Alex Wheeler
Site $$ Sponsor
You need to stick to selling stuff.
Reamers: To sharpen or not to sharpen
- Thread starter Grimstod
- Start date
This is machining 101. If you don't understand it, you need to stop chambering barrels.
Alex Wheeler
Site $$ Sponsor
I stone the faces of flutes often to clean up a bue. But thats not a real sharpening. To bring back a dulled edge, you will remove material. Whether from the face or the od, it makes no difference the diam will shrink. Id draw you a picture but I doubt that would help.
It wouldn't
Alex Wheeler
Site $$ Sponsor
Well I'm sorry I can't help but try, plus I like drawing pictures 
This is a crude picture of a reamer in a chamber. What happens to the diameter of the reamer if you remove material from the face of the flutes? And I apologize for the wise ass comment. The reason stoning the face is recommended if you just have to touch one up is because its much harder to mess up a reamer that way as the relief angle is left alone and the diameter reduction is less rapid. 
This is a crude picture of a reamer in a chamber. What happens to the diameter of the reamer if you remove material from the face of the flutes? And I apologize for the wise ass comment. The reason stoning the face is recommended if you just have to touch one up is because its much harder to mess up a reamer that way as the relief angle is left alone and the diameter reduction is less rapid.
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Because I don't know any better, I have often sharpened reamers just as I would sharpen any cutting tool. When I have made reamers, I honed them by hand and that is how I sharpen one as well. I usually find I can cut about thirty chambers with a good reamer before there is any need to do any honing. WH
hoz53
Gold $$ Contributor
you bore before running the reamer in right?
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
you can somewhat rescue a reamer by rubbing copper on the back side of the cutting edge like youd stone it. it works very well. old machinists used pennies but that was back when a penny was copper and actually worth something.
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
Well I'm sorry I can't help but try, plus I like drawing pictures
maybe the reamer depicted in your picture would be suitable for neck sizing once the original chamber got clicks.
Why do you have to grind the reamer back the length of the whole neck? The neck is straight, the reamer would be cutting on the tip and the flutes there would stay sharp, wouldn't they? For the body, there is a taper getting larger in diameter, when you knock off enough on the shoulder to sharpen it, wouldn't that give you enough increase in diameter to touch up the flutes to the proper size? Also, do chamber reamers have a tolerance range? I guess if you start with a minimum chamber, you cant go smaller, but if there is a range and you start in the middle of it, or even the max, you have room to go smaller if you sharpen.
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Alex Wheeler
Site $$ Sponsor
If you have a .272 neck and your reamer is dull, you cant sharpen it without reducing that diameter. Knocking off a built up edge with a penny or running a stone down a flute is one thing but thats not sharpening. The freebore diameter is the big problem area when reamers get dull. Too much internet expertise here. Call JGS and and ask the people that make em. Tell them your reamer is dull and you want it sharpened without it being set back or the diameter reduced. Let us know what they say. Dont take my word for it.
My only experience is with straight reamers. Our machines would ream 1000 holes in engine blocks, and we would switch them out. What we called sharpening was knocking the dull shoulder off the tip, maybe 10 or 15 thousands. With an inch of length tolerance, it could be done nearly 100 times, and we did nothing to the flutes.
Alex Wheeler
Site $$ Sponsor
With a reamer and its freebore section you will see it wear or dull. Bullets will start to stick in the freebore or not seat out anymore. Theres not much clearance around the bullets and just a couple tenths can be a problem.
Someoldguy
I believe that I have just discovered this VERY problem in a factory barrel. I think it will take a chamber cast to know for sure, but everything points in that direction right now.
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
Not sure but ptg has sharpened them for me and the brass interchanges. I dont make it a practice to have them resharpened but i have had one or 3 done
Honing/stoning removes very little, if any at all. You are simply restoring the cutting edge, as a chef does with a honing steel. Sharpening will always remove material.
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Yes, I pre-bore.
When I sharpen the reamer, it is set up between centers and I indicate each cutting edge with a .0001 indicator and keep diameter reduction to a minimum. If an edge is seriously dulled to where the diameter would have to be reduced too much, I'll send it back for re-grinding. WH
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