I hope soon pilot my own reamer to finish a short chamber barrel. However, before I take the plunge (puns intended here) I'd like to know more about the differences between using one with a solid pilot and one that is floating, so once again I turn to my friends here at AR.

Assistance, please; what are teh differences?

If I understand it right(dubious), if you have a .30-06 reamer with a fixed pilot, you can only do .30-06 chambers. If you buy the reamer with a floating pilot, you can buy or make relatively inexpensive pilots and do .25-06, 6.5-06, .280 Rem., etc. 'Course you would have to buy separate but much cheaper reamers to cut neck and throat for each additional cartridge. (If you had some machinist skills, and more time than money, you could do your own half reamers for that.)

leftoverdj---

That's not quite it...... There are a few "sets" that can be done, of course. If you have a .243 reamer with a removable pilot you could do the body portion of the 243, 25 Super, 260 Remington, 7-08, 308 and 358....(could be mistaken, going from memory), but you'd have to have five necking and throating reamers to do the job.

Removeable pilots are better because you can fit to the specific bore and the pilot rotates with the barrel. It's referred to as a "live" pilot.

I've seen more bore damage done with a too tight live pilot than I have from a fixed pilot, though.

ToomanyTools

I use both live pilot reamers and solid pilot reamers.

If I'm building a rifle with a standard Shilen chrome moly barrel in lets say 45-70 or 30-30 I would buy a solid pilot reamer.

If I'm building a rifle with a Shilen stainless steel select match barrel in say 22-250 I would buy a reamer with a live pilot and an assortment of pilots in .0002" increments.

I also have a pretty good selection of both and both types have given good service. I have never had a solid pilot harm a barrel or cut eccentric if the setup was good.
There can be no argument though that the floating pilot reamers with the ability to precisely fit pilot to bore are better.
I have had some reamers which tended to chatter that might not have done so with a better pilot to bore fit. These were solid pilot reamers. Regards, Bill.

Another difference between the two might go something like this.

If you look at a fixed pilot reamer, you will see that the flutes extend well into the pilot. This can cause metal shavings to be drawn into contact with the lands by being forced into the pilot, If care or caution isn't exercized during chmbering, this can cause damage to the tops of the lands. I have found, that in order to avoid this kind of damage when using solid pilot reamers, I have to remove and thoroughly clean the reamer and the bore more frequently between cuts, than I do when I use live pilot reamers.

Malm

IMHO the edge has to go to the live pilot reamers. The ability to change the pilot for the correct barrel/pilot fit is tantamount to a good job. Out amongst the barrel makers, there is an affinity toward different bore diameters; Obermeyer, Krieger and others, like to make their 30's in a .298 bore. This makes for a poor fit with a standard .299 or .2995 solid pilot reamer. With the ability to change diameter pilots, you can do the job without getting a new reamer.