Reamer Made to Correct a Large Bore....Reaming successfully completed

[davec2]

OK....I finally had the time to make the bore guide for the reamer.  Here it is on the lathe in process.  I neglected to take a picture of the finished guide but will as I set it up for the reaming operation.

[DGB]

Dave,
The muzzle guide is looking good.
I was wondering if the nose pilot is a close fit in the  lower part of the bore and will it want to pull the reamer off center from the first 20 inches that are good? I guess you might be able to feel if the reamer is trying to get off course.
I think that if the reamer already is a good fit in the first part, the reamer itself should hold itself on course as it enters the off center portion.
Keep us in the loop and have at it.
Regards, DGB

[davec2]

Had a chance to try hand reaming a 2.75 inch bore today 

Here is the finished muzzle guide......



And installed in the cannon muzzle......

 

Reamer in place for the start of the first trial run......



First batch of chips pushing ahead of the reamer !!!!



It takes about 10 minutes of hard pushing and twisting to ream about 2 inches of linear bore length.  I made a gage and I think I am taking out about 0.015 on a radius or 0.030 on the diameter, which is more metal than I thought I would have to remove.  I made about 6 inches of progress down the bore in three, 10 minute runs before my arms gave out.  I detached a bicep tendon in my right arm 2 years ago that could not be repaired, so my right arm is fairly weak.  If I had pulled the barrel off the carriage and stood it vertically, I could have weighted the reamer shaft and just turned the handle.  But the barrel weighs nearly 600 pounds, so getting it off the carriage and building a vertical cradle is another project in itself.  I think I have a way to apply a spring around the reamer shaft to apply tool pressure while I just turn the handle.  And if I don't do all of that, in short increments, I can finish by hand.  At the current rate of advance down the bore, it would take me another hour and twenty minutes of pushing and turning, so....not bad.... if I do it in increments of 10 to 20 minutes a day.  The cut appears smooth and even and the bore gage indicates a nice straight cut.  So far so good   

[Clint]

I wonder if you could rent a pipe threader to turn the reamer. The treader is basicaly  a crude head stock on a tripod and has lots of torque. Put it on a dolly and push it.

[Joey R]

In my opinion for what it's worth I would think you need to stick with the reaming by hand method for the "feel" of the reamer especially since this is the maiden voyage for this operation. Looking good so far and good luck.

[davec2]

Joey,

I think I will try the spring arrangement just to apply tool force, but will continue to operate the reamer by hand so I can feel the cutting.  I like Clint's idea but think I would spend a lot of time and effort trying to get the machine aligned with the bore and then pushing is what I am having trouble with.  It takes a lot of "push" to get the reamer to advance very fast.
 

[Daryl]

Slow and easy will get you where you want to go. Doing great, Davec2.

[snapper]

Dave

You have any neighborhood kids that need a little mentoring?  A few buddy's that are willing to help?

Fleener

[Tim Crosby]

Dave

You have any neighborhood kids that need a little mentoring?  A few buddy's that are willing to help?

Fleener

 Sounds like the makings for a Tom Sawyer tale.

    Tim C.

[JohnnyFM]

A side benefit of reaming by hand, you’ll have forearms like Popeye
Continued  success!

[heinz]

Awesome!  I did not realize the scale of that handle in the first picture you posted.  That handle is certainly big enough.  Going a Half a foot a day without and apprentice is pretty good.  I like the spring idea.

[Daryl]

A side benefit of reaming by hand, you’ll have forearms like Popeye
Continued  success!

THAT'S what happened to me, I swear. It's a good thing, Dave.

[Marcruger]

Dave, could you make a rotating pad that fits onto/into the back end of your rod?   You could push on it with your torso, and rotate with your hands.  It might take some load off your arms?   Just thinking out loud.   God Bless,   Marc

[ScottH]

Looking good
Think local football team defensive line, pizza and soda after the reaming is finished 😉

[davec2]

Here are the first two parts for the spring arrangement to advance the reamer while I turn the handle, the spring and the movable spring stop.  The spring rate is ~104 pounds per inch of compression, so it should be more than enough to force the reamer into the cut without me having to push.  I'm sure I was not applying more than 40 or 50 pounds of force when I was struggling to cut a few inches.  The rest of the arrangement is a clap trap of all-thread rods and lumber.  I didn't want to spend too much time and effort making a sophisticated rig....I don't think I will be doing this type of work more than once in a lifetime. 

