.22 chamber reaming report

*** Update ***
I just got a reminder from a fellow Forum member to remind everyone who tackles this type of project to ONLY turn the reamer in a clockwise (cutting) direction. Do NOT turn the reamer counterclockwise at any time, or the cutting edges of the reamer could be damaged. I read this information in previous posts on this subject as well, but neglected to remind folks of this important piece of information. (Thanks Engineer1911!!).


I decided to post this in the revolver section since I've learned so much here from my fellow S&W revolver enthusiasts, and wanted to share some of my new-found experience.

My Clymer .22 cylinder chamber finishing reamer recently arrived from Brownell's along with my pint of Do-Drill cutting fluid. So, I decided to get to work on finishing the chambers of my S&W .22's for easier extraction, starting with my model 18-3.

First, here's an overall view of the setup. Cylinder held in rubber vice jaws, reamer mounted in a tap T-handle, and a scrap container under the cylinder to catch dripping cutting fluid and shavings:



Here's a good tip - recycle a small bottle and fill it with cutting fluid (be sure the jar has a built-in brush like this one). This makes it MUCH easier to keep the reamer well lubed as you cut, without spilling fluid all over the bench:



Next up is a view of the reamer inserted into an unfinished chamber. This is what it looks like before you start turning:



Here's a shot about 3/4 through one of the chambers. I removed the reamer and cleared the shavings after every 5 turns (actually about 8-10 half-turns). The flutes were about 1/2 full after four or five turns and I didn't want the reamer to "bind-up" with shavings. Better to clean more often than necessary than to let the flutes get clogged and bind. The reamer moves about 1/8" into the chamber with every five turns. It's slow steady progress:



Here's a tip for clearing the reamer cutting flutes - hold the reamer in a can and use an old toothbrush to clear the flutes. This keeps the shavings from scattering all over the bench when you clear them with the toothbrush:



Finally, here's an interesting shot showing the bluing worn off the extractor star before the reamer contacted the cylinder itself. Before starting, I made sure the extractor did not have any fouling underneath and was making good contact with the cylinder:



The entire operation took about five to ten minutes per chamber, plus some cleanup time at the end. I can't wait to take it to the range and enjoy the smooth extraction with ANY brand of ammo!

I would encourage anyone who can operate a tap to go ahead and try this bit of home gunsmithing. It really isn't that difficult.

Good luck and feel free to ask questions,
Lou

Very nicely done. Good photos. Was the bluing removed from the lip at the mouth of the chamber?

I concur with you. Great job!

Kernel Crittenden said:

Very nicely done. Good photos. Was the bluing removed from the lip at the mouth of the chamber?

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm glad to be able to share my (limited) experience and photos!

The reamer only took the bluing off the extractor star, but it did not contact the mouth of the chamber on this cylinder (it's the only one I've done so far). Once I made contact with the extractor star I turned the reamer a few more times but did not apply any downward force. (I didn't want to force the reamer into the extractor/chamber mouth and remove any metal for fear of affecting headspace).

I looked at the reamer under a magnifying glass and I believe it's designed to cut the chamber rim recess, but I did not want to do that.

Lou

Lou_NC said:

The reamer only took the bluing off the extractor star....

Click to expand...

Maybe take the star off on the next one. Just an idea. Hate to see any bluing lost.

What's the reason for reaming .22 revolver chambers with this finishing reamer?
Are factory chambers not reamed very smoothly?
Is there something specific I should look for?
Is this only applicable to Smith revolvers, or is it needed with most modern .22 revolvers?

Lou,
Great post, good pictures and descriptions. Unfortunately for me, it's 3 years too late. 3 years ago I had a pre-17 that came into this world the same year as me. Unfortunately the chambers were so tight that after shooting 2 or 3 cylinders full of ammunition, extracting the empties was next to impossible. I finally decided to sell the gun. The upside is that I have replaced it with a 617-4, 10 shot, which is better suited to shooting steel challenge type matches. Your post will be very valuable should I decide to ream those chambers. They're tight, but so far they are manageable.

Jaymo,
The reason for reaming the chambers is to help with extracting/ejecting the empty brass from your revolver. I don't know it this is a problem with non S&W revolvers, but it is quite common in S&W revolvers. If you haven't bloodied your hands trying to eject the empties from your .22 cal. revolver your chambers probably don't need to be reamed.

1st Class Demo

Lou_NC said:

I decided to post this in the revolver section since I've learned so much here from my fellow S&W revolver enthusiasts, and wanted to share some of my new-found experience.

My Clymer .22 cylinder chamber finishing reamer recently arrived from Brownell's along with my pint of Do-Drill cutting fluid. So, I decided to get to work on finishing the chambers of my S&W .22's for easier extraction, starting with my model 18-3.

