.22 chamber reaming report

When reaming or doing precision taping I use my Drill Press as an aid. NOT UNDER POWER, but I have drilled a chamfered detent hole into my Tap Wrench (top) and use a center to steady the Tap or Reamer as it is turned by hand. Slight pressure is applied on the Drill Press handle while turning the tap wrench by hand. A second person is always a plus when doing this. This procedure eliminates any possibility of the tool walking or going in at an improper angle. AGAIN.... NO POWER is used on drill press and the dive belts are disengaged while doing this. I also bolt my Machinists Drill Vise (Starrtett Brand) to the Drill Press table so it does not move at all.

I suppose this is not absolutely necessary but it always insures a mistake free job. I use this procedure quite a bit when tapping small fine threads. It also greatly reduces broken Taps!

Not my video, but very informative and may help some here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBrrVnYBPOQ
 
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Lou_NC said:
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.



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.




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
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, Lou. Makes good sense, and having read mackinaw's post about the need by competition shooters to do this because they fire so many rounds in a session, and need to assure fast reloading, now I understand a lot more about the process and the specifics of "why."

Great thread! Thanks.
 
quote=chief38;138310016]When reaming or doing precision taping I use my Drill Press as an aid. NOT UNDER POWER, but I have drilled a chamfered detent hole into my Tap Wrench (top) and use a center to steady the Tap or Reamer as it is turned by hand. Slight pressure is applied on the Drill Press handle while turning the tap wrench by hand. A second person is always a plus when doing this. This procedure eliminates any possibility of the tool walking or going in at an improper angle. AGAIN.... NO POWER is used on drill press and the dive belts are disengaged while doing this. I also bolt my Machinists Drill Vise (Starrtett Brand) to the Drill Press table so it does not move at all.

I suppose this is not absolutely necessary but it always insures a mistake free job. I use this procedure quite a bit when tapping small fine threads. It also greatly reduces broken Taps!

Not my video, but very informative and may help some here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBrrVnYBPOQ[/quote]

This is an excellent technique, chief38, and beautifully explained. From a machinist point of view, it's good solid practice and, as you pointed out, can help a lot to avoid broken cutting tools by ensuring that they are engaging the workpiece in a true perpendicular. Also, taps and reamers typically have that center dimple in the shank end that makes operations like the one you describe even easier by eliminating any guesswork in aligning the cutter. Great vid too; thanks for sharing your expertise. :)

Starrett: the Smith & Wesson of measuring, bench, and cutting tools! :)
 
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vigil617 said:
Thanks for the reply, Lou. Makes good sense, and having read mackinaw's post about the need by competition shooters to do this because they fire so many rounds in a session, and need to assure fast reloading, now I understand a lot more about the process and the specifics of "why."

Great thread! Thanks.
Click to expand...

You're welcome and I will add one statement for your consideration - while it may be true that SAAMI-spec chambers are desirable for competition shooters, by no means should you consider this to be only a "competition" type of modification (such as chamfering the chamber mouths of .45ACP revolvers for faster moon-clip reloads).

Nothing is more frustrating to me than to get to the range with a spotlessly clean .22 revolver, and have issues LOADING factory .22 ammo into my clean chambers because it may be on the "large" end of the SAMMI spec while my revolver is slightly undersize. Talk about frustrating! Not to mention the difficult extraction after shooting rounds that you had to "force" into the clean chambers!

I've had this very thing happen with several of my .22 S&W revolvers which is why I've decided to bring them all up to SAAMI spec. Others have reported no downside to this with regard to accuracy, so I see nothing to lose.

My suspicion (which I have no way of verifying of course) is that S&W (and other revolver manufacturers) want to get maximum life from their tooling, and this may involve running their chamber reamers to the point where they may be producing chambers of minimal acceptable dimensions. Speculation, of course, but theoretically possible and could explain why some of my revolvers have such tight chambers.

Lou
 
Recently I took a 10 shot 4in 617-6 in trade. When loading with the speed loaders 3 or 4 of the rounds always have to be pushed in by hand. I also have a Model 18-2 that's a tack driver but, after a couple of cylinder fulls you almost need a hammer to get the fired cases out. That's why I purchased the reamