floating reamr holder

K

kman

Guest
im lookin to purchace a floating reamer holder could u guys stir me in the right direction ,this is going to be a gift for special friend

thanks for any advise in advance
 
Do yourself and him a favor, pick another gift. More chambers have been ruined by improper use of floating holders that don't float free enough, in the horizontal, for chamber work.

Do some searching on this board about floating reamer holders.
 
The Bald Eagle is hard to beat when it comes to a floating reamer holder.
 
Do yourself and him a favor, pick another gift. More chambers have been ruined by improper use of floating holders that don't float free enough, in the horizontal, for chamber work.

Do some searching on this board about floating reamer holders.



Excellent advice Jerry. See you at the FISS!

Greg Walley
Kelbly's Inc.
 
The Bald Eagle floating holder may well float as it needs to ream an exact size chamber. To me an exact size chamber is one that is not over about 0.0001" over the dimensions of the reamer itself.

I tried 3 other floating holder designs and decided to go to the floating pusher. After finding this floating pusher reamer driving method offered exactly what I was looking for, I stopped looking at other holders and did not try the Bald Eagle holder.

What I was looking for was two features, first was to produce a chamber that was the exact size of the reamer and, two something that would give me "feel" for how much load the reamer was taking place as it got further into the reaming process. The heaviest cutting load the reamer takes is the last few thousants of an inch in depth and I do not retract the reamer based on a certain amount of cutting pass but to feel what the tool feels.
 
Bald eagle

Jerry

What you describe is what a Bald Eagle is--a floating pusher---ball against flat, ground and hardened plate.

I found the same thing you did when trying different methods.

Jim
 
Here is the one I made/make.

Not really a floater. You have to be "jonny on the spot" with your set up otherwise you'll have a mess. It does work well for me though. I've made a couple of these in varying forms over the years. Simple, works, beefy. Best of all the webs of my fingers don't look like hamburger from holding a tap wrench anymore!

DSC_0006-2.jpg
 
reamer holder

Chad what is involved in the setup on your reamer holder ? you don't have to get to detailed . The Rifler
P.S. looks great .
 
im lookin to purchace a floating reamer holder could u guys stir me in the right direction ,this is going to be a gift for special friend

thanks for any advise in advance

If you have a lathe that will do chambering you can make a floating pusher as good as any you can buy in a few minutes. I made this one which is a shamless copy of one that another regular here made:

ReamerPusher-2RS.jpg


I machined a #3MT on a piece of CRS to fit in the tail stock. Put it in the headstock and machined the face of it dead true, then bored a hole in it to allow the reamer shank to stick into it with out bottoming and have at least .030" radial clearance. The face of the tail stock insert pushes on the collar, the collar pushes the reamer. the reamer itself doesn't contact the piece in the tailstock anyplace.

The collar, which is what gets "pushed", was machined by boring the hole in it to "just" fit the reamer shank. Then the face was machined dead true in the same set up and it was parted off. The result is that one side of the collar is perfectly orthogonal to the centerline of the hole the reamer is held in. I put in a set screw to clamp on the flat spot on the reamer shank. I gave it a small rounded end handle that is short enough to swing clear of the carriage so that I can let it go and rotate when I get to the depth for the current pass, back off the tail stock, stop the spindle, and remove the reamer for cleaning, re-coating with cutting oil, then make the next pass. I set the carriage and clamp it so that it serves as the stop for the tail stock.

My theory is that by letting the handle go allowing the reamer to rotate at the end of the cut reduces the chance of galling that might occurr if a chip got under a flute when withdrawing it. Might not matter, but that's how I do it.

Like Jerry I like having the feel. I had just the faintest hit of chatter once, let go immediately, used the patch trick and had it cleaned up very quickly. I don't know that I'd have picked it up that quickly if I wasn't holding the reamer.

When I hold it my thumb is right over the setscrew on the collar so I counteract the torque with my fingers and thumb making a force couple on the holder. This allows resisting the torque with out putting any noticable side pressure on the reamer. If I were to rest my fingers on the compound then there would be a side force. I've seen videos where folks rest the handle of the BaldEagle pusher on the compound but I've not done it that way.

The force couple is what you do if you are using a rachet handle on a long extension. You will find your self using your thumb or other hand to counter act the side force so the thing stays on the nut. The nice thing about a force couple is it allows a torque with out a resulting side force.

So far I've done 4 chambers with this pusher and they are essentially exactly reamer size as close as I can measure.

I'm only chambering my own rifles so time isn't a consideration. I can take a whole afternoon just cutting the chamber if I want to and it doesn't matter. If I was doing it for food I'd have a pressure flush system and chamber off the carriage exactly like Chad does.

Fitch
 
Last edited by a moderator:
all great points

my bald eagle will ussually cut at .0005-.0012 over reamer diameter depending on how much of a hurry i am in but i always saw that every chamber was different by a few tenths or so.although it is necessary to start out at tight to diameter some opening was necessary for my bench guns. i was faced with an issue of interchanging brass to many different chambers on my own rifles to save a little money on brass.2 things had to happen headspace had to be exact and diameter had to be exact as well ,so what i did was when i was within .0002 to depth measured with a cup mic ,i lightly pushed the reamer to the side ,noticed some lumps, when it cleaned up the dia opened .0002 larger in diameter,but i then opened it up a bit more match the other chambers diameter to,and used the same reamer to measure slop in the other chamber[previously cut by this reamer]and matched it exactly.then edged in the final headspace ,but now i push the reamer to side everytime if anything just to clean up the lumps but more importantly to match the exact diameter .so far has worked well. tim in tx
 
How are you guys measuring that that the reamer is cutting .0001 to .0012 over diameter?
 
measuring chamber dia compared to the tool

is done with your existing reamer,a magnetic base hooked to the barrel with a test indicator works well,the reamer slop in the rear of the chamber will tell ,but make sure you place the opposing blades in line with your indicator for a more accurate measurment.hope this helps sir. tim in tx
 
Last edited by a moderator:
same size

Mine come out same size as reamer--reamer has to be rotated and pulled to be removed from chamber. key point is that reamer mandrel to bushing fit must be snug and bushing to barrel fit must be snug
 
Once the chamber is complete there is zero reamer slop or play. I was amazed at how well something this simple works. The reamer never touches the pusher during chambering.

1tsgid.jpg


e7i6nb.jpg
 
jim and roscoe

i wish i could say that,but i do have some longer chambers come out tighter,where there is a wedge but mostly on the long mags.the shorter br ppc style chambers i usually cannot get inside of .0005 except on a rare occasion.i have started out with a live center with some br/dasher chambers and then once i am in a bit i will go to floating,that has helped to control the reamer upon starting somewhat.there is always more to learn i am sure.i guess i need to work on my feed rate for the shorter chambers to acheive what you guys are doing and will do so. tim in tx
 
How are you guys measuring that that the reamer is cutting .0001 to .0012 over diameter?

For a PPC, use a .4375 gauge ball in the chamber and measure the distance to the face of the tenon with a depth micrometer. The shoulder to the rear of the tenon and your headspace dimensions need to be machined to identical lengths from barrel to barrel for an accurate measurement for this datum.

Calculate the size accordingly for a PPC at .0093" taper per inch.

Greg Walley
Kelbly's Inc.
 
Once the chamber is complete there is zero reamer slop or play. I was amazed at how well something this simple works. The reamer never touches the pusher during chambering.

1tsgid.jpg


e7i6nb.jpg

A perfect illustration of the KISS principle in action. I like it.

Fitch
 
Back
Top