I am in search of a good source for reamers:

1. 9.3x70mm (DWM569).

2. 404 Jeffery.

3. 300 Weatherby.

4. 6.5 x 300 Weatherby.

These next four rifles are being built based a good deal on the collected wisdom of the people on this forum. Thanks.

Dave Manson.
I have used them all at one time or another.
PTG, Dave, and Clymer.

JGS makes excellent tools, also

JGS has always been my favorite reamer. They cut pretty hard and work best with sulfur oil only. Forget water based fluids when using them. They can be a bit poky some times though and I think they have misplaced my work order a time or two but they have always been very apologetic and quick to fill after the mistake was found. If I have to order a reamer to keep for myself it's always JGS.

Manson is always the guy I recommend to customers if they are buying the reamers. He has more patients than the other guys and will talk to the customer and figure out what they guy really needs. His prices are generally better and his delivery is generally better. His reamers seem to cut nice with sulfur base oil but unlike JGS they cut quite well with water base moose milk without the squealing and hard cutting of JGS.

PTG are generally good but delivery can be a bit shaky some times if they don't have it in stock. They don't always cut well with water based fluids but better than JGS. They have misplaced a couple of work orders in the last umpteen years too but they have always been quick to fix it.

Clymer, I own some, I use them if they are supplied but they like to chatter in floating reamer holders (which I no longer use anyway). The work quite well with water based coolant (the best of any of them) but cut best with sulfur oil. The odd time I also got one that would like to dive too. If there was any slop in the tail stock they wouldn't stop cutting forward after I stopped advancing the hand wheel.

Pretty much all of the reamers made today are pretty damned good and I think we are probably arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of the pin. No one says to much about him, but if I had to recommend one company to a friend it would probably have to be Manson. His delivery, service and price is better and his tooling is easier to use and requires less experience, black magic and voodoo to get good results with.

4D has everything but the 9.3 for rent.

Thanks to all of you guys. I will call Manson on Monday for the 9.3x70.

I have sent several emails over the last month to PT&G without response. They have made five reamers for me that have all worked well (9.3x66, 375 H&H, 375 WBY, 416 Remington Mag, 300/221 (300 Whisper/300 Blackout).

I will get the 9.3x70mm with a .300" section of light freebore, and a 1 degree 30 minute leade angle.

I suppose I had better get the 404 Jeff to CIP specs.

The 300 WBY, and 6.5x300 WBY will both be to factory specs.

In the spring I will need a no neck turn match 6mm PPC, and finally, a 6.5 Lawn Dart (a 6.5 grendel match)

Anyone who would cut a chamber with a water based lubricant needs to go back to chamber school. If it says, "Environmentally Friendly" don't use it on a rifle chamber. Use it to drill holes in your wheel barrow.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
Anyone who would cut a chamber with a water based lubricant needs to go back to chamber school. If it says, "Environmentally Friendly" don't use it on a rifle chamber. Use it to drill holes in your wheel barrow.

Words of wisdom? I don't think so, even though I do use dark threading oil and Tap Magic for chambering.

Yes, words of wisdom. Lesson is, you can't go wrong with real cutting oil, but you definitely might go wrong whilst trying to use anything else.
OTOH, some people can screw anything up.

Personally, I use either Ridgid cutting fluid or Sulflo dpcd and have since I was a widdle gunplumber. But, I have worked in other peoples shops where moose milk was the accepted standard. I also see a lot of people chambering in the headstock or cats heads and I don't agree with either. But regardless, moose milk has somehow found it's way into gunshops.

I learn stuff from you guys every day. I feel like I should teach you how to deliver a baby, or remove an infected toenail, or something in return. Anyone want to learn how to do a no show pop up to a 20 degree dive bombing run? Trust me, that is very useful to know how to do...

No I do not want to know how to deliver a baby, but I guarantee the fee is about 1000 times what I get an hour for chambering a barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
No I do not want to know how to deliver a baby, but I guarantee the fee is about 1000 times what I get an hour for chambering a barrel.

And you're turning down a skill that pays 1000 times what you get for a chambering job, huh Tom?

Let me ponder that a day or three to figure out the logistics of it all. lol

I had two and a half years of the good money, working trauma, and the emergency department. After getting sick, I eventually started working as a General Practice in Rural Idaho. Not much pay, but the work was fascinating. I had to do EVERYTHING.

A 30-06 Sako barrel was out in my storage unit in a safe. The golden rod's power was interrupted sometime during the winter. Getting the rust off the outside should be easy. If it is rusty on the inside to the point of poor accuracy and too much trouble cleaning, I'll put on a 7x64 or 6.5x55 SM barrel, maybe the 6.5 x 65 RWS.


WOOD DUCK

Just got off the phone with Dave Manson. What a decent guy. He was friendly, and his attitude was - let's make this happen.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dpcd:
Yes, words of wisdom. Lesson is, you can't go wrong with real cutting oil, but you definitely might go wrong whilst trying to use anything else.
OTOH, some people can screw anything up.[/QUOTE ] Plenty of chambers are cut using water soluble oil, semi-synthetic and synthetic coolant. Does a darned nice job when you choose the proper stuff. I've been machining since '74 and chambering since '91. If I'd not been willing to except new ideas, new and different tooling and coolants I'd have been left far behind. I'm certain lawndart wasn't/isn't bleeding his patients or using leaches, either. Technology marches on. He!!, some guys are even using CNCs to thread and chamber!

How good is Vipers Venom for cutting chambers?

quote:

Originally posted by lawndart:
How good is Vipers Venom for cutting chambers?

Probably OK. But, if I had only 2-3 or 4 chambers to cut, and I was going to do it the 'old fashioned', traditional way (cut about .050", clean the reamer and 'hole', re-oil and cut again, 050" at a time, 'till I had it done) I'd get a quart can of threading oil or Tap Magic or any other high quality tapping/cutting oil (and a pump oil can) and be happy. I'm thinkin' Vipers Venom is just a way for someone to make some more money.

.
I think it's a foregone conclusion that someone marketing a cutting fluid to a niche market like gunsmithing and selling by the quart and gallon does not have a refinery, laboratory and a team of scientists working their fingers to the bone in the wee hours of the morning to bring you a wonder product. Vipers Venom is most likely a common cutting fluid that is simply re-branded under license, or without license with a bit of eye of newt, hair of toad and a couple of drops of cat piss. As to whether the modern synthetics work better than the old sulfur base products. I've tried just about every voodoo juice under the sun and dark of moon and I keep coming back to the heavy sulfur base fluids. All of them do work. I just get less cutting pressure and reamer squeal with Sulflo and Ridgid cutting fluid. The only down side to Ridgid is that it can't be pumped with most impeller pumps. Sulflo can be pumped with damned near everything. (It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Sulflo was just Ridgid cutting fluid cut with Kerosene and re-branded either)

quote:

Originally posted by lawndart:

WOOD DUCK

Pretty bird, but a Wood Duck it's not.

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:

quote:

Originally posted by lawndart:

WOOD DUCK

Pretty bird, but a Wood Duck it's not.

I think it's a Nihongo speaking Mandarin type duck.

I thought Mandarins spoke Chink.

Nupe. I don't think Mandarins speak Mandarin or Cantonese. Just Nihongo. But then again, I don't know what the duck I'm talking about half the time!

Thanks for the advice. I'm just finishing a .416 Taylor barrel that was short chambered, and maybe recutting a 9.3x62 Mauser to 9.3x66 Sako.

Thanks also for straightening me out about the duck. I've mainly only shot greenheads, anyways. Here is a topic I know more about: