It seems there just isn't anyone that wants to make custom reamers....or at least anyone that is willing to return emails or communicate in any manner at all....

Anyone here want the business?

Dave Manson or PTG or JGS...?

There was a thread on this just a little while ago. Most everyone agreed, stay away from PT&G until they get their shit together.
What are you looking for, or to have made?

quote:

JGS

Thanks....I just emailed them a drawing.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
There was a thread on this just a little while ago. Most everyone agreed, stay away from PT&G until they get their shit together.
What are you looking for, or to have made?

I read that thread...thanks for the reminder.

I'm wanting a wildcat special. Apparantly not everyone wants the business.

I talked with Dave Manson a couple weeks ago. He said nearly half their orders are for 223/5.56 and 308W.

I don't know what the redazz is about PT&G reamers, I've been using them for the last 16 years...they're just over the hill from me. I've been to their shop several times and never had a bad one, NOR ever rented a reamer from Reamer Rentals OR 4D that wasn't a PT&G reamer.

I've called and talked to Dave at PT&G, emailed them and they had an online reamer design program at one time where you filled in the blanks with your data and they would check it and get back to you...not sure if they still do that now.
It was difficult to get them sometimes and my emails weren't always returned but there are many reasons for that and it happens to the best...the more business they get the less time they have to jaw with folks. How many emails are just basically junk that could have been answered just by reading the FAQ's on the site and just how many business propositions are nothing but monkey business...very few think about that when they are hot to get something "special" going.

I just finished a 375 JDJ with a PT&G rental from 4D that had been rented out and I had to wait a couple of days before it was sent to me. It cut a perfect minimum chamber.

I've used Mason and JGS reamers in the distant past and they were OK also.


I always wonder WHY/WHAT happened when someone badmouths...and mostly think the REAL story never was told truthfully. It's just TOO EASY to slander on the 'net without being held to task.

My recent experience with PTG has been bad enough that I will pay a premium to someone else in the future.

I ordered a wildcat chamber/sizing reamer and a chucking reamer. The reamers took months. Poor or no communication, unhelpful, though nice, ladies would pick up the phone and not be able to tell me the status of an order and technical people were unavailable. When asked to call me back they would not return calls. Email was equally frustrating.

When I wanted to regrind an existing PTG reamer and paid for 24hr turn around it still took a couple months and the reamer came back with the wrong pilot size and a a few of the dimensions unchanged and had to send them back for another 6 weeks to be fixed.

So
long wait,
wrong dimensions/poor QC,
poor communication.

This is a recent problem. A few years ago PTG was a much better company. If they address their problems I would go back but not anytime soon. Steer clear.

I covered this in a previous post, but here goes again. I have had several custom reamers made by PT&G and was very happy with them.
I ordered a plain old .303 British, and it took 6 months and a couple ( yoo-hoo, still got the order going?) calls.
Then last Feb I called again for a reamer, sent the drawing and a dummy round with a bullet seated. Received a reply that it all was there.
Four or five months go by. I was assured all is well. Another couple goes by, oh, hmm, no record of your order. So at 8 months wait, they said we will put a rush on it. I got the reamer in another couple weeks, OK.... but where is the headspace gauges I ordered with it?
Oh, ok we will put you on the list. I get my creditcard bill, there is a charge for the gauges, but no gauges in my hand. Another call, answered by a grouchy man that said, well we probably pre charged you, shit happens. Never looked to see, or maybe sent and lost.
Another call after I cooled off a bit, and yes charged, not shipped but soon I was told.
A total of 10 -11 months is not the service I had in the past, and the poor handling of it has turned me off until they get their shit together.
Maybe you call this baseless complaining, but I feel I have good reason.

JGS!

All good points...but all of them could have been address PRIOR TO LAYING DOWN YOUR MONEY.

First question I ask is "What is the lead time" for whatever item it is...this should help alleviate many problems in the making.

Second question/statement is "I want the items to be sent together, not separate...can this be done...or hold all items until the order is complete?"

Third question is "When do you charge my credit card?"

I wonder just HOW MANY STUPID QUESTIONS it would take YOU to answer before you got the redazzzz and started acting like you seem to be? It wouldn't take more than a few to wind me up and I would need to take the day off.

NO ONE EVER thinks about what is happening on the other end of the line...just that they want and gimme, gimme, gimme, then starts up with the bad mouth and blame on the OTHER person rather than HOW I can solve any problems BEFORE they happen.

I have ALWAYS BEEN CHARGED THE FULL AMOUNT on my card BEFORE my item was shipped/made...this is normal business activity...that keeps people from ordering something then NOT paying for it when the decide they didn't want it in the first place...WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN for the past umpteen years?

There may have been poor handling in this situation, BUT it was happening on BOTH SIDES, not just one side...

Every time I went to that shop all I saw were assholes and elbows and every machine in the place was running and so were the people and Dave was trying to answer the phone, his workers and people like me at the counter...and even those harassed, busy people were cordial and helpful.

NO ONE ever thinks how many people a request might go through...just "I said it to somebody therefore it will be done"...how many people drop the ball intentionally because someone ragged on them or inadvertently and your request gets lost in the shuffle...and NO ONE EVER REMEMBERS MURPHY'S LAW...if they did maybe some of the redazzzz would turn into a smile.

I wonder how you or I would have handled the same situation.

Hardly anyone ever acknowledges their own culpability in ANY SITUATION or even think to figure out a way to solve problems before they start...it's human nature not to.

