broke apart with only an estimated 60-80 pounds of pressure simultaneously applied to the barrel and stock with the pin area resting on a concrete block... <I sure am glad this ain't my rifle!
>
The end result? The action and barrel clamp together tighter then a virgin's knees!
I know the barrel face is square with the standing breach and I can't wait to get her to the range!
With my new-found barrel fitting confidence a whole new world of possibilities has opened up for me! I no longer fear the barrel for sale adds in the handi classifieds! I need 30/30, 44 Mag, BC 45/70, and 25/06 barrels for starters!
