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Bob La Londe[_7_] Bob La Londe[_7_] is offline
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Default Adjustable Reamers

I was sitting here thinking about a tricky mold build. Well tricky for
me anyway. The solution is to cut the mold, assemble it, turn the
outside round, and drop it into a sleeve a few thousandths bigger to
allow for venting, but limit flashing. I am pleased as punch about
figuring out the solution to the problem, but that's not the only
problem. I'm looking at target diameters of .997 and 1" respectively.

I don't own a reamer that big. No big deal. I could buy one and it
would get here long before the job comes up on the board. I just didn't
want to spend the money for one I would use one time in one hole and
never use it again. They aren't cheap. Sure I pay that much for a
fancy mill from time to time, but I get a lot of hours out of it, before
it goes in the recycle pot.

Yeah, I suppose I could bore it on the lathe, but the sleeve has to be
machined into a rectanguloid box. I also need to be pretty close on my
tolerance. If I have deeper grooves inside it could flash, and if I get
it to small it could seize or just not vent well. It would be kind of a
pain to setup.

I'll probably 3D machine the sleeve half in each of two pieces to around
0.990 and then assemble and ream to size.

Than I thought... hmmm maybe I can borrow one from my dad. He has some
old adjustable reamers. Maybe he has one that will cover the 1" range.
He has a set and he offered to just give them to me. I asked him how
much he paid for them and offered to pay for them since I will use it in
my business. Yeah, you can give me some money if you want, but I only
paid $25 for them. Never used the larger ones.

Nice. Two problems solved today. And even the solution to the solution.