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Posted: 1/31/2005 1:50:25 AM EDT
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IS there such a thing as a tapered reamer? I started working on opening up my buffer tube with a 1 1/8" drill bit. it chattered the shit out of the hole. After advice from arfcom, i picked up a reamer from Tanneryshop. Well, I've got the hole abotu halfway reamed. I stopped to measure. It appears that since the drill bit chattered the hole, the reamer is running aroudn the outside like a spirograph. Make sense? so the 1 1/8" reamer is making a hole a bit too big. The threaded buffer tube slides right in. Like i said, i'm about halfway done. So, i can still salvage it with enough threads to rig it. If i coud lget a tapered reamer, it woudl index on the inside hole and woudl work great. Any suggestion? |
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unfortunately if you're already half way through, there probably isn't going to be enough good threads to hold on to the buffer tube, you risk having the buffer tube blow out of your receiver if you shoot it. I would suggest starting over with a new 80% receiver rather than trying to salvage it. I know a guy that did something similar to what you did, it held up to .223 but the buffer tube blew off after a few rounds of 5.56. Now he's got a destroyed tube and an unsalvageable receiver. |
Great first post! heh... i only wish i new of this site before i purchased the 1 1/8" drill bit..... and the 1 1/8" reamer  Anyone interested in a drill bit or a reamer? lol... |
| When I was drilling out my buffer tube I ran into the same problem. What I did is get increasingly larger drill bits starting from the origional 1" hole. Not exactly a cost effective way to do it but I really wanted to finish my lower. Also make sure you are running the press at the lowest possible speed. This makes all the differance in the world. You might be able to JB weld your buffer in if the hole is too big but getting things to line up will be tricky. Good luck. |
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I'm currently in the process of building two 80% lowers, and if I've learned anything, it's that JB Weld is your friend. You should probably stop where you are and try to rebuild the part you reamed out with JB Weld. What you need is a method to keep the reamer straight while you're turning it. You can accomplish that by using the piloted reamer that was mentioned above, or you can build some sort of jig to keep it straight. I spent about 20 minutes building a jig out of scrap wood to work with my reamer. I don't have a picture, but I'll try to describe it. I built a frame that basically looks like an H, but with a piece across the top. The top piece is 3" thick, and I drilled a hole in it using the 1 1/8" drill bit. This hole must be exactly straight in the block of wood, so check to make sure the block is square and level before you drill. Since the shaft of my reamer is exactly 1 1/8" in diameter, it's a nice snug fit in the hole. Next, on the shelf in the middle of the jig, I mounted a small drill press vise. The vise holds the receiver aligned while I'm reaming. I inserted the reamer through the hole in the block at the top of the jig and let it rest on the receiver. I secured the entire jig to my workbench using 36" bar clamps. After checking to ensure that the jig was level in all directions, I positioned the receiver so that the top plane was perfectly vertical. Once that was accomplished, I repositioned the vise holding the receiver until the reamer was also perfectly vertical and centered in the hole in the recever. Lastly, I placed a really big pair of neodymium magnets (like this)on the opposite side of the buffer tower from the reamer. This provided enough force on the reamer to allow it to bite into the aluminum. After one final check to ensure everything was aligned, I started reaming the hole. It took a while, but I ended up with a hole that was perfectly straight. If you're having trouble visualizing all this, let me know and I'll try to get a picture of the setup. |
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