I'll take more pictures when I have it all put together and fins out if it works.  ??

[Marcruger]

Hmmmm....  Looks like a nuclear submarine's drivetrain.   ;-) 

[davec2]

Ok....I know this all looks kind of "clugy" but it works !!!!  I just tighten the all-thread rods to apply spring pressure to the reamer shaft and then turn the handle !!!  Not a lot faster than the hand push method, but a heck of of lot easier on my shoulders !!!

[Craig Wilcox]

Looks like it will work fine, Dave.  Although chances are, the users of the cannon back in the day would be really scratching their heads!

What is the little "dog" cart under your apparatus?

[Robby]

Pretty cool set up!!! Will you hone it after reaming?
Robby

[davec2]

Craig,

Some of the rigs I've seen in the literature on how huge guns were cast and bored in past centuries were a heck of a lot crazier than this drip and tinkle rig.  When I built this gun 50 years ago, I was intending to cast the gun myself in a pit in the back yard and then set up a boring rig using the weight of the gun to apply pressure to the tool.  Glad I had an attack of sanity and just worked odd jobs until i could buy the barrel from Barney's Cannons in South Bend IN. !!  And the cart under the tarp is this .......



My folks bought this small replica John Deere wagon for my oldest daughter 30 years ago.  I used to drag the two girls all over the neighborhood with it when they were tiny.  My wife uses it for decorating now....


Robby,

I won't be "honing" in the sense of getting the bore perfect in size and surface finish, but I will be using one of these to smooth things up a little better.......

[RedRiverII]

Luckily for me this thread was as far advanced as it is.  I was initially pleased to prepare some popcorn myself but the thread progressed at a rapid rate for me.  Thank you.  I was a plumber for forty years and have had my first operation for a torn rotator cuff yesterday, 10/19/21.  Please be gentle on your shoulders they are far too valuable to mess up.  $43,000 for a fixer upper shoulder.  Let's not talk about the pain!  Terrific thread.

[davec2]

Red River,

I understand completely !!!!  I made the spring thing not because it was any better than doing it by hand but because I have realized that I simply cannot do the things I did 20 or 30 years ago without hurting myself.  As Clint Eastwood said in one of his movies, "A man's got to know his limitations".

[Marcruger]

Dave, your smoothing tool looks like Canister or Grape Shot. 🙂 Very appropriate. 

[Daryl]

Yeah - small grape - LOL - those things work quite well, if you keep them moving.

[davec2]

Well, another project completed.  I finished the reaming of the bore today all the way to the breech and then did some honing to polish up the bore surface some.  The spring assist was a huge help.  I could only compress the spring about 3/4" at a time to keep the tool force low enough for me to hand turn the "T" handle.  The length of the spring would allow me to compress it over 5 inches but the tool force would be more that 700 pounds if I did.  So I just used the all-thread to compress the spring 3/4", turns the handle until I had advanced that far, compress the spring 3/4" again, turn the handle, etc., etc.., until I inched my way all the way to the breech.  Took a while but it was not hard to do....and a heck of a lot easier than trying to wrestling 600 pounds of barrel onto a lathe...and I don't have one that big.  So this was a good way to do the job fairly easily and inexpensively.

This doesn't look like the bore of a new Browning 12 gage, but for a cast iron cannon bore it looks fantastic.  And the best part is that it is a constant diameter now (2.752") from muzzle to breech.  I will rework the ball mold to put out a cannon ball 2.747" diameter now.  This should improve accuracy considerably.

This is not the greatest picture but you can tell that the bore is good......



I will start another thread but I wanted to ask if any of you have purchased and use a Teslong bore scope......