Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
How do you sharpen these reamers?
Phil Joines Krum, Tx.
>There are a couple of these reamers in my auction haul and I have no idea how to sharpen them. This one is 6 1/4" long and 1/2" wide at the widest point. It's a hemisphere and has a slight hollow gtind.
The lines just inside the edges on the top pic are an artifact of the scanner. There are no "bevels", it's completly smooth.
Re: How do you sharpen these reamers?
paul womack
>Those are "half round" reamers (or "rimers") for soft metals e.g. brass.
I also have no informed idea how to sharpen them.
BugBear
Wood reamers look like
HC Sakman - Victoria, BC
>twist drill bits.
Chico...
That's interesting
Phil Joines Krum, Tx.
>From the rest of the tools the guy was a cabinet maker. I wonder what he used them for. I think they could be sharpened using a honing disk sized slightly larger than the inside radius. I don't need to use them so they will probably go in a display.
I want to use tapered pins on some tables. It makes them easy to disassemble. I guess I need to make the reamer. I haven't seen any slim reamers for sale.
Re: Wood reamers look like
Phil Joines Krum, Tx.
>I haven't seen any like that. Do you have a link to one?
Re: Wood reamers look like
paul womack
>http://www.wdynamic.com/galoots/4images/details.php?image_id=3280
(upper picture is a tapered drill bit)
http://www.oldtoolsshop.com/inTheShop/Tools/boringBitstocks/Boring_Bitstocks.asp
http://www.roseantiquetools.com/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://roseantiquetools.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/hickmanbraces3.jpg&target=tlx_new&title=Best%20Cast%20Steel%20Black%20Brace%20Bits
BugBear
I've got one of those
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>and it's nice to know what it is, finally.
Perhaps
jim reed @ tallahassee
>he made his own hinges. Just cut up some brass, bend it around a pin for the hinge part, drill and REAM the holes for screws.
Re: Wood reamers look like
HC Sakman - Victoria, BC
>This is from Dick Fine Tools GmBH.
Chico...
Re: Perhaps
Phil Joines Krum, Tx.
>They might work for the body of the screw but they're way too shallow for the head.
Sharpening reamers
Adam Cherubini,NJ
>I have a host of these, each with a different design, each design having its strengths and weaknesses. This is a metal reamer a Paul said. It works like a scraper. You want crisp edges. So you hone that flat and very lightly dress the side. Its doesn't really need to be truly hemispherical. Sometimes guys flatten the sides a little when the flat face gets worn down too much. Not wholly unlike a spoon bit. You want a 3 point contact. No real advantage in having that whole hemisphere in contact with the hole.
I think these were used not so much to taper a hole as to create an accurate size or position. The taper is pretty much meaningless in thin plate or sheet metal. So you could punch a hole in mild steel or brass, then use this thing to get size and position. That's my theory anyway.
In general these old bits that can cut in either direction allowing the bit to be racheted to pull the hole. Some have claimed that shell bits can't be used accurately enough to drawbore. Well, this is how it can be done. Not sure what was done. But I do that job all the time. I prefer a center bit but for off axis boring, there's really no alternative to a spoon or shell. I can bore at angles no modern bit can produce. I really like old bits and find my reamers very helpful.
Adam
"pull the hole?"
Bill Houghton, foggy in the morning, sunny later
>Eh?
Re: "pull the hole?"
William Duffield, on the Cohansey
>I think he means to change the location of the center of the hole by selectively removing material from one side, by turning the reamer back and forth, before final diameter is reached, and then rerounding it by turning the reamer in a full circle.
I concur Sir William...
Dave Anderson Chester, NH
>That is certainly one of the major advantages of using a spoon bit. You can move the center of the hole and/or change the drilling angle very easily. The reamer would be easy to "sideslip" the holelocation though it wouldn't be able to drill a different angle like the spoon bit.
Re: I concur Sir William...
Adam Cherubini, NJ
>I'm no windsor chair maker but you sure can change angles with a reamer. Its so easy that one wonders why one should bother worry about the first hole's angle. Reamers even more so than spoons cut the sides of the hole. Because of this, if they aren't very sharp you can end up with a hole that isn't round. Just like planing, reamers don't cut end grain all that well.
Adam
sorry about the hole pulling lingo. I didn't realize that wasn't woodworking vernacular.