Cylinder throat reamer

[Brad]

After trying a variety of bullet sizes in the wife's new 686 I decided the throats are a bit tight. Bullets that fit the throats are too small to prevent forcing cone leading. Accuracy isn't bad but I grow weary of scrubbing lead from the rear of the barrel.
I decided to bite the bullet, so to speak, and order a cylinder throat reamer and pilots. It isn't a cheap purchase but I will be able to use it again and again.
Will likely be mid next week before I get the reamer from Brownells but I will try and get some video of it in action.
I suppose I could have driven to Brownells on sat and bought it?

 

[waco]

For .357 only or other calibers as well?...

 

[Brad]

Just 357. At least for now.
Reamer plus pilot pack runs 160 bucks or so. Unless I need a different size I can't see the expense?
Now if you had a different size we could work out an exchange.......

 

[waco]

Can't see the expense? Your a pharmacist? You guys make boat loads of $$$$

 

[waco]

Only kidding......

 

[Brad]

Yeah, my boat isn't growing like it did in the past. No raise last year. Good news is I haven't had student loans in 18 years.
My boat is going to Europe this spring for 2 weeks though.....

 

[fiver]

you umm know there is a bunch of foreigners there...
if you just wanna see foreigners you could come here during the summer and hang out at the gas station.

 

[Brad]

Yeah, I know. Problem is that they don't bring their art, museums, and architecture with them.
Some awful nice RAF museums around London.

 

[Ian]

$15 chucking reamer bushed with masking tape (even layer count, no over or half laps) to fit the chambers works for me, but I'm a lot more bush league than you are.

 

[freebullet]

Hmm, Rick said that FA is looking better & better ehhh?





Teasing of course, I don't speak for Rick.

 

[fiver]

we are a bit short on art [unless you count the side of the pharmacy where the HS kids painted some pictures of the town.... [not graffiti]
but we got a museum and a haunted hotel.... [damn creepy place,, I refuse to go down in the basement and look at the taxidermy collection] even those ghost hunters guy's from the T.V. show wouldn't go down there.
about all the architecture we got is trees, the geyser, and lava rocks but there is plenty of them to see.

 

[Eutectic]

TAPE

$15 chucking reamer bushed with masking tape (even layer count, no over or half laps) to fit the chambers works for me, but I'm a lot more bush league than you are.

TAPE??? Maybe one hole but six would bother me Ian. Pretty simple to make a bushing for the chamber area now for that chucking reamer!

Last one I did was a Ruger Blackhawk .45 Colt. First thing I did was slug the barrel to know what to fit too. It was an even .452". Cylinder throats were also consistent at .4515". The culprit had been found....... .4525"...... a mere .001" out of the throats made a vast difference I could write another paragraph about!

Pete

 

[Brad]

My Ruger BH in 45 Colt was done with a split rod, emery cloth, and a drill. Once a sized bullet was a snug fit I stopped.
Undersized throats are just a leading machine

 

[Ian]

Pete, it works better than you might think, I've done half a dozen .45 Colt cylinders @.4525" now. I turn the reamer by hand, go slow, make sure the tape on the flutes is tight, use lots of tap oil, and go for it. I might could make a sleeve now, but it would be very hard to make it thin enough and concentric. Selectable front pilots like Brad got is the way to go, it will follow what's there (better hope the holes are indexed correctly to start with!)

 

[Eutectic]

That thin bushing is a wonderful tool sharpening test to give someone to see if 'chatter' gets them!

Keep the o.d. a little thicker the i.d. a light press over the reamer flutes. Chuck and indicate reamer in..... skim bushing for chamber clearance fit.

Pete

 

[Ian]

Oh, yeah, reamers have pilots on each end for centers...duh.. final finish in place. Wasn't thinking.

 

[RicinYakima]

I just bought the Brownell .45 set when it came out. Used maybe 10 times in the last 25 years. Works just fine if you turn it by hand and use lots of cutting oil so you don't even have to polish when you are done. Available.

 

[Brad]

I thought about making a sleeve to fill the chamber. Sort of a faux case with a bore the size of the throats, or within .001. Let the sleeve float on a coat of oil and use it to guide a chucking reamer.
I decided it was just as easy to get the right tool up front and have it for future use.

Ian, I wouldn't call it bush league at all. Shade tree maybe but in the end you use experience gained as a mechanic to find a viable solution. More than one way to exfoliate a feline.

 

[Eutectic]

Shade tree maybe

You need this where Ian hangs his hat!!!

Let me 'crow' just a bit. Think about a multi-journals on a crankshaft... Think about the block with multiple main bearings for a minute. If you needed to machine those bearing fits for some reason how would you align it? I don't want a modern computer answer! Think it is a Model A Ford block back in WW2. We called this line boring when I trained and a horizontal mill was a favorite of mine! You not only indicated concentricity you indicated the run of the centerline for all the journals!

Not all of us have my father's skill of precision alignment by hand, S O O O I think of hand reaming jobs like we are discussing as a 'line boring' situation. We are not a machine running on centers for the driving end. We are a wobble hope it's straight on center about right driver for our reamer. So Brad's idea of double piloted is a good one I use even with talented hands. Being supported in front of and behind the cut is much improved accuracy-wise when our hands have control limits!
I don't know how many 'throats' I've lengthened. A lot though by hand. Yes the reamer is piloted. Sometimes your driver (hand) is a ways back by gun design making alignment even more problematic. So if I am sure that the chambering job is a concentric one I will pilot the back of the reamer as well with a bushing in the chamber. I reamer between centers in other words! Even if the chamber has a couple thousandths error you'll be way closer than a wobble approach! I've never had one not as accurate as it was before the work; and usually I expect a big improvement..... and get it.

Pete

 

[RicinYakima]

Yep, I use an old .45 Colt case on the back of the reamer, it slides on the cutting edges, with the steel pilot on the CL threads. The summer after high school I worked at the Aeronca Aircraft plant in Middletown, OH. Must have tapped and/or reamed 10,000 quarter inch holes by hand, vertically with the part in the fixture. One develops a feel for using a reamer that way also. So I did all the cylinders in a padded vise so I could look down vertically through the center line.