First, here's an overall view of the setup. Cylinder held in rubber vice jaws, reamer mounted in a tap T-handle, and a scrap container under the cylinder to catch dripping cutting fluid and shavings:

Here's a good tip - recycle a small bottle and fill it with cutting fluid (be sure the jar has a built-in brush like this one). This makes it MUCH easier to keep the reamer well lubed as you cut, without spilling fluid all over the bench:

Next up is a view of the reamer inserted into an unfinished chamber. This is what it looks like before you start turning:

Here's a shot about 3/4 through one of the chambers. I removed the reamer and cleared the shavings after every 5 turns (actually about 8-10 half-turns). The flutes were about 1/2 full after four or five turns and I didn't want the reamer to "bind-up" with shavings. Better to clean more often than necessary than to let the flutes get clogged and bind. The reamer moves about 1/8" into the chamber with every five turns. It's slow steady progress:

Here's a tip for clearing the reamer cutting flutes - hold the reamer in a can and use an old toothbrush to clear the flutes. This keeps the shavings from scattering all over the bench when you clear them with the toothbrush:

Finally, here's an interesting shot showing the bluing worn off the extractor star before the reamer contacted the cylinder itself. Before starting, I made sure the extractor did not have any fouling underneath and was making good contact with the cylinder:

The entire operation took about five to ten minutes per chamber, plus some cleanup time at the end. I can't wait to take it to the range and enjoy the smooth extraction with ANY brand of ammo!

I would encourage anyone who can operate a tap to go ahead and try this bit of home gunsmithing. It really isn't that difficult.

Good luck and feel free to ask questions,
Lou

Click to expand...

Wow, That's a first class demo you provided. As a owner of both M17's and M18 I am going to bookmark it as there is nothing like a visual example to understanding a new undertaking for me. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share this often talked about procedure. Cheers

It makes me wonder if the S&W chambers are match chambers, since they are tight.
At least they aren't rough (like some other makers).

I don't think I can fire enough ammo, fast enough, to make extraction difficult with my Single Six. Loading it is S-L-O-W. I spend a lot more time loading it than shooting it.
The H&R is a DA but uses a loading gate/ejector rod, like the Ruger.
Also slow to reload.
I guess I have nothing to worry about, until I find a nice K-22.
Even then, .22 rimfire ammo is scarce in my area. That's why I load and shoot .32 Long and .38 Special. I can do a lot more shooting for less money. Normally, I wouldn't think of .38 as cheaper to load, but I cast for both .32 and .38. Even with store bought bullets, I'm not having to drive around and burn gas hunting for .22 ammo.
How I miss the days of $1.00/box .22 ammo and $6.00/box .22 Mag ammo.

Thanks for the pictures and tips showing your work. I just got my backordered reamer from Brownells also and havn't had the time to get to it yet.
I was wondering if its better to remove the star or leave it in ?

I have done 6 S&W revolvers with mine, and a notable improvement in all of them. I put the Do Drill lubricant in a squirt can and add some to the chamber 2 or 3 times while I cut each chamber. I also put a paper shop towel below the cylinder to catch all the drippings. Then clean with brake & parts cleaner and a old toothbrush. I did add some Brownells Oxpho blue inside the chambers after they were all cleaned up on the blued guns, nothing on the stainless guns.

H Richard said:

..........I did add some Brownells Oxpho blue inside the chambers after they were all cleaned up on the blued guns, nothing on the stainless guns.

Click to expand...

I was actually wondering whether I should touch up the bluing inside the chambers or not. I'm pretty sure there's none left in the chamber mouths or barrel after firing a few hundred rounds, cleaning, repeating, etc. So I wasn't sure what to do.

I guess it can't really hurt anything to touch up the bluing, so maybe I'll do it as well. I have some Birchwood Casey cold blue but have read good things on here about the Brownells Oxpho blue. Maybe it's time for another Brownells order!

Lou

Iowahunter said:

.........I was wondering if its better to remove the star or leave it in ?

Click to expand...

I had thought about that as well, but decided to leave it in. The way I look at it is that I prefer not to mess with removing the extractor star unless absolutely necessary for a particular job, due to the extremely fine threads and added risk it brings to a job.

I wonder what the collective Forum wisdom is on that question though?

Lou

"IN"

Lou_NC said:

I had thought about that as well, but decided to leave it in. The way I look at it is that I prefer not to mess with removing the extractor star unless absolutely necessary for a particular job, due to the extremely fine threads and added risk it brings to a job.

I wonder what the collective Forum wisdom is on that question though?

