What kind of reamers should I buy

B

bhowden

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I would like to move a rung up the ladder of quality work and am thinking of buying a set of reamers. Unfortunately I work in both metric and imperial. Am I better off with a set of fixed reamers and add under and oversize as I need them or can I use an adjustable like these:
http://www.ctctools.biz/servlet/the-579/HSS-ADJUSTABLE-HAND-REAMER/Detail
to cover both under, over, imperial, and metic? How fiddely are they to adjust and how much skill does it take to get an accurate setting? While on the subject, what is the difference between hand reamers and machine? If it is just a case of productivity I would lean towards hand reamers as I am assuming you do less damage while learning.

Brian
 
i think you can answer yourself with the question "how deep are your pockets ?" how important are reamed holes to you ? all depends on what your making. . . . . i guess im more into mtce. type work.. .. fixing whatevers' brooken. i hardly ever use my straight shank ones, and i have a set of adjustable ones i use to use when repairing air tools. . . but didn't use them often enuf to have bought a new set. . . . just my two cents....
 
Not to be a smarty ... but I just bought the ones I needed for a long while. Next thing you know a big wooden organizing chest full of them falls into place for 50$ and you still mostly use the ones you bought out of need.

Personally I have adjustable and incremented in 64'ths. I don't ream a lot and am prone to boring instead (ask anyone who knows me, Boring is I).

Adjustable reams consume time. Us hobbyists have that in plenty. Fixed reams consume money.

Steve
 
Exactly my point. You can buy each ream you need per size AND over sized, undersized, reams, or a few adjustable reams. You have to fiddle with the adjustable reams. I HATE fiddling, but it isn't that bad. They are tractable, meaning that if you move them 1 turn and the hole gets .001 bigger that is pretty much how it goes.

OTOH if you pick up a 43/64 ream and expect a .6719" hole you may have a surprise no matter where the ream was made. Working up to it may be more accurate.

However I have no idea how a worn lathe makes a hole not straight all the way through in boring. I'd say that is generally caused by a combination (or all) of rush, flexible bar, rush, dull cutting tool, rushing and not making spring cuts. If you can turn an outside diameter to size you can sure as a cat licks cream turn an ID.

Again I am in agreement with you on the use of a ream. Straight hole to a size quickly. They are more accurate than a drill and quicker than boring. Though I have never really considered them a machining operation but more of a manual operation. Drill the hole, ream it. If it is already setup in a machine just bore it, is where I am.

Steve
 
At the moment, lathe and drill press but hopefully a mill in the future. I have had a couple of cases where I used the lathe as an index and an electric drill mounted on the tool post to drill a ring of holes using twist drills. They were not round enough or accurate enough to get a nice fit on a piece of drill rod. Somewhere in the future I hope to make a couple of attachments that require chucking a drill in the headstock and moving the work to the drill using the cross slide. Again, I need (ok, want) an accurate hole.

Brian
 
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