Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

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Sandiapaul
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by Sandiapaul »

Adjustable reamers...here is what I have to say about them: They are an abomination. And they will get you out of a bind like nothing else! Under/over are better. For example, I have: .499", .4995", .5003", .5005", .501", .503", .505". All have been used to good effect(not necessarily on live steam work!)

You will not need a set of reamers....buy them as you need them. But as others have said, drill, bore close to size(go look up how much a reamer should take off) and then ream. Great for things like drivers. I have never had a problem with bell mouthing, just don't expect the reamer to take off much material and run it at the proper speed. And as someone mentioned you don't need them if you can bore properly. Where they are really handy is in the smaller sizes where boring is not practical.
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NP317
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by NP317 »

I second both of Greg_Lewis's postings and experience.
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Chris Hollands
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by Chris Hollands »

My reamer collection - standard size /over size / undersize /metric and taper pin all bought over the years one at a time as needed .
Probably the only set I would buy would be 1/16" - 1/2" by 16's and then fill the gaps as required .
I use over and under size more than standard sizes I think .
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shild
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by shild »

tetramachine wrote: Wed Jan 06, 2021 12:46 pm I bought a set over over/under from 1/8 to 1/2. Chinese, work well for last 15 years. Larger sizes ebay a name brand, Morse, Regal, others. When making drivers use reamers for the bores. and on size. You need to have a .625 hole to accept a 5/8 guide when broaching the keyways, a .6235 hole will not work.Larger sizes new are real bucks. There are still NOS reamers on ebay at good prices.
I was expecting that for 3/4" scale that driver axles would be 1/2" and all other axles are 3/8". Guess that's not always true?
shild
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by shild »

Sandiapaul wrote: Wed Jan 06, 2021 9:22 pm Where they are really handy is in the smaller sizes where boring is not practical.
What do you count as a smaller size? Anything below 1/2"? It certainly becomes more difficult to measure the size of a hole as it gets smaller doesn't it?
shild
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by shild »

Thanks so much for the replies everyone! Waiting until I get the plans and then deciding what reamers I need sounds like the thing to do.
tetramachine
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by tetramachine »

For small sizes I use a groove gage, .200 to 1.200 other to 1.00, on the same gage, also have 3 point expanding bore gage starting at 3/16. Lastly ball gages, like the telescoping gauges, but with a split ball.
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by Greg_Lewis »

And for slightly larger bores, telescoping gauges are fine if you have a careful touch and can live with plus or minus .001 or so.
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Sandiapaul
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by Sandiapaul »

"small" yeah could be .500 or below, but I bore plenty of holes that small too, I was thinking more like anything below .250" That said if you really want to bore small holes Micro 100 has bring tools that go down to over .015"!
For live steam work you don't really need that and I would get reamers as you need them. In time you will have quite a collection.
SteveM
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by SteveM »

Sandiapaul wrote: Fri Jan 08, 2021 5:57 am "small" yeah could be .500 or below, but I bore plenty of holes that small too, I was thinking more like anything below .250" That said if you really want to bore small holes Micro 100 has bring tools that go down to over .015"!
For live steam work you don't really need that and I would get reamers as you need them. In time you will have quite a collection.
Harold has a picture of a boring bar next to a nail.

Except that the nail is a straight pin.

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Harold_V
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by Harold_V »

SteveM wrote: Fri Jan 08, 2021 1:42 pm Harold has a picture of a boring bar next to a nail.

Except that the nail is a straight pin.

Steve
That's not quite true. The picture you speak of does have a straight pin in it, but the picture is of an antenna latch, a defense contract that I fulfilled many years ago. Here's the picture. The only finished part is the one on the right, which is assembled with the required Armco Iron base and pins. The pins were made of stainless, and were .022"diameter. (There's two pins in the part, but one of them is not visible. It was used to pin the base piece in place.
Antenna Latches.jpg


Note that the only boring bar used in making these parts (209 of them) was for turning the two small diameter bosses. All operations were accomplished with a Bridgeport milling machine.

Smallest diameter hole I ever have bored was .062", using an EE Monarch.

H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
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SteveR
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Re: Could I get help picking a set of reamers?

Post by SteveR »

This thread got me thinking I would try to collect some data on just how bad or good reamers are. What I found out is that measuring is another skill I need to work on. Nevertheless, I thought I would post what I have and get some feedback.

Two sets of reamed bores were measured with a Starrett telescoping gauge and a Mitutoyo IP65 micrometer (reads to 0.xxxx5inch). As a baseline, I set the gauge in a bore and then measured it 4 times to see what error I got. The results were +/-.0006 inch. I just used my normal technique - everyone is different and so this is likely a good measure of person-person and tool variation for home machine shops.

This was a two part experiment. Part one is a set of 8 CI wheels from Allen Models.
They were first drilled 9/16, then bored just a bit to 0.615+/-.005 then reamed with a new (McMaster) reamer to 0.6250. Each hole was measured at least 3 times, rotating the gauge in the hole to measure different orientations. Wheel 8 was measured multiple times.
8 reamed holes with multiple measurements.JPG
You can see that most of the measurements are within +/-0.0005". This is in the same range as my measurement error, indicating that the tool results are better than that. Note that I couldn't detect any difference from the front, middle and back of the bore (bellmouthing).

The second part was a set of 32 CI wheels from Jim Abrams.
I didn't have a small boring bar, so they were drilled 3/8, then drilled 27/64 (0.4219), then reamed to 7/16 (0.4375) with a previously used reamer (Mcmaster). They were labeled as made and measured in random order to see a machining trend (none observed).
32 Reamed Hole Measurements.JPG
32 Reamed Hole Distribution.JPG
Again the measurements vary by about 0.0005 inch pretty well around the target (orange line), the histogram shows the distribution is a bit flat, with a couple of outliers, but this is probably my technique.

This is what I do for fun? Absolutely.
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