Lou

Click to expand...

Three comments: Thank you for the very nice presentation. You get an ATTABOY! IMHO, it is easier to get a truly round chamber by doing the chambering while the cylinder is horizontal in presentation and at about the height of your forearm while it is horizontal. There is far less tendency to 'wallow' the reamer while being turned in that position. Yes it is a little more messy because the lubricant is going all over, but that can be cleaned up. And lastly; IMHO and experience the chamber reamer needs to be taken to the absolute bottom in each chamber to give each bullet the same amount of 'jump' before reaching the smaller diameter of the chamber. By leaving the cylinder star in place and running down to just touch the face of the extractor one can achieve uniformity of chambers much easier than can be done without the star being in place.

BTW; I totally agree with your technique in keeping the reamer clean and NEVER filling up a flute with chips. I can only add that while removing the reamer, one should be still turning the reamer gently in the cutting direction and NEVER reversing the turn of the reamer. ........... Big Cholla

I am always, always learning something new here on the Forum.

This was my first encountering of the need to ream the chambers on some .22 revolver cylinders.

Lou, since reamers are designed to remove only a small amount of material to come to a true hole size, do you know how much your reamer was removing? What is the nominal diameter of the reamer and, if you happen to know, what was the original diameter of the chambers? Offhand, I would say that for a diameter as small as the .22, taking one to two thousandths of material out would be plenty to relieve any binding of the cartridges, but that's just a guess.

Also, I would have thought that just polishing the interiors of the chambers would have been sufficient to achieve the desired result without going through an actual cutting operation. Any thoughts on that? Does the reaming tend to remove a bit too much material?

Thanks for your presentation, which was very interesting!

Nice presentation !
I am with Virgil there in post #15. Did you try any other "fixes" before going to the reamer ? I have a tight single-six I thought about using a bore brush spinning in a drill to smooth out a bit.

The way it was explained to me is that the reamer brings the chambers up to SAAMI specification. If the chambers are already up to SAAMI specification then no material would be removed. Some S&W 22LR cylinder chambers are know to be undersized. The reamer just remove enough material to bring them up to SAAMI specification.

vigil617 said:

Lou, since reamers are designed to remove only a small amount of material to come to a true hole size, do you know how much your reamer was removing?

Click to expand...

No, I have no idea. As Macinaw stated, my understanding is that the "finishing" reamer is manufactured to SAAMI specs, so my assumption (based on reading this forum) is that I'd end up with a SAAMI chamber after using the reamer.

vigil617 said:

What is the nominal diameter of the reamer and, if you happen to know, what was the original diameter of the chambers?

Click to expand...

I don't know that I can accurately measure the reamer using my only tool, a reloading caliper. But again, I believe it's manufactured to SAAMI specs, which should be easily found in the internet. I had no way of measuring the chambers before or after the reamer was used.

vigil617 said:

Also, I would have thought that just polishing the interiors of the chambers would have been sufficient to achieve the desired result without going through an actual cutting operation. Any thoughts on that? Does the reaming tend to remove a bit too much material?

Click to expand...

Funny you should mention this - I actually went this route with a Dan Wesson 744 revolver that I bought before they went out of business. Unfortunately, I didn't shoot it much until after their doors were closed. It had the roughest chambers of any revolver I ever saw before or since - to the point of "etching" grooves on your brass that were very noticeable after firing. So, I polished those chambers myself by chucking a dowel in my drill press, cutting it lengthwise, and wrapping wet/dry sandpaper around the dowel until it was a snug fit in the chambers (but could still spin). Then, using light oil as a lubricant, I ran the drill press on its lowest speed, and worked the "custom made honing tool" in and out of the chambers. I used progressively finer grits of sandpaper. It did a remarkably good job. I ended up with smoothly polished chambers. I think I quit at 600 grit paper.

After that exercise, and after reading about the availability of "finishing reamers" here on this Forum, I resolved that the next time I had the problem of tight or rough chambers, I'd find a finishing reamer and go that route instead.

Lou

Nice presentation........However what you did gave me "the willies". I own 12 Smith .22's. I'd never do that to any of them just for the sake of doing it. I'll just continue to bore brush each cyl. after every 100 rds. or so.

Mike said:

Nice presentation........However what you did gave me "the willies". I own 12 Smith .22's. I'd never do that to any of them just for the sake of doing it. I'll just continue to bore brush each cyl. after every 100 rds. or so.

Click to expand...

I can see your point of not wanting to mess around with a reamer.

This gunsmith modification is geared toward the competition shooter that may shoot hundreds of rounds in a few hours. It makes extraction effortless and faster between strings of fire.