Reamer Question, recommendations, thoughts?

Mike8623

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OK guys I'm looking for a hole through reamer for reaming rifle barrels every once in awhile and I really don't want to spend $200.00 each. Not a chamber reamer but a reamer to finish reaming the bore in a gun barrel.

What type and brand maybe would you folks recommend for this type of use? Hopefully $50.00 or under in price, must have a hole for coolant/ cutting oil. Hopefully something available in longer lengths.

What do you folks think.....what would you use and or your thoughts. I'm looking for info and a possible narrowing of the choices that would work for me.
 
What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Pull through reamers for rifle barrels are custom made tools, and with flow through shanks, they are for dedicated machines. $50.00 ain't gonna buy much.
 
What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Pull through reamers for rifle barrels are custom made tools, and with flow through shanks, they are for dedicated machines. $50.00 ain't gonna buy much.
I want to make a rifle barrel. once drilled it will have to be reamed.............so I was hoping for some thought s on a type of hole thru reamer that may work. I realize that the big barrel makers use custom made reamers but surely another type of reamer will work for a few barrels.

anyone out there dome this before and what worked for you or didn't work for you
 
So how are you going to drill it?
I am going to use my lathe. What type of reamer would you use if you didn't have $200.00 for each caliber hole reamed and wanted to ream a long hole 18-28 inches long?
 
I buy barrels from reputable barrel manufactures who drill, ream, rifle, and lap the interior of the barrel.
They have all the necessary tools to get it right {to size, dead straight, properly rifled, polished inside.}
I can buy the barrels 0.000,5 undersized if I like, too. In any conceivable caliber, too.

Why do you want to take on the most difficult part of gun smithing yourself?
 
Just buying the proper drill bit (gun drill bit) is going to cost you over $200.
 
I guess the challenge and just to do it. Eldorado sells gun drills in the hundred dollar range.

I'm just looking for some reamer info here guys surely someone out there has been here before. Anyone that can help please do.
 
I think you are biting off more than you can chew.....
Deep hole drilling for rifle barrels requires a deep hole drilling machine, not just any lathe.
Is your lathe capable of turning 2500+ rpm? Do you have a pressurized oil system that will produce 800 p.s.i.? I'm betting not. I don't mean to discourage you, but making barrels is not a hobbiest thing. Like others have said, it's easier and cheaper to buy a quality barrel than to spend money on tools to do it. Barrel makers have spent lots of time and money learning their trade and all the tricks associated with producing good barrels.
I've personally been to 4 barrel makers and watched their process, and it takes precision machines and precision tools that most have never seen or heard of. Besides the drilling and rifling machines, you must also have support machinery.

One of the barrel makers that I knew and shot competition with was a farmer that made barrels in the off season. He built his machine with the help of a seasoned barrel maker that also mentored him. He told me making the machines was the easy and cheap part. The rest was the hard part......precision tool grinders, precision measuring systems and the knack to figure out what made things right.

Eldorado has everything you need, but the machinery.
 
I think Gale McMillian said it best, we have invested millions of dollars to create a precision rifle barrel, why do you think you can run laps on a cleaning rod that will make it better. I get the challenge and the wanting to do it yourself- I personally love that attitude. But at the end of the day, a man has to know his limitations. Maybe you are looking to become a barrel maker, or just your own for a few. The Kentucky rifle guys are still building their own. But that's a different game than accurate centerfire. Depends what you want to end up with. There is enough work to make a rifle accurate- barrel clambering, action accuritising, barrel mounting, etc , plus hand loading to keep your mind busy with nuance. Once you get past an accurate hole down the middle of a long round thing, you still have to deal with the rifleing, which is a whole 'nother can of worms that a lathe isn't the right tool for. So, while I hate to stifle creativity and all, going to have to agree with derf and others, buy a good barrel and work from there. Cheaper, easier, better - the tide is against us on this one.
 
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