Had some free time this evening, so I shortened the barrel to the length I wanted, threaded and recrowned it. Surprising that 10.3 ounces of barrel weight was removed.
I don't expect that I'll be adding that much weight back to it overall when I am finished, including the 17-1/2 inch barrel/suppressor sleeve that will cover everything from the receiver forward to the exit end of the baffle stack.
That's a few more steps out of the way as I twiddle my thumbs and whistle Dixie.
I did six passes with a single point thread cutter so I could verify that everything is as straight as possible.
I did the final pass with a hand die just to make sure there weren't any trouble spots.
I opted to true the face of the muzzle and give it a very deep recessed crown. Since it will be hidden forever-ever-after once I pin the monocore baffle onto the barrel to bring it over legal length, I wanted to take a couple of pictures in the meantime just to document the work going into it.
And the photos below shows the groove in the middle of the threads where it will be pinned and welded to satisfy ATF protocol concerning OAL. You really have no idea how much it irked my soul to have to do that to a barrel, but it is what it is. I could complain about it for the next week, but I sleep better at night when I know that what I touch is done to the letter of the law. Once everything is finished and it's pinned and welded, the parts would be destroyed before they could be separated.
I will be using a 3mm tapered steel pin through both of the parts prior to welding over.
The pin won't just be seated into the groove. It will pass through and through the widest outside diameter of both parts.