Chinese/Hong Kong reamers from eBay, yay or nay?

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Kaleb

Kaleb

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I recently snapped my 6mm chucking reamer in two, so time to look for a replacement. Now searching eBay yields plenty of results, however a lot of these are from those "we got it all/one stop shop" sellers from China and Hong Kong. I found some of them offering reamers this size for as little as $1.50 or so, and even a listing for a 5 pack for $7.

Such deals are tempting indeed, but "Made in China" and "Cutting tools" are two phrases that usually make me run, not walk away from making a deal if said in the same sentence, especially if they're cheap.

Would you act the same way, or am I being overly paranoid? I have heard that it is possible to get decent stuff from China, but you won't be paying rock bottom prices for it. Bottom line is that I would generally assume that cheap equals crap unless proven otherwise.
 
I bought a set up to 12mm dia supposedly H8 but cant really tell
No complaints,they are good for thru holes,cut well with good finish
as long as you make the shaft to fit.Although I am happy with the fit
with cr ms bar stock,give a nice sliding fit.They have a long lead in
and so are no good for blind holes.Very good for the price you pay
 
I had some pretty junky small reamers from China that I think were carbon steel and not HSS but quite a few very good ones from Hong Kong. The HK sellers seem to be a bit more reliable than the mainland China sellers. Make sure you order the HSS ones and not HCS (High Carbon Steel) though. Still a bit of a gamble though. I buy either new from Tracey Tools or the like or even secondhand UK or Aust-made brands if the job is something special that I don't want to risk snapping a reamer in.
 
It depends on what you're going for. Are they as good as US, Japanese, or European reamers? Hell No! Are they good enough for your project? That depends on what you're doing.

I use the Chinese stuff (usually from Shars) and have had no issues with aluminum or 360 brass. I've had some scoring on steel. I never tried on stainless because I despise stainless.

Some people are "tool snobs" and will call anything from China, Taiwan, or India junk. That's their prerogative. Other people think there's no difference. I get what works for me.

Well, that's my two cents.

...Ved.
 
The Chinese readers I got were pure junk. Extremely brittle.
 
When it comes right down to it reamers shouldn't cost that much more than drill bits. If you can find a reliable supplier you should be OK. Finding that supplier is another matter.
 
I got a set of Chinese reamers in a wooden box some time ago from an English company Amadeal. A spontaneous purchase to be sure, but I have used the popular sizes quite a few times and they work perfectly well for me.

Looking afterwards on eBay, I couldn't see any there, but like I said that was several years ago.

Dave
The Emerald Isle
 
What vederstein said.

What I have found is that with a lot of non-name-brand stuff sold at low price is variability: If you buy a set of drill bits, some may be very good, some may be OK, some may be poor or even unusable. If you buy from product 123 from vendor XYZ this month and reorder product 123 from XYZ again next month what you may get will be totally different. If you are willing to live with this this may work for you: If you want everything to be right all the time and you want your supplier to be infallible then don't compromise.

I am a hobbiest and on a limited budget, so sometimes I play the game: Sometimes I can take a risk, sometimes I can't and get reliable products. I generally try not to compromise on taps and dies because the cost of a broken or stuck one can cost me hours of time to remake something. I would put reamers in the same category myself.

--ShopShoe
 
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