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Reamers, who makes there own

5K views 18 replies 7 participants last post by  Gordon (NZ) 
#1 ·
As a follow up of the key fitting thread, Ive been asked by the person I did the topic up for, where do you buy or how do you make your own reamers.

For info, you can purchase reamers from places like kraus ferees etc, however I personally like to make my own reamers up, I have a fair few from the above two suppliers because the price for the product is more than fair. But I do prefer to make my own, as I can get a better sizing that suits me

Im curious who here makes there own reamers.

Im probably going to do another tutorial for manufacturing of reamers, be they 4 flute or 6 flute straight / spiral flutes. Again if people are interested I can CC the forum in.

But who else makes there own reamers
 
#6 ·
Paul, all sorts of reamers, you can go with the most basic of all reamers the D bit which steve mentioned earilier, these are a good all round reamer, very easy to make up with a little bit of practice, also does not require very many tools to manufacture, you would have seen a D reamer, from a side view they look like a D, Basically you grind half the thickness of the drill rod away from one side and then bevel the leading edge.

I was going to do a tutorial up this weekend again, but for making fluted reamers. a fluted reamer is a reamer that has straight edges or spiral edges, usually any number from 4 onwards, Ive actually seen a 32 fluted reamer, this indicates on the reamer there are 32 cutting faces.

The tapered or straight or stepped etc term refers to the shape of the base metal itself, stepped reamers are used for high precision typically found in the aviation world, they use stepped reamers which increase the hole size typically 5 thou at a time, so for example the front of the reamer will be 125 thou and then the next part of the reamer will be 130 thou, the more flutes the finer the cut you can achieve with minimal heat, heat = distortion.
 
#8 ·
I make D reamers. Some key fitting may require a different size rod screw and you need to ream to get a a good fit. Doesn't take long.
I bought some mousetail reamers which are handy for openening up spring holes. I wouldn't fancy trying to make those - too fiddly.
 
#9 ·
I've never been taught a "proper" method to make reamers. I just made a reamer to fit piccolo keys that had been re plated. The reamer removes any plating that may have been added to the inside of the tube. Essentially I use a piece of drill rod the appropriate diameter. I file a taper on the end for starting the reamer. I then grind a flat on the rod to create a D shape. Harden the reamer, then finish the flat by "sharpening" it on a diamond impregnated sharpening stone to remove burs. Works for me. What do you do?
 
#15 ·
I've never been taught a "proper" method to make reamers.
I dont know if my way is the "proper" way either. But ive made many a reamer, ive still got reamers from when I made them 20 years ago, and some cold chisels we made back in apprentice days

well even on a single use reamer (meaning, for one job muliple keys are to be contemplated anyway) hardening is a big skill to learn.
Ill leave the heat treating process out of this one, Im pretty comfortable to do heat treating / hardening of the fly, but becuase there are too many experts that will say you cant do it like that, you cant use those words to describe that, I wont post that bit, Ill include that to the person who asked but Ill leave that bit out of the forum CC
 
#10 ·
No purchase of reamers needed for key fitting.
Get the new rod that you are going to use, before you shorten it to size and thread it. Grind a clean edged flat on the end, with its plane say 30 degrees from the axis. That is your reamer. It works really well, and the perfect size. Follow up with lapping if necessary.

I have found bought reamers to have too big a size increments to be really useful. At significant expense, I bought all the reamers I could, both metric and imperial, anywhere near 2 mm. They didn't have a hope of providing good sizing for my slightly oversized (from 2 mm) drill rod. But the above-described method, well-known among technicians, was superb.

Edit: Just noticed Slausonm's similar post.
 
#13 ·
From your description gordon it does sound like a type of D reamer, a flat edge along the shaft approx half the thickness of the drill rod with a tapered leading edge

One of the small issues with reamers is the hardening, but lets not go into that hey... If your sharpening a single bit of drill rod and then using it as a once or few times only cutter, then really you dont need to harden it at all.

If you want to make a commercial grade reamer, then you need to harden it after shaping, then everything from there on is grinding, no more lathe work.

Ill do a 3 or 4 flute remaer this weekend and CC the forum in.

In retrospect I need to make a new cello reamer for some fancy new whitmore pegs, Ill do the tutorial on it so that way everything is large and easy to see
 
#19 ·
... One of the small issues with reamers is the hardening... If your sharpening a single bit of drill rod and then using it as a once or few times only cutter, then really you dont need to harden it at all...
I quite agree. Unhardened drill rod is a lot harder than brass or even cupro-nickel. And if it can be sharpened in a few seconds, there is not really any need for heat treatment at all.
 
#18 ·
I was taught how to heat treat tool tips in a metal fabrication class in high school. I also took a metals class in college that included a section on hardening and the science of the structure of metals. I've forgotten most of the little I knew. I also know that there are volumes of information on this topic that are very complex. I'd leave it out too :)

I look forward to the reamer tutorial. LEARN ME !
 
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