By asking the right questions BEFORE you could have eliminated PT&G and went to any one of the other reamers makers and maybe not have had any problems at all...or just as many of another variety.

NO FLAME OR DISS TO YOU PERSONALLY...just an observation I've made, not only on this forum, but on most forums in general and human observations specifically, daily and in just about any store/office I go into...

I will continue to use PT&G because of their proximity and only go to another reamer maker if my questions aren't answered to my satisfaction or needs.

Luck

First of all, after the .303 reamer, I asked how long.
I was told 6 weeks, I always add a month to that.
But at 4-5 months when I politly asked if my reamer was still on track, I was told yes.
I was told, just as I had always been before WITH THEM, they had my credit card info and would be billed when it was shipped. Would you have wanted to be billed for something for most of a year before it was received.
I think I'll bill for a load of logs I haven't even cut yet, ..... think the mill would go for that?
I even waited to call back after the grouchy prick wouldn't even check on my gauges so to be polite.
If I put the order in together, why would I assume they would be sent another couple months apart, and had to remind them I had ordered it?
Again there friend, I have done business with them multiple times before, I know what they WERE like. They are not the same company they were. I said before, I would go back to them, when I know they have their shit together again.

Never had a "gets lost in the shuffle..." with a computer and someone competent to run it.

I've been dealing with Dave Manson for twenty years with ZERO issues to date. I call, chat with Dara for a minute, Dave picks up, and "Now what sort of weird thing you got cooking Rich?", and we get down to business. His business has grown to the point that it takes eight to ten weeks as a rule, but I am glad to wait, a backlog = good sales and and a future for the company.

There is never a legitimate excuse for not communicating with a customer and delivering when promised, or charging a card ahead of the shipping date, other than a non-standard item.

An excuse is a failure on the business or customer's part. A legitimate reason for the delay, as soon as the issue arises is different.

I had one issue when Keith Francis was still running JGS. He calls me to let me know a reamer set was going to take four weeks longer than the promised delivery date. NO EXCUSES!!!
A reason, he had to terminate an employee, and was back in the shop himself running a grinder. He says, "Rich, I'm over seventy, and for some reason I'm slowing down. It came in two weeks, he made it a priority to turn the work out.


ISS

quote:

Originally posted by NONAGONAGIN:
All good points...but all of them could have been address PRIOR TO LAYING DOWN YOUR MONEY.

First question ...
Second question...
Third question...

NO ONE EVER thinks about what is happening on the other end of the line...

There may have been poor handling in this situation, BUT it was happening on BOTH SIDES,

Hardly anyone ever acknowledges their own culpability

Not that it was addressed to me, but I asked the necessary questions about lead time, packaging and billing up front. PTG's quoted lead time was reasonable. I included the reamer print with my order using their .xls format. Prior experience made me think that future dealings would be as predictable as in the past.

I worked in a prototype machine shop for 7 years and have seen first hand how the manufacturing world works.

I understand that PTG was moving/expanding, and the 2012-current rush on shooting parts and components likely played a factor, that there were hiccoughs along the way is a fact of business, but communication is the difference. Notification of delay is fine. Sending reamers that are not to print, months past quoted due date without communication is not ok.

If I'm going to be lied to, tell me it'll take a year so when it takes 6 months I'll be happy they completed the work early. Don't tell me 6 weeks then make me wait 9 months then ship it to me wrong.

Like I said, when they get their ducks in a row I may go back. Until they start having good reviews again, I'll go elsewhere.

jpl,
I just don't know what more I could do from my end. I gave plenty of time before I called, and then just asked to make sure everything was still on tract. I wrote on the calendar when I called and who I talked to. The next call, who-ever I had talked to the previous time was no longer working, that happened twice.
I still wanted to be polite and just to let them know I was still looking to get on with the project.
They just are not on the ball at this stage.

Wow, I wish I had read this thread earlier. I ordered a .25-35 Tomcat reamer from Pacific Tool, having spent a couple of pleasant hours chatting with Dave Kiff at the plant in White city, OR, in years past. I even took a loaner example of an original .40-90 Peabody What Cheer in for Dave to takes specs from.
I'll admit not hearing back on e-mails, but they have charged my card. Hope to see the reamer sooner than later. Will report.

Bill, what are you building your Tomcat on?
Barrel twist rate?
Somewhere I have Francis Sells article on his making of it.
I have an ackly version on a marlin 336, and waiting on a savage 99 that was a .303 sav, but the bore was bad. It's being relined so I can keep the octagon to round 27 1/2" barrel.

Back40: It was reading those old Francis Sell articles that got me started on this project. I am building it on a 1949 Marlin 336, and plan to use a Shilen 1:9 twist barrel to handle those 117-grain RNs that Sell liked so much.

Well, Pacific Tool took my order in early February, and I received a print to approve last week, so things are moving forward. Will report when I have the Tomcat reamer in hand.

Received my .25-35 Tomcat reamer from Pacific Tool yesterday -- about a 5-month wait.

So ,VD, what did you do? roger

Bill, you did well then.
The 6 weeks is usually 6 months +
So 5 months is outstanding.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Received my .25-35 Tomcat reamer from Pacific Tool yesterday -- about a 5-month wait.

Did you measure it? It might be another 5-months...

I read that some of japanese carbide tool makers will do custom reamers. kennemetal iirc...