on the need for reamers

[Aquarius21]

Greetings, as a newbie ( 34 years since engineering technology machine shop and no
practise since then, I have acquired and restored a 1943 Clausing model 104 lathe.
I have decided to focus on small compress air engines. However, as I look at
tooling, and a very limited budget, I wonder, can one make a small engine
without the proper size reamers? I found an article in the April 1940 Popular
Mechanics magazine on line which tells how to make reamers. Any other
suggestions on how to reduce cost? Take the work to the local machine
shop? Home made tools? Discount reamers and from where?

Many thanks, Quincy, Nova Scotia

 

[rake60]

Welcome to HMEM.

Reamer sets can be expensive.
I buy the ONE needed for the project.
After a lot of years in this hobby I have 3 different
size reamers in my tool box.

Rick

 

[bearcar1]

wEc1 Aquarius. Many of us here on this forum face the same dilemmas from time to time and wanting to not sell your wife's jewelry in order to support our addictions has been going on for ages. :big: Decent reamers can be easily made from drill rod (silver steel). Quite a bit can be accomplished with what is on hand as you will discover in a short time here. Do a search on "D" reamers and you should find many references to how to make these items.


BC1
Jim

 

[kvom]

I agree with Rick. Many of the holes that need reaming will match some diameter of drill rod, so a few standard sizes are a good starting point.

 

[Maryak]

Quincy,

Welcome to our forum.

Boring slightly undersize and then lapping/honing is another option for larger holes.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[Blogwitch]

Just a little advice to save your pockets a little bit of anguish.

For these little air or steam engines, the running tolerances are not all that critical. In fact using reamers can produce all sorts of problems that are difficult to rectify. Especially if you don't know how to use them correctly.

Get yourself a good quality set of twist drills, not the cheap and nasty types that are given away on cereal packets, but a reasonably priced set from a reputable supplier. Preferably get the four facet ground ones, as these are now the same price as normal ones, and do give a much cleaner and straighter cut.

If you bring the bore up to size using say 3 or 4 from the set, with the next to last one say 1/32" or 1/64" under size, then if you take it steady with the final drill, you will get a perfectly acceptable bore for most small air or steam engines, just make the piston to the correct dimensions for a running fit. Just lap them together for a more precise fit.

For IC engines, stirlings and flame lickers and such, it is another matter, they have to have the bores spot on for parallelism and concentricity. But for what you are doing, the lowly drill bit should be just fine.

If you want to go a little further, then learning how to bore is your next step. If done correctly, the finish, fits and tolerances that can be achieved can put reamers to shame. I use reamers, but only for speed. I use them in a small production environment, and when you need say 100 fairly close tolerance holes, reamers are the easy way out. I would never trust one to give me exactly what was required, unless I wanted to spend loads of cash to buy a floating reamer setup for the tailstock, or many hours of time making one.

Start simple with the basics, get good results from them, and then decide if you need to shell out on more expensive tooling. You will learn a lot more, and spend a lot less cash.

Blogs

 

[Aquarius21]

My many thanks for the great advice! Quincy