Best currently available reamer for radius arm bush

[robert_stryk]

I have been trying to find out which reamers are available.

While temped to trace an original churchill tool they seem quite rare now and might be worn out.

Seem like minispares, mini sport are not currently offering, and not sure about this adjustable bit.

saw somewhere about acdodd but not sure where to get them.

Do I have other options?

would want this to get to Germany

thankful for any information

[Fanfaniracing]

Since i begann with Minis i always used adjustable Reamers.

They work well

[Peter Laidler]

Just use an engineers reamer. Put the tapered end into the headstock of your lathe and align the needle roller bearing end accurately into the tailstock. Set the rotating speed to slow and slowly wind the tailstock in, towards the headstock, taking the bush slowly onto the reamer. Just one pass, sufficient to ream the bush. No need to overdo it

Couldn't be simpler and never failed yet!

Given that the dead centre of the headstock is accurately aligned with the dead centre of the tailstock, the reamed bush MUST be aligned with the needle rollers. There's a picture of it in action somewhere on the forum.

A classic example of K.I.S.S. And cheap too.

And while you're there, don't forget to modify the rear radius arm shafts so that you can grease-up BOTH ends, PROPERLY. Once done, you'll never have to repair again

[mk1]

Only if you have a lathe.

I use a Churchill reamer, but have also bought the bits to make a new one when that won't sharpen any more.

If I get a minute, I'll do a drawing of what you need. The replaceable reamer bits are very cheap & can be replaced on the one I dreamed up.

M

[Peter Laidler]

Surely every mini cooper owner has a lathe....... How on earth do you manage without one?

[Mudhen]

First I Googled 'engineers reamer' and was very worried about what I might find!

I was thinking I was going to do mine in a drill press - not possible? Sounding more and more like a job I might try to find a professional machinist to do!

[mk1]

It is easy to do by hand with a correct reamer or at least a version of it.

[360gts]

There was a thread on how to do this...cannot find it right now.
I had posted pictures of a home-made tool using an old shaft. Yes, probably going to get all sorts of reason why this won't work....
However, I use it all the time and it costs nothing to make.

[mk1]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15952&hilit=radius+arm+reamer

[Peter Laidler]

Yep, I'm feeling your frustration already Dermott. Reasons why your/our ideas won't work in spite of the fact that...... Anyway, we tried!

[Spider]

Surely every mini cooper owner has a lathe....... How on earth do you manage without one?

Yeap, right next to the wheel brace (seriously, mine is !).

I have to say, having had a good lathe now for a good few years, I couldn't imagine what it'd be like going back to the stone ages,,,,,

I was thinking I was going to do mine in a drill press - not possible?

If you have a floor mounted Press and a dial gauge, I think it would be very possible. You'd need enough depth of throat in your drill press to stand the arm on it's side and also have the reamer in the chuck above it. Might do better with a fixed size reamer here as they are usually shorter than the adjustable types.

Land a Dead Centre in the centre of the table (after you've lowered it to the height needed), clock in the Dead Centre using the Dial gauge, lock the table hard, land the bearing end of the Arm on the Dead Centre and Ream away.

Some Drill Press Tables have a Morse Taper in the centre of the Table, which is ideal for taking a Dead (or live) Centre, but even if you had to clamp up a centre between Vee Blocks in the drill press vice, that too would work.

[Peter Laidler]

Like Spider says, doing it in a floor mounted drill press IS possible. After all, a drill press is just an archaic vertical lathe - without the saddle and cross slide stuff.

Or just buy a ready made tool

[251 ENG]

This is on the box of my radius are reamer

[gs.davies]

AC Dodd makes a hand tool for this purpose for those of us who don’t have a lathe. It’s available to hire too. I was going to hire it until I found a bloke locally to do the job for me.

You can find details on AC Dodds facebook page.

[Ronnie]

Or you could check for something like this > https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394272721214 if you have or can get an adjustable reamer.

[robert_stryk]

Many thanks for all the replies, will look into finding a used lathe at some point. As I work on cars on two continents for the time being that is not ideal though. Will look at the ACDodd option for now.