Why use a floating reamer holder?

K

KenG

Guest
If your tailstock is dialed in and you dial in your barrel to .0001 through your headstock why would you want to use a floating reamer holder? I use a floating reamer holder now but I'm thinking a fixed reamer could cut a better chamber because you know your setup and you're not totally relying on the bore of the barrel manufacture to control how your reamer is going to cut. So is using a floater just a compromise for setup errors where a fixed reamer is unforgiving but should cut more perfect chambers.
 
Ken

Floating Reamer Holders are not just used in chambering barrels. Anytime we ream a hole in our shop that we expect to be a set size,, we use some sort of floater. By a floater, I mean any fixture that will allow the reamer to progress into a hole with absolutly no binding.
The reason is simple. Reamers are designed to cut on all surfaces, and to cut to a specific size. Any mis-alignment, however small, can cause the reamer to bind, and cut larger than it should.
Since reamers are made of high speed steel, or carbide, they will not bend.
Actually, a floater is the best way to use a reamer, because it allows the reamer to do just exactly what it is designed to do, that is, establish a sized hole to an exact shape, with no outside influence. Any outside influence will only affect the reamer performance in a negative way. In other words, the best way to establish your "perfect chamber" is to let the reamer work independent of any outside influence.
You might think you have everything in your set-up perfect, but that is rarely the case. Reaming is different than single point boring or turning, and requires a different approach........jackie

m
 
Know nothing newbie's observation

Hi,
I'm relatively new to this but have been learning chambering from a friend who does very precise chambering work and it surprised me how much curvature there is within the bore of even high end barrels. He dials in the bore at the end of the blank to about a half a thousandths then measures the runout a couple of inches inside the bore and it has been off by a couple of thousandths or more. It's my understanding that while the pilot must follow the bore exactly, the floating arrangement adapts to any variance in bore straightness.
Feel free to flesh out my education if this ain't ezactly so.
Zub
 
Jackie

What type/brand of floating reamer holder would you recommend for .22 rf chambering? Thanks for any recomendations.
 
Here's what I use. It's not original with me as Dave Tooley told me about it. The reamer is held with a Sinclair case holder for their neck turning tool. The floater is just a tube bored out .020" over reamer diameter, .010" over would work just as well. The only place the tube touches is against the case holder as it has clearance on the end of the reamer and sides.

reamerholder.jpg


Here's a photo of a Bald Eagle commercial reamer holder. It works similarly to the tube that I use. The round part on the end of the taper pushes against a flat piece of metal inside the handle that holds the reamer.

Baldeagle1.jpg


In use with either holder, if the reamer sticks while you are chambering, you just let go of the handle and let the handle spin. You then turn the lathe off and turn the reamer clockwise pulling the reamer out of the chamber.
 
Mike

Thanks for the info and pics. That helped a lot. I was about to buy a $100.00 reamer holder from Brownells. I owe you.:)
 
Tony,Next time you are down for a shoot,stop by the shop & i will show you one of my Floating reamer holders,I have sold over 50 of them & they are expensive,250.00, & they are the most precise one out there,They were called the Sidewinder when brownells sold them a few years back,I now build them on a custom order basis only,I think that Dave Kiff still has a few of them at PPG. BILL
 
Keith23 said:
Thanks for the info and pics. That helped a lot. I was about to buy a $100.00 reamer holder from Brownells. I owe you.:)
Click to expand...

A simple holder that works very well from a piece of scrap and 15 minutes labour... Thanks Dave and Mike... I copied you as soon as I saw it quite a while ago...

Keith, you should explore Mike's website... he has lots of good pictures and descriptions. It really nice there are so many who willing share on this forum.
 
Bill and Dennis

Bill, I will take you up on your offer next time I'm down. BTW: I bought a Bridgeport mill three weeks ago and have been having a ball making chips. I'm sure you would laugh if you saw me trying to mount the vice and squared and level everything up. Something like a monkey and a football, but it was fun.

Dennis, you are right, it is great that there is a bunch of people on this site that are willing to share their hard earned knowledge. Hobbiest, such as I, need all the help we can get.

I took a machinist course at the local college and it really helped, I plan to take another this fall but there is sooo much more to know!

Thanks Guys
 
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