Float reamer holder

As my lathe is a few thou out of alignments I am thinking of getting a float reamer holder , M2 on tail stock and M2 on the holder. But I am a bit reluctant to try reaming 18mm using the tailstock centre with a tap wrench in case it grabs. I have left 6 thou to ream on stainless, also retracting the reamer can this be a problem using the tap wrench method with a stainless sleeve, I have made another cylinder the same using a boring bar and lapping and has come out well but took hours to do. As a float reamer holder are expensive to buy are they worth having or is the tap wrench acceptable method.

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Am I reading this right.

You are not going to mount the reamer in the tailstock but are considering hand holding it with a tap wrench type tool to stop it rotating.? - At 18mm you would be a braver man than me.!

Obviously the floating reamer would be held in the tailstock and that would eliminate the above. - I hear these are excellent (having never used one) but will make a nice big hole in your wallet.

I have reamed stainless (but not at that size) Slowed the machine down and fed in very slowly with lots of flood coolant.

Nick

A floating Reamer Holder is not impossible to make. At the Spalding M E Show the other year, there were two displayed. One was mine on the Peterborough stand and the other was, from memory on the Stamford standard.

The one on the Stamford stand used parallel OD, with internal Morse taper, sleeves, whereas mine is based on a Morse taper arbor carrying a body to take a loose fitting (shop made) ER25 collet holder. The collet nut was purchased from Arc Euro Trade, (much too complicated and accurate for me to make, anyway) This holds Hand Reamers. For Machine Reamers, I made up a larger body to take shop made ER 32 collets with 1,2, and 3 MT internal tapers. (Left soft in view of the likely very limited use)

As usual, no drawings, but if you send me a PM with your E mail address, I'll take pictures and send to you.

The only bits that may be considered complicated are cutting the 16 degree included internal taper, and the 32 x 1.5mm external thread. The ER32 collets with the internal MT tapers were a bit more of a challenge.

Howard

MIght boring then honing with a common brake cylinder hone be a suitable alternative to reaming, stainless being as grabby as it is and all?

Had a look on e-bay for a brake cylinder hone, I'm going to get one of those, thanks.

Or you could make one based on Chris Heapy's design.
http://nsa.kpu-m.ac.jp/gijutu/kousaku/easyweb.easynet.co.uk/chrish/t-d-note.htm

Dave
The Emerald Isle

Hemingway Kits sell a kit for a floating reamer holder. This can hold MT2 reamers with MT2 tailstock. I bought and made one a few years ago. The instructions were excellent and I did not experience any problems making it. It does a good job but is a bit of a palaver to use. Therefore it generally sits in its box and I make sure the tailstock is correctly aligned.

For details see http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/Floating_Reamer_Holder.html

JA

Robert

To echo JA's post I also built the floating reamer holder offered by Hemingway Kits and found it easy to make and it works well. One mod I made was to replace the 1" dia. MT2 holder with a 1" arbour with the end screwed and bored for ER20 collets ( actually I just use the one from my Quorn). The reason I did this was that all my machine reamers have parallel shanks. One thing I found when using it is that you can't just advance the reamer into the rotating work with the tail stock as it will chatter and run around it circles before ti gets started in the hole. This is because as it is floating in the holder it will sag under it's own weight and the end will be considerably below the lathe centre line. The way I use it is , with the lathe stopped, to advance the reamer with the tail stock while holding the end up with my finger till the taper on the end of the reamer just engages with the hole in the workpiece, I then start the work rotating and at the same time slowly advance the reamer into the work.

John Purdy

Gunsmiths regularly use floating reamer holders for accurately sizing chambers, this is the type of thing **LINK**

A search for Gunsmith Floating Reamer turns up plenty of others, some home made.

* Danny M *

"Robert, you don't say where you are in your profile? If in the U.K. And you want to go down Danny M's route I would suggest you buy direct from Dave Manson , look at the price difference ! Brownells U.K. £190 Mansons $120 ! (£95) Ok so you may have to pay import and vat but I doubt it will come to £190.

Alternatively "somewhere " ? I have a plan for making one that was in ME some years back, if you PM me I will find it an send you a copy.

Cheers JohnF

Edited By JohnF on 08/11/2016 09:46:21

I think that reaming stainless with18 mm reamer is putting a hell of a load on your tail stock,you could spoil the taper in the tailstock barrel if it spins,bore and hone, don't waste your money ,I have a 1960s made floating holder from a good english manufacturer, lets say I acquired it for free,hardly ever used it ,never found it to very successful

May well be true but I suspect it's one of those things that each person has to prove for his/herself.

Surely, the reason for using a floating reamer holder is to eliminate the effect of the reamer and hole not being accurately aligned?

A reamer solidly mounted in a Tailstock which is is not in perfect horizontal and vertical alignment with the hole to be reamed, will cause it to act as a boring bar, and produce an oversize hole, by cutting on one side of the hole.

If the reamer flexes, the hole may well be tapered as well as oversize!

Howard

Howard - one of your pending articles features a home made floating reamer holder -is it your own design?

Neil