Miniature reamers

I don't really know if these will be suitable for your needs but they are hand reamers from 0.3mm to 1.5mm. I don't see how you could hold them as they stand but it might be possible to turn off the handles ?

They're at the bottom of the following link :

Hth,

Have a look at the J&L website, just had a quick peek there and 1.0mm and 0.5mm are available.

Peter

Surely these are not truly reamers, but broaches used by watch and clock makers to open up holes in thin plate. For a collet they would (if they were up to the job at all) leave a tapered hole - not what you want in a collet.

You might be better making a D-bit from carbon steel to ream out an under-sized drilled hole. Or if you approach carefully in several steps, would a conventional drill give a sufficiently accurate hole?

David

If you absolutely HAVE to have those sizes....

Take a look at watchmakers lathe collets and whether they can be adapted to the circumstance. The 8mm WW pattern collets are available from .1mm to 5 mm in .1 mm steps, with through bores to match, and further up to 8mm without the capability to pass the diameter through the collet. They are generally marked with a number that coincides with the size, ie: a number 1 collet is .1mm, and a number 43 collet is 4.3mm.

Silly money to buy, but less agravation for the time spent picking broken tools out of ones work.

Cheers Trevor Jones

I could see nothing smaller than 1.5 mm on J&L. Do you have a link or description I could follow please?

Cliff.

Unfortunately these are indeed tapered broaches, of which I have dozens. It has to be a parallel reamer for the reasons you describe, though I will try the D-bit approach if reamers aren't available.

Cliff.

We have rapidly come full circle here :) I do absolutely have to have those sizes because my 8 mm watchmakers lathe can not handle some of the larger clock parts. My 10 mm watchmakers lathe is big enough but doesn't have collets smaller than 1.4 mm. If can make or buy the smaller 10 mm collets I can rationalise on one lathe and save myself space and wasted time swapping from one machine to another. One interesting suggestion I have heard is to fit 6 mm collets, which are available, into a 10 mm collet.

Cliff.

Links to J&L normally don't work well or last long as the session ID expires, but try typing in " 1.0mm reamer" or "0.5mm reamer" or "0.75mm reamer" using the keyword search. They come up as a not-in-catalogue item, but don't show much stock if any. However, the fact that they are on there must mean you can order them.

Peter

My dealer lists 1.00 mm as the smallest ones. 1.01, 1.02, 1.03 available too. I could get you one next time I visit him. But I have to avoid any more visits in the near future. :-))

Nick

Got them thanks. I'll phone J&L next week.

Cliff.

Collets by definition have some travel in them. Is it necessary to ream them when a drill bit is going to get within a thou or so anyway?

Try Drill Service (Horley)

Alastair