- Joined
- Feb 9, 2017
- Messages
- 5,183
As I was reading through Mal’s rebuild of his BMW R69 and got to where he had to hone the lifter bores it reminded me that when I went to use my hones they were all dead. The stones had just self ejected. My two engine cyl hones and my assorted wheel cyl hones. When I found a small new one at the auto parts I barely got one use out of it and it was gone. WTH? But I‘d moved on and forgotten but felt it was a warning. So off to eBay and it was all new junk until I spied a set of 3 adjustable hones made by LO Beard. 3/4”, 7/8” and 1”.
I knew the name because I picked up an almost complete(missing one) of 32 reamers off CL. They had decommissioned some ships and I guess these were part of the machine shop. Most of the big reamers up the 1.5” were still in their original wrappers from the 40’s. It is a really high quality set that I’ve used several times. I picked it up for $125.
The hones looked to be in wonderful shape and even had some spare abrasive, along with some other spare stuff like I think are swedges to set a bushing before you hone to size. But I balked, ive searched the net for LO Beard and there is no info anywhere. It’s like they disappeared after WWII. They use a proprietary abrasive that seems like emory paper held tightly to the metal form with a thin metal back. I thought I don’t want to buy the set and not be able to find refills anywhere. A couple of days later I’m doing my usual run of CL and right there is Beard hone refills! I compare the eBay pics and the CL pic and the ancient little box the refills are in says “fits all Beard hones”. Figured it was another sign and got them both. The local woman with the refills met me and as she was handing me the box she says” not until you tell me what they are!”. It was like trying to explain the sky to a blind man. Nice woman but had no clue. Said it was her dads and she had gotten rid of everything else and found these in a drawer. Crazy.
Do any of you Pennsylvanians know anything about the L.O. Beard company in Lancaster PA?
I knew the name because I picked up an almost complete(missing one) of 32 reamers off CL. They had decommissioned some ships and I guess these were part of the machine shop. Most of the big reamers up the 1.5” were still in their original wrappers from the 40’s. It is a really high quality set that I’ve used several times. I picked it up for $125.
The hones looked to be in wonderful shape and even had some spare abrasive, along with some other spare stuff like I think are swedges to set a bushing before you hone to size. But I balked, ive searched the net for LO Beard and there is no info anywhere. It’s like they disappeared after WWII. They use a proprietary abrasive that seems like emory paper held tightly to the metal form with a thin metal back. I thought I don’t want to buy the set and not be able to find refills anywhere. A couple of days later I’m doing my usual run of CL and right there is Beard hone refills! I compare the eBay pics and the CL pic and the ancient little box the refills are in says “fits all Beard hones”. Figured it was another sign and got them both. The local woman with the refills met me and as she was handing me the box she says” not until you tell me what they are!”. It was like trying to explain the sky to a blind man. Nice woman but had no clue. Said it was her dads and she had gotten rid of everything else and found these in a drawer. Crazy.
Do any of you Pennsylvanians know anything about the L.O. Beard company in Lancaster PA?
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