I'm thinking of starting to get a rougher with every finish reamer I buy.

Does that make sense? My thinking is that the whole finisher starts to work at the same time; that cannot be said for starting things with a drill bit or even a boring bar.

Thanks for the input.

Please stop and think about how many chambers you intend to cut with each particular reamer. For instance I have some reamers that probably will never cut another chamber until after I die and someone else gets my tools. Would I have been smart to buy a rougher for each of them? Of course not. I can get somewhere between 4 and 8 chamberings from my finishers before needing more than a touch-up to the flutes, so I use that info when deciding about a rougher.
Regards, Joe

When I was getting started 10 years ago, I called the technical help at Brownell's and asked if I should get a rougher and a finisher. The old gunsmith on the phone said that in his life, he had used a rougher once.

10 years later, I have still not used one.

I have ~ 10 reamers, and have cut ~25 chambers.

If I cut 10 identical chambers a day, I would own roughers.

I have lots of roughing end mills. They cut much faster and leave a very rough cut.

Buying roughers is understandable, but I'm not sure yet whether it is desireable or not.

One of the things I keep having trouble wrapping my mind around is whether and IF I want a reamer to all start cutting everywhere at the same time...or for that matter, if it is even possible. I would think maybe the only time all the flutes are touching everywhere is when the chamber is finished, not during the cutting itself.

Anyway, I see nothing wrong with having roughing reamers if it is no financial strain. Before I turned my mind to buying one (any) though, I'd broach this question: "how many would I actually "need"? If I was making a fair number of rifles in chamberings based on the .308/.30-06 and ?x57 case head size, for instance, how many roughers would I really want and or need?

Well, maybe a basic .243 rougher which was set up to use interchangeable pilots...? I could likely use that for every one of the 51 m/m length chambers up through .358 Winchester caliber?

Maybe it would even work for most of the initial hogging out of metal for the 57 & 63 m/m cases up through the 9.5x57 and the 35 Whelan or 9.3x62? If I used the right diameter pilot, it would get rid of a lot of the initial metal which required removal when cutting any one of those chambers, wouldn't it?

Then I could always add a 6m/m Remington rougher later to take out even more metal lengthwise, for use with the 57m/m length chambers, and then again even later perhaps a .270 Winchester rougher for use with the 63 m/m length cases like the .280, .30-06, .338/06, .35 Whelan & 9.3 x62.

For that matter, a guy could start with a .244 roughing reamer and just run it in shorter when hogging out metal for any 51 mm length case....then he wouldn't need the .243 rougher.

A person could even use the reamers above as roughers for magnum case chambers, but might want to get a couple of fatter bodied roughers to save time. So he'd have a total of what? 4? Maybe 5?

I have used this above approach for my own reamer selection and so far it has worked okay for me. I have about 70 or 80 chamber reamers, and own maybe four roughers. (Haven't counted the roughers recently.) I use separate throating reamers more often than I seem to need roughing reamers.

Waste of money. I use a small .250 carbide boring bar to remove the material prior to running the finish reamer. If I'm in a big hurry to remove material, or, have a lot of material to remove, I will take most of the stuff with a drill bit and then true that up with a boring bar. It works exceptionally well.

I'm like Westpac, I drill, bore, and then cleanup with the reamer. A rougher is a waste.
Butch

I'm with Westpac & Butch. Save your money for somthing else other than roughers.

And, did I mention how good it is to see you posting?

Just so Westpac doesn't think I am a wastral or spendthrift...perhaps I should mention that I bought all 4 of my roughing reamers second-hand for $20 or less (in some cases much less) each.

I like using them to remove bulk from what will become chambers because with their pilots, they follow the bore. Then when I use the finish reamer(s) it is okay to have it/them in the floating reamer holder, following the hole made by the rougher, because the hole will be true with the bore and not put too much lateral strain on the finish reamer while IT is cuttting.

I don't know if that helps any in making a nice smoothly finished chamber, but I am pretty sure it doesn't hurt.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:
Just so Westpac doesn't think I am a wastral or spendthrift...

Westpac doesn't think any of that. I happen to have a complete set of roughing reamers in every size from A-Z and all the numbers. Although my #31 and #28 roughing reamers get extra use when doing scope mounts.

Thank you gentleman, one and all. I'll spend the money on new barrels.

I am happy to be hear. Long boring story. I'm about 1/2 way back to health. I believe God want's me to get my ass back to some heavy work loads; and so it shall be.

It could all fall to shit tomorrow, but 13 years of walking the talk can make you kind of woozy.

John Charlie

Charlie, good to see you back amongst us!