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I need a recommendation for a source of a good BA cylinder reamer.

I bought a reamer on fleaBay recently, and discovered it had the wrong taper while using it. The reamer was not small enough to fit inside the cylinder end which fits at the nose end of the mandrel, and it over-reamed the cylinder at the end which fits at the tail end of the mandrel.

The APSCO reamer that was previously recommended on this forum is out of production, with no plans to be made anytime soon, per my correspondence with them.

Is there a known good reamer being sold out there for BAs?

Thanks

There are reamers sold on ebay for blue amberols for $30.99. http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 1190939842 I've never bought the ones off eBay, but they look pretty decent to me. Hope this helps.
-Nick H.

I have one made by Tom Rutkowski, the Grillmeister. Has a website called Gramp's Attic. I am sure you can google it an find him.

They all need to be used with care. This is not just a shove it in and twist operation. A little at a time and checking is the way to go to avoid what happened to you.
Dave

Well I looked at Tom Rutkowski's web site and there is no cylinder reamer listed among the available items currently.

Anybody else have a suggestion? I was very careful and slow with my eBay reamer. Must have stopped and checked it ten times while using it. I only got the cylinder to go on after carefully hand sanding inside the end where the reamer refused to fit.

I am a little surprised that a good product is not in production right now.

I have an orphan mandrel with shaft that I carefully spray mounted sandpaper to with no overlaps. Works very well.

Victrolaboy wrote:There are reamers sold on ebay for blue amberols for $30.99. http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 1190939842 I've never bought the ones off eBay, but they look pretty decent to me. Hope this helps.
-Nick H.

I bought this reamer and am very happy with it. I had it posted to an address in the USA where a friend of my son was staying. He brought it back to the UK which saved me the cost of shipping it here.

I find that turning until the end of the reamer is just proud of the end of the cylinder achieves a good fit on the mandrel. The abrasive paper quickly becomes clogged with dust, and I use an old nailbrush to clear it. Any dust remaining inside the cylinder also needs to be removed, and I do this by pulling a clean soft cloth through it.

Needless to say, reaming is best done outside on a calm day.

fourforty wrote:I need a recommendation for a source of a good BA cylinder reamer.

I bought a reamer on fleaBay recently, and discovered it had the wrong taper while using it. The reamer was not small enough to fit inside the cylinder end which fits at the nose end of the mandrel, and it over-reamed the cylinder at the end which fits at the tail end of the mandrel.

The APSCO reamer that was previously recommended on this forum is out of production, with no plans to be made anytime soon, per my correspondence with them.

Is there a known good reamer being sold out there for BAs?

Thanks

You said you bought a reamer on 'fleabay' did you mean eBay?

epigramophone wrote:

Victrolaboy wrote:There are reamers sold on ebay for blue amberols for $30.99. http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 1190939842 I've never bought the ones off eBay, but they look pretty decent to me. Hope this helps.
-Nick H.

I bought this reamer and am very happy with it. I had it posted to an address in the USA where a friend of my son was staying. He brought it back to the UK which saved me the cost of shipping it here.

I find that turning until the end of the reamer is just proud of the end of the cylinder achieves a good fit on the mandrel. The abrasive paper quickly becomes clogged with dust, and I use an old nailbrush to clear it. Any dust remaining inside the cylinder also needs to be removed, and I do this by pulling a clean soft cloth through it.

Needless to say, reaming is best done outside on a calm day.

Yes reaming should be done outside because I read somewhere that the Plaster of Paris used for blue amberols contains asbestos. Also, reaming is quite messy and the dust will get EVERYWHERE.

Even w/o the spectre of asbestos, which may or may not be present in BA cores, the dust is NOT something you want to inhale...

In recent years, medical studies are showing that exposure to any dust, especially fine dusts are harmful, particularly with repeated exposure...

"Plaster of Paris used for blue amberols contains asbestos"

This has never been found to be true.

Numerous tests were done a few years ago on quite a few Blue Amberol cores, and no asbestos ever came back on any of the chemical tests. Anyway, Asbestos is not poisonous, You can actually eat it. You just cannot breathe it in. That is where it causes lung damage.

I would ream outside with a mask on anyway...just from the amount of dust...

)

Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer