Kelsey Cooter wrote:Hey guys I've just bought an interesting old rolling block (haven't got it home yet) and we don't know if it is 43 Egyptian or spanish so I want to cast the chamber.
I've never cast a chamber before so I've been looking about on the net and it seems pretty simple with the alloy americans call cerrosafe.
Could you blokes run me through the steps you use to cast a chamber
Northern Smelters do a casting alloy like Cerrosafe.
I push a patch down just ahead of the throat.
I make a tube out of paper and drop it into the bolt lug recess to stop the alloy flowing into there. The plastic/cardboard tubes from NGK spark plugs are perfect for this. If it's a particularly difficult action to access you might want to make a "funnel" out of paper to direct the alloy down into the chamber.
I melt some alloy using a gas torch in a 95gm John West salmon can, with a small spout bent into one edge.
Using long-nose pliers I pour the alloy into the chamber.
Let it cool down (it shouldn't be really hot but is too hot to hold comfortably, it melts around 60C), then push it out with a cleaning rod. If it won't move without forcing it you may have gotten some into the bolt-lug recess, or too far down into the rifling. In that case, pull the action out of the stock and heat the barrel with the torch and the alloy will simply melt and pour out so you can try again. I have one rifle that the chamber is so badly pitted I haven't been able to do a cast at all, it simply will not release from the chamber walls. I'm going to have to do that one in short sections I think.