Reaming a tube

[Nebse]

Hello folks!

I am building an Airgun from scratch, and have trouble sourcing a suitable barrel.

My question is, could i obtain a proper finish by reaming a mild steel tube with a hss reamer, and polishing afterwards? I would be satisfied with a smoothbore for a start.

Greetings, The not-so-experienced metalworker.

[GlennW]

Welcome to the group!

I am moving this to the "Gunsmithing" forum so you will have exposure in both forums, and most likely get some great advise!

Questions that will most likely need an answer would be how long, and what bore size?

[Nebse]

Thanks for the reply!

As i am from Europe, i am going for 16mm, and a barrel length of about 75 cm (30 inches)

I have a 40-inch lathe, so i could ream a barrel that long, problem is, i have yet to use one.

edit; i thought about getting an adjustable reamer, as the tubing is 22x3 (16mm nominal ID), and a 16mm reamer probably would not remove enough material.

[ken572]

Nebse,

Welcome to The Home Machinist.

You might want to put your earthly location in your profile to
the left under your name, which is alway's helpfull to the reader.

We have many great and knowledgeable members here,
that are alway's willing to help each other.

After you bore, ream, and or if only to clean up etc.

Checkout these Hone products, which may be helpfull to you.

http://www.brushresearch.com/flex-hone. ... hwodGFAAew

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0035533GU/ref ... B0035533GU

http://www.mytoolstore.com/kd/kdbrak08.html

Ken.

[ctwo]

in the shop where I worked, the owner would call those Flex Hones, dingleberry Hones.

[ken572]

in the shop where I worked, the owner would call those Flex Hones, dingleberry Hones.

I'm good with that.
If you are the owner, what ever dingles your berry is law.

ken.

[GlennW]

Those type of hones are generally only for finish. They will not correct an out of round, washboard, or tapered bore.

[Nebse]

Thanks for the links to the flexhones, and yea, i say why one would call them dingleberry hones...

But as stated they would not correct what is the first problem, which is best described as a combination of out-of-round and washboarding. the grooves running down the length of the tube can actually easily be felt.

So, actually i just wanted to know... would a hss reamer do the job, and should i get an adjustable one? (i dont own a single one yet)

finishing would be done with grit 400-3200 and a buffer with some compound.

[ken572]

Nebse,

Could you post a nice clear end shot picture of your tubing?

(like looking through the tube)

Ken.

[ken572]

Nebse,

More (Tube) food for thought.

http://www.timken.com/ko-kr/products/St ... 204033.pdf

Ken.

[GlennW]

I did a quick search on the availability of metric sizes of honed I.D. tube.

http://www.metricmetal.com/products/rdhoned_tube.htm

Seems to be plenty of suppliers, but nothing under 25mm bore that I could find.

[refinery mike]

Sure you can ream the inside of a barrel. man has been doing it for centuries now. The old timers would inlet a piece of a file pollished and shaped into a dowl of wood and ream a barrel slowly adding shims to the reamer to make the hole larger. but I would suggest you go to Brownells.com. for a reamer. then rather than try to sand your barrel to finnish it, look into lapping the barrel with a copper lap. they are cheap and hard to beat for perfect pollishing of bores.