Anybody here that has cut & pinned/welded a mini 14 barrel? I've been doing a little research and what I gather it's more common then I thought. There's a machining mark which is the cut line. From there it needs the muzzle prepped or "crowned" or whatever (please forgive the terminology) After that it's pinning/welding a muzzle brake. Apparently by shorting the barrel the accuracy is increased (obviously much needed in that department) as well as making the rifle easyier to handle.

So that's as far as my research has gotton. Which brings up more questions. Nothing scares me with actually doing this. People do it all the time in the AR world.

And myself having spent the last 23 yrs in the metal industry I'm more then capable and have all the proper tools.

Question #1
If I cut the barrel myself (making it illegal cuz I don't have an SBR stamp) and immediately drop it off at Smith for prepping and machining. Then bring it home so I could weld on my own brake would that be acceptable?
Question #2
Do smiths like to control every step of the project or is there any out there willing to work with qualified customers such as myself?
Question #3
Should I just keep researching all the steps involved and do the entire project myself?

Looking for some input here from everyone. Suggestions on a Smith close to Tumwater would be helpful.

I wanna get this done so when my A-tm folding stock from Sampson arrives I've gotta completely new rifle!

To answer your first question, cutting the barrel makes it illegal. If you are stopped with it on your way to a shop, you're in possession of an illegal SBR.
There are many ways to crown a barrel yourself with everything from specialized tools to a brass screw in a drill, so you could do it yourself and pin/weld a flash hider to meet the 16" requirements (go 16.1" to be safe). Because the length will be the same, you wont be making the rifle any easier to handle or maneuver around, but accuracy *can* be improved on some rifles, though my guess would be the new crown improves the accuracy, so you could just have barrel recrowned and leave as-is.

The actual cutting is straight forward and relatively quick, so you're not going to be out anything cost wise to just let a licensed smith do the work...
You're legal that way, and if the barrel gets ruined, it's not on you to fix it. Just my $0.02

#1- it’s a grey area. If you remove the barrel from the receiver and cut it down it’s not an sbr, it’s just a shortened barrel with no home. Having the rest of the rifle kind of puts it into constructive intent territory. But again, grey area. Until a short barrel is installed on a rifle it’s not really an sbr.

#2- Tpryder at SPR industries is great to work with. I’m sure you guys could figure this project out together.

#3- even though you have the tools and know how to do a lot of this work yourself, personally I’d just drop it off to Tpryder and let him handle it. Sure you might save a little money doing it yourself but Tom will make everything right, no what if’s, no issues. Just done right with no headache for you. Drop it off, pick it up. Done.

To clarify my response to #1, I was assuming the barrel was still going to be affixed to the receiver. If cut while attached, it's an illegal SBR. If cut while removed, they could hit you with constructive intent, but I'd assume they'd have to find you with all the parts in one location to make that stick

They would really have to have a boner for you to try and prosecute you for that.
I can't even imagine that happening.

Me either, but anymore I feel like they are just crazy enough to try if only to prove some point and make an example of someone because guns are bad!

You would have to convince a jury of all of that, and they would just sit there scratching their heads with puzzled looks on their faces.

That's why they don't do 922(r) prosecutions.
The defense attorney would hold up two identical looking firearms.
One is legal, the other is a felony to posses.
Pass them around to the jury, they still can't tell the difference.
And you want us to send this guy to prison for this?

This...

Tpryder is also the friendliest guy you could ever talk to.

I believe if you take your barreled action to a gunsmith he will have to remove the barrel from the receiver in order to cut , crown and thread properly.

Can you remove and reinstall the barrel yourself.
But even then. What tools and skills do have have to lessen the cost of a pin and weld?
I worked out a deal with AR barrels where the smith cut crowned and threaded. And that’s it. I drilled the flash suppressor/barrel for pinning and then handed the barrels off to a friend to weld the pins.
I think you might as well let the smith do all the work.

Ya, If you can take off a Mini-14 barrel you would know how to do the rest of the work yourself.
I'm sure people have just sawed off the barrel, ground it flat, crowned it with a reamer, and silver soldered the attachment with a propane torch.
Older Mini-14's aren't known for their accuracy. May not hurt it much. Depends on what you want to do with it and why you're doing it.
Mine still is vintage 100% original. Hand sanded the stock with 0000 steel wool, hand rubbed with BLO, looks like the day it came off the production line only better.
Like it that way.

Thanks everyone for the insight. After doing a little more research I'm gonna figure how to carve some time outta my schedule and just do it myself. Plenty of options for breaks. Brownells or Midway has the pin.
And as far as ability is concerned I'm good. Time is my biggest enemy. Set up for this means I get to trade family time, chore time, etc.

I'll post some pics when it happens.