-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
Which Set Of Chucking Reamers?
- Thread starter KenS
- Start date
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2015
- Messages
- 9,605
Depends upon your intended use. If you are looking to install dowel pins, the over/under set will give you precision slip or interference fits. If you just want precision fractional holes, go with the fractional set.
Bob
Bob
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2014
- Messages
- 444
As Bob says, it depends on the nature of your intended usage - and also how much you'll be using them. I've gotten by 99% of my reamer needs using a 4-piece set of adjustable reamers. Of course I've never needed to ream a hole smaller than 0.250 and rarely have to do a blind hole - so YMMV.
Stu
Stu
4
4GSR
Forum Guest
Register Today
I've been pretty lucky on my tool hoarding over the past few years. I've been able to collect sizes from 1/16" all the way up to 1-1/4" and a few larger. I use them mostly for cleaning out holes, ream a few holes, too. The hand reamers, one's with very long flutes, are pretty handy, too. They along with the adjustable one's will allow you to re-align holes that were bored off location a little bit.
Decision making is tough on this subject. Just depends on if you want to be a hoarder like me and want all I can find, or be like my dad and only bought them as a job came up where one was needed. Pretty much all I had growing up was a set of Craftsman hand reamers that started from 1/4" and went up to 1/2" and stopped in increments of 1/32"! Later in life, found a military surplus store that had an assortment of sizes, either .002" under a fractional size or had a step ground in front of the fractional reamer, which I never figured out what it was for. And last, with all of the reamers I have collected over the years, I occasionally run across a size needed and I don't have !
Decision making is tough on this subject. Just depends on if you want to be a hoarder like me and want all I can find, or be like my dad and only bought them as a job came up where one was needed. Pretty much all I had growing up was a set of Craftsman hand reamers that started from 1/4" and went up to 1/2" and stopped in increments of 1/32"! Later in life, found a military surplus store that had an assortment of sizes, either .002" under a fractional size or had a step ground in front of the fractional reamer, which I never figured out what it was for. And last, with all of the reamers I have collected over the years, I occasionally run across a size needed and I don't have !
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2012
- Messages
- 2,677
I've been buying mine one used reamer at a time as the need arises for a specific size.
If you have a used machine tool shop in your area, that might be an additional option.
This has worked out well (for me).
Daryl
MN
If you have a used machine tool shop in your area, that might be an additional option.
This has worked out well (for me).
Daryl
MN
B
Bill Gruby
Forum Guest
Register Today
The over/under set would be my choice. I do a lot of precision work on model airplane engines. Venturi restriction intakes are particularly iffy. .001 makes a big difference in performance.
"Billy G"
"Billy G"
Last edited by a moderator:
A
Andre
Forum Guest
Register Today
Over/Under
- Joined
- May 4, 2015
- Messages
- 3,583
As the others said , decide by what your going to do with them !! In the end no which you'll get a job that needs the ones you don't get. It's Murphy's law ya know.
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2014
- Messages
- 2,102
Why a "set"? I have never bought a set of any tooling in my life, I only buy the tool needed for the job at hand, over time, in my case 30+ years, you will have acquired a "set" of virtually every common tool that you may need. Also many that you will not ever use again, for instance I have a .5002 Vermont Gauge gauge pin in a nicely padded small plastic pill box that I bought 16 years ago, haven't used it since that particular job, should I have bought a "set" of pins on either side of that dimension?
You may buy a set of reamers incremented in 16 ths .001 over and .001 under, lets say 16 tools from .061 to .501, inevitably the next drawing you receive or part that you want to make requires a .254 hole, buy that. Over time you will have 50+ reamers not including the original 16 that you began with (and only ever used 5 of them), buy them as needed if available in your location, I live in a Metropolitan area so this is easy for me, maybe not so much for you.
As a practical consideration, in the time that you have been doing this sort of thing how often have you had to make a hole that requires -.001/+.001 accuracy, (and someone other than yourself is going to inspect it) and do you have the ability to measure such a feature, if not, you will then need about 30 gauge pins Due to the process used and the accuracy of the tool do not expect that a chucking reamer will do what you want.
You may buy a set of reamers incremented in 16 ths .001 over and .001 under, lets say 16 tools from .061 to .501, inevitably the next drawing you receive or part that you want to make requires a .254 hole, buy that. Over time you will have 50+ reamers not including the original 16 that you began with (and only ever used 5 of them), buy them as needed if available in your location, I live in a Metropolitan area so this is easy for me, maybe not so much for you.
As a practical consideration, in the time that you have been doing this sort of thing how often have you had to make a hole that requires -.001/+.001 accuracy, (and someone other than yourself is going to inspect it) and do you have the ability to measure such a feature, if not, you will then need about 30 gauge pins Due to the process used and the accuracy of the tool do not expect that a chucking reamer will do what you want.
Last edited: