# My brand new boring bar



## Johnwright (Feb 4, 2015)

With no football to occupy my time, I decided that I would put to use the piece of 1/4" HSS I had purchased from Enco.  In the scrap pile, I found a piece of unknownium steel, some kind of mild steel in 3/4" rod.  I turned it down to 5/8".  Have you ground yourself a shear bit?  Those dang things sure leave a slick finish.  Anyway, I drilled and tapped one end for a set screw to hold the bit, cross drilled the 5/8" with something just under 1/4" and went to work with my smallest files to put some corners on the cross drilled hole.  Getting it close to 1/4" square, I slid in the HSS 1/4" and tightened the set screw.  Having it firmly held in the 5/8", I hit it with the grinder and bodged  up what was my idea of a cutting edge.  I tried it out on a short piece of stainless that I had picked up at the salvage yard, and I was pleasantly surprised that it worked as well as I heared it should.  This is my second attempt using a boring bar, my first try was when I ground a cutting bit for opening up the hole on my 4 hole compound holddown.  It may not be an earth shattering event for you CNC types, but for this old retired cop it felt pretty good.  And now, one photo from my I-pad to document the event.  John W


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## Reeltor (Feb 4, 2015)

John,

Your boring bar looks pretty darn good to me :thumbsup2:

Mike


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## FOMOGO (Feb 4, 2015)

Nice job. Not every thing has to be a Faberge egg to bring a sense of satisfaction. I made and installed some wooden dowels made out of an old broom handle for some doors I'm building. Made me happy. Mike


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## nightowl499 (Feb 5, 2015)

Johnwright said:


> With no football to occupy my time, I decided that I would put to use the piece of 1/4" HSS I had purchased from Enco.  In the scrap pile, I found a piece of unknownium steel, some kind of mild steel in 3/4" rod.  I turned it down to 5/8".  Have you ground yourself a shear bit?  Those dang things sure leave a slick finish.  Anyway, I drilled and tapped one end for a set screw to hold the bit, cross drilled the 5/8" with something just under 1/4" and went to work with my smallest files to put some corners on the cross drilled hole.  Getting it close to 1/4" square, I slid in the HSS 1/4" and tightened the set screw.  Having it firmly held in the 5/8", I hit it with the grinder and bodged  up what was my idea of a cutting edge.  I tried it out on a short piece of stainless that I had picked up at the salvage yard, and I was pleasantly surprised that it worked as well as I heared it should.  This is my second attempt using a boring bar, my first try was when I ground a cutting bit for opening up the hole on my 4 hole compound holddown.  It may not be an earth shattering event for you CNC types, but for this old retired cop it felt pretty good.  And now, one photo from my I-pad to document the event.  John W



I was just sitting here wondering about getting a better boring bar, yours looks great to me now I just have to get some good small files ,,, thanks for the good idea
Gary


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## Bishop (Feb 5, 2015)

Nice work, building your own tools is very satisfying. I have used broken taps and drill bits the same way, no square hole to file. I would like to try my hand at filing a round hole square though. 

If if you try it with a drill bit shank check to make sure it's hardened first. Most of the ones I tried weren't hardened all the way to the top. Broken centre drills work well also. 

Shawn


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