I have read a few threads on reamers. Very few on cementing loose grit on old blank. I tried one this week with not very good results.

I used 5 min epoxy and silicon carbide grit. The heat ended up destroying it. The epoxy was only dried for 2 days. And thinking about it, silicon carbide might have been a bad choice. So I am thinking of aluminum oxide for grit. But, I need a cement that can take heat and adhere to both fiberglass and aluminum oxide. Has anyone have any experience with making reamers this way? Or does anyone have some ideas of cement?

thanks

Mark

By the time you figure it out through experimentation, you could have bought a better reamer. Grit on blank piece will work, but they can have problems of loose grit scratching a blank

Where is the heat coming from? Are you power reaming?

Keep in mind that beach sand or the grit used in commercial ash containers make great reamer media. Regular epoxy will hold either for hand reaming. Power reaming may require something else. A urethane type adhesive, maybe. This is something I've not tried.

.................

If you want to make your own reamers use a high quality sand paper strip, such as that used for reamers. Spiral wrap it in place using contact cement. Contact cement does not break down due to frictional heat like epoxy does, especially 5 minute epoxy. Grit reamers are ok if used only by hand and you use a more heat resistant epoxy like JB weld. However, they are still prone to leaving grit behind in the reamed part, which can scratch the blank.
Norm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2022 12:20PM by Norman Miller.

A three-foot piece of broken rod blank with a 1" wide strip of coarse sandpaper spiraled around it and contact-glued to it will work just fine. I made a set of three such reamers, each with a sandpaper spiral of different grit sizes, 30 years ago and they still work just fine.

Mark,
I have read about making one’s own tapered reamers as you described with some sort of grit epoxied onto a piece of rod blank. I have also heard horror stories of a stray single piece of grit left inside the reamed piece scratching the blank as it is slid into position. Although I am a fabricator and prefer to make my own ANYTHING and the process seems quite easy, I have never bothered with making my own grit / epoxy reamers. The commercially available tapered FG reamers with a .5in wide strip of sandpaper work just fine and even come with a metal end which can be incorporated to be chucked into a wrapper or drill press. Consider saving the time, effort, mess, experimentation and possible aggravation by purchasing a reamer set.
That being said, if you are still H-bent on making your own, you will need a high temp (>150*) type of epoxy. I trust all of my composite fabrication epoxy needs to PTM&W Industries [www.ptm-w.com]. They offer a wide range of epoxies to accommodate any situation.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

I would hope that anyone using any type reamer always blows out the bushing before doing any test fitting. This should be a common practice among rod builders.

.........

Mark, thank you for the web page. I will talk to those guys and see what they think. I am power reaming and as Tom suggest, I always blow out my cork before sliding them on the blank. I have bought maybe 8-10 power reamers that just don't last. Maybe I am to rough on them...I don't know but I am looking for a better widget. The sandpaper thing is ok, but maybe, just maybe there is a better way. Thanks..

Grit just ain’t going to cut it for long term use. If you have the money and want something that will last, get the Batson Ultimate reamer.
[getbitoutdoors.com]
Norm

Wow. I saw those ultimate reamers before, but thought that was the price for a full set, not just a single reamer!

Mark,
It may be best to call them; if you do may I suggest you speak with Scott Stettler who performs all the testing of the product line. Please say hello for me.
Of course, Tom is correct in that any type of reaming should be followed by blowing the part out with compressed air, but nonetheless the stories of grit scratching the blank remain.
Those Ultimate Reamers are certainly nice but way out of my league.
The biggest issue that I have with reamers is that they never seem to be the exact same taper as blank being built. When hyper-critical for a particular build, after getting close by power-reaming, I will spiral wrap a long, .5in wide strip of 80 grit on the actual blank and tape-down the ends. But the reaming needs to be done manually and requires a fair amount of time; but one does achieve a perfectly reamed piece without the need for a winding check (which I personally do not care for).
Now, if someone could design and build an ADJUSTABLE TAPER reamer, that would truly be the ultimate reamer!!! I have given it some thought but have abandoned the concept. Maybe I am guilty of “not being able to see the trees through the forest” = any ideas?

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

I tried the old sawed off blank and glued grit reamers sold by Cabala's in the 1980’s. They were slow working, hard to chuck or hold, produced less than straight bores, and some of that grit likely stayed embedded in the cork even after blasting with an air gun. They eventually broke in somewhat of a spiral pattern. I can’t imagine going back to that technology to save the cost of a reamer kit. I still use and actually like hand wrappers, but would never conceive of making my own reamers or buying parallel technology ones. The Batson kit is fairly priced for what you get. A mass market tool kit at a big box home store, with this many pieces of a similar size, is going to cost in the same neighborhood. For something so specialized with tapered mandrels and the spiral wrapping, the pricing seems more aimed at getting people into rod building than making average profit.

Here is my take. What I've seen and learned is, what works for one person doesn't mean it will work for another person. I have made the reamers using silicon carbide on cut blanks and still do. Yes, they get hot while power reaming as do all reamers. I only ream for 10 to 15 seconds at a time. When I make the reamers, I use the same paste adhesive as I use for gluing the grips and reel seats to the blank. I also glue in a piece of a L hex wrench, to chuck into my drill motor. The size is of the bit depends on the size of the blank. Once the reamer/adhesive has cured, I run a small wire brush up and down the reamer to remove any loose grit. I guess I've been lucky, as I haven't had issues with scratching a blank. Yes, I blow out my grips prior to fitting to the blank. If I'm doing cork, I use the spade bits from Flex Coat first, to minimize the reaming needed to fit the blank. I've made 20+ reamers with various tapers and lengths to accommodate most blanks I've built on. Another thing, I never hold the grips tight. They are always rotating to my hand when I'm reaming.

Mark,
When I took rod building classes, the folks there used round files to ream the cork. At that time, all of the builds were done with cork rings, individually reamed to match the particular spot on the blank where it would be installed.
Over the years, I assembled a collection of round files that I modified. I first chopped off the handle end of the file and then, used a grinder to turn a round uniform end on the file to allow it to be chucked into a drill and have it run true.
Then I used a grinder to put a needle point on the ends of the files to allow one to use a larger file than the hole to begin the reaming process.

If one uses a circular file under power, which is the only way that I use them , one wants to turn the files counter clockwise. The normal spiral file in the files are clockwise. If you take a file, chuck it into a drill and put it into a hole in a cork ring and give the drill power, the file will screw itself into the ring and blow the ring apart due to the screwing action of the file from the grind on the file.

So, when using the file with the drill turning counter clockwise, the drill and file are forced into the ring where it cuts very cleanly and smoothly and leaves a velvet smooth inner surface with no grit of any kind ever being deposited anywhere, because there is nothing from the file that comes off during the reaming operation.

A picture of the file collection:

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Best wishes

There is no need for an electric motor/reamer to sand cork. In fact, quite the opposite, in my opinion. It takes four of five passes in the same spot and eight or ten seconds for a sandpaper-on-a-stick reamer to ruin a cork grip. A reamer on a 1/3 horsepower drill can ruin a grip in fractions of a second.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/2022 02:02PM by Phil Ewanicki.

Mark, I talked to Scott, He was very helpful. I ended up going with JP Weld Original. It has a heat tolerance of around 500F when cured. Only time will tell if it works. Needs time to cure.

I also wanted to comment on reamer tapers. This isn't brain surgery. I see no need to have a ton of different tappers for building rods. I do mine like the FlexCoat video. Run a few cork pieces at a time to fit a specific area on the blank and keep adding to the length as needed. It will all be filled with epoxy to shore up any micro gaps that could occur when gluing. Reaming is reaming it is a rough hole to fill a spot. Otherwise we would be using 800 grit to make it perfect. Just my thought.

I agree, close enough is close enough.
Norm

Mark.
I always have JB Weld (only the original) on hand in my shop = great stuff and it’s been around for decades! Hopefully it will suit your reamer building purpose well.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

I do like Roger but use a round file to just cut the bore then use a gritted tapered rod get the final taper I want which only took a few turns and never got too hot.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2022 08:34AM by ben belote.