Reaming Stainless throats

[Brett Ross]

Hi all, My Bisley 45 colt/ACP throats are running small. I was going to send them to Doug Guy for reaming but am scared to death of them getting lost and ending up with a boat anchor. My Daughter works at Brownells and I’m going to have her bring me home the reamer to do it my-self. Now I am fairly handy and watched it done on Utube several times but hear guy’s say,stainless offers some challenges. Now my Bisely is stainless, is there anything I should be aware of before I start. My plan is to do the ACP first as I don’t use it often anymore but would rather not mess up either.
Tony

[freebullet]

Lots of oil
Don't turn the reamer backward
Hard stainless takes longer
Only do a little at a time
GOOD LUCK! It's not too tough.

[fivegunner]

Cut a fired 45 colt case make it as long as you can , slip it on the reamer so that it protects the chamber ( the part where the case sit`s) and use a lot of oil, go slow! do not turn the reamer backward :bigsmyl2::Fire::Fire::Fire:

[M-Tecs]

SS work hardens so you want to feed the reamer so it is always cutting and not skating on the surface.

[Houndog]

Make absolutely sure you use a GOOD cutting oil! I use Rigid dark cutting oil because it has a really high Sulphur content. I'm sure there's others just as good or better, but that one has worked for me for a long time. Really pay attention to the other posts about going slow, NEVER try to force a reamer, keep the chips cleaned out of the bore and off the reamer and NEVER turn any reamer backwards! The whole process isn't near as hard as it sounds.

[DougGuy]

Send them in a small flat rate box insured for $160 each. Still half the cost of the reamer + pilots.

You will NOT save any money by not buying the pilots as you will get a reamer with a .448" nose which will fall right through your throats, and you have NO WAY to center this reamer. Once it starts a cut, once you turn it the first 1/4 turn, you are stuck with wherever it picks up that cut as it will then follow it the rest of the way. The thought of using a $55 reamer to do a precision job is just enough to entice you to a-hem "take the plunge" but not enough to keep you out of trouble.

There was a guy on the Ruger.net forum that did exactly what you are contemplating. He bought the cheaper solid nose reamer, chunked his cylinders in a vise and tore into them. You could see the newly cut throats, and 3 or 4 of them had an "eyebrow" of the existing throat perfectly visible in his "after" photos. That's how far off center the reamer cut. That tells me that his cylinder to bore alignment just went totally out the window because the nose of that reamer fits so sloppy in the throats, he might as well put on a blindfold and have at it with a 7/16 drill.

Edit: Just remembered this, I had a customer from here get into his stainless cylinder with a new Brownell's reamer, the going got rough, he couldn't complete the job so he sent the reamer to Dave Manson and had it sharpened, then sold it, meanwhile he sent the cylinder here and I was able to complete his work and straighten up the throats he had reamed already as my reamer was probably .0002" bigger than the one he got. It saved his cylinder, AND the cost of the reamer in the end.

[Deep Six]

Another option is to use regular chucking reamers. Look hard enough and you can find them in .0005" increments for about $25 each. They don't have a pilot, so I cut about 1/2" from a fired case and then work it over the reamer leaving about 1/2" of the nose exposed. Then you just clamp the cylinder in a vice and insert the reamer from the chamber end and turn it by hand with a t handle. Since the fired case fits like a glove inside the chamber, it makes a perfect pilot. Finish the job by wrapping 400 grit paper around a dowel rod and lap the throats to get rid of the rough machined surface left by the reamer.

Some will say this can't possibly work, but it does. I've personally used this method to ream a 45 Bisley to 0.4525, a 629 Smith to 0.4310, and a Security Six to 0.3585. All showed a marked improvement in accuracy and decrease in leading.

Look here for a good write-up of the method:
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/72

[prs]

My SS 45 Colt Bisley revolters were easily cut with the Brownells supplied reamer with which I also oreder the appropriate guide bearing. The Brownells brand of cutting oil also worked well. Keep that reamer clean.

prs