Interesting (to me) little experiment for those who have their own reamers

B

Boyd Allen

Active member
A while back, I got my reamer back from a gunsmith that has done a lot of very good work for me, and misplaced it, as it turns out, right under my nose, in a desk drawer, camouflaged among the mechanical clutter. Last night, when I came across it, among other things, it reminded me of an experiment that I had been curious about, spinning the reamer, in a well use chamber that it had cut, to see what came out on the flutes. The reamer was without pilot bushing, and the screw had been modified for cutting fluid feed from the muzzle end of the barrel, so I removed it, wiped off the reamer, and ever so carefully inserted in in the chamber of my fire forming barrel, that I knew was dirty from 18 rounds of fire forming .220 Russian, to PPC. At first it did not turn freely, and felt a little "crunchy" as I gingerly turned it with the least pressure that would move it, using thumb and finger, then it freed up and spun easily. When I removed it, I could see a little bit of carbon on the front of the flutes in the area of the neck shoulder junction, and leade, which is, I believe, consistent with the use of Bullseye, a dirty powder. Somewhat encouraged, after close inspection revealed no damage to chamber or reamer, I pulled my other worn barrel out of the drawer, and repeated the drill. This time I saw something on the flutes that surprised me, that was repeated on subsequent barrels, a little carbon in on the flutes in the area of the case body. This surprised me because I take great pains to carefully wipe out and dry my chambers after cleaning the bore. In any case, I am thinking that every so often, done very carefully , that this might not be a bad thing to do. Of course by mentioning it here, I expect to get some commentary that may discourage the idea, and that is fine, but if you do, you might also tell us whether this is based on experience, or supposition.
 
Last edited:
Since carbon comes down the necks in a weird pattern it doesnt surprise me it gets on the rest of the chamber. Never thought about it tho really
 
No Don, I won't. I have looked it over carefully with magnification, and it is fine. I have also run a finger nail down all of the cutting edges, and they are all smooth, and there is no difference between the areas that scraped off a very minor amount of carbon, and those that did not.
 
Boyd You said you clean the chamber after you clean the barrel, I'd like to give you a suggestion if I may! Clean the chamber and the lug area before you put the bore guide in and start cleaning the barrel. No scents in getting carbon on the bore guide and pushing it in the chamber again. Just my way of doing things.

Joe Salt
 
What's the concern on the reamer? Most Rockwell close to 70 and we all chamber more than one barrel with them (and barrels typically C scale between 25 and 30). It's unlikely carbon build-up would effect reamer dimensions or dull it anymore than stainless blank.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
 
Are you asking

What does this do other than clean a bit more than normal cleaning - or something else? It would surely do something for a badly "crapped up" chamber..."something" is my question but I don't what. Another reason for not having a reamer perhaps? :)

Really interesting! Comes with a few disclaimers but nearly everything does....
 
Boyd, I've done what you describe. Never seen a problem from it all. I think many people are beyond paranoid about things they don't hear preached as the gospel. When all is said and done, it's a reamer and a piece of steel, nothing mystical or magical about either. With proper care and attention, I very seriously doubt you'd ever damage a reamer doing this...just don't turn it backward, and be careful not to ding a cutting edge. I've done this to remove a carbon ring and can't imagine a better way. These reamers are fragile, but not nearly like some seem to believe. I see no reason not to use a pilot, though, as long as it fits. The reamer would be guided at the front by the pilot, and the rear by the chamber. I wouldn't worry about the reamer cutting or even touching the throat. It began growing with the first shot and will never get closer to the reamer's dimensions than when it was first chambered. Frankly, I'm surprised at so much worry about this from some that have shown concern.
I'm sure one could mess something up if they tried, but with care, I would not be worried.
 
A good reamer is far more durable than many realize. We grind our own and I have handgun reamers that have bored 5+ cylinders (that's 30+ holes). Sure, they do wear and will lose spec over time.....but it takes a lot more to get there than reaming carbon deposits.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com
 
Thanks fellas, I should mention that I knew that all of these barrels were not very dirty, and because I shoot 133, and have checked them from time to time, with a bore scope, I know that I do not have any hard carbon buildup in any of them. What I was taking out was just simple powder fouling. The fire forming barrel, was the only one that had anything in the leade, from the almost full cases of Bullseye that I had used to blow out 18 .220 Russian cases. I need to remember to use that cleaning off the action tube on that barrel so that I can use my cleaning rod guide when I clean it, since I forgot to do it before I did the swap back. That adapter, is threaded like the front of a Panda, is made of Delrin, is about 8" long, and has a .700 hole up the middle. Don made it a looog time ago. I got it out of an estate. It comes in handy.
Wilbur: I got the reamer back in '99 when I was starting to plan my first 6PPC. I figured that that way, any expensive dies that I got, to fit brass from my first barrel, would fit every other barrel after that. Up till recently, it has spent its whole life at Stiller's, and it has been really handy over the years to be able to order a barrel over the phone for my Viper. Curtis Helton cut some really consistent chambers. All of my brass, will interchange with no problem at all.

The one unexpected result in all of this was a little powder fouling in the body parts of several chambers. I wipe them out repeatedly each time that I clean. One thing that I need to remember to do, the next time that I clean one of them, is to notice if there is any more color on the patch that might indicate that I had made the leade angle less smooth.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top