"Ecnerwal" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Ed Huntress" wrote:

You're probably aware that you only have to bore that line very rough.
Portable align-honing equipment to finish the job will take out a lot of
metal these days, although you won't be able to take out the tens of
thousandths they get with fixed diamond honing machines.

No, I was not aware of that, though most of the web-links that come up
on align honing are about engine building and concerned with working to
tenths. I do find a few things more in the line of the work I'm doing.

Mind, for most of the stuff I'm doing, if I can press in a bushing
without deforming its inside surface too much, I don't have to get too
fussy about the bore finish.

And I freely admit (and would welcome enlightenment) that I don't have a
great understanding of honing - I've got one of those "three swivelling
stones on a spring spider" cylinder hones which I've used to reduce some
burrs in a hydraulic cylinder, but those seem to be dependent on having
a good round, straight hole to start with.

Something like this:

http://greatnecksaw.com/images/produ...arge/25041.jpg

These look somewhat different, though there's not enough detail to see
how the head works in terms of stone movement. I gather it might be
somewhat more controlled than the above type.

http://www.precitech.no/Finbearbeidi...20prtabelt.pdf

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

Honing has changed a lot in the last ten years. It used to be strictly a
finishing operation. Now, thanks to the diamond abrasive and non-compliant
production-honing techniques developed by Sunnen and others, it can be used
to remove remarkable amounts of metal and it can correct out-of-round and
out-of-line conditions that were impossible years ago. It's replaced boring
in some production applications, combining what used to be two steps into
one.

That's all done with fairly hefty stationary machine tools, but the portable
honing equipment used by small-time engine rebuilders and so on has
benefitted from some of this technology. I knew the subject fairly well six
or seven years ago, when I was researching and writing about it, but it's
slipped away from me. I don't know where we are today except that it's
somewhere better than we were with the compliant-hone tools you're talking
about.

Maybe someone involved in engine work or commercial machining applications
can fill you in. If not and if you want to know, get back to me and I'll see
if there's still anyone at Sunnen I can call.

--
Ed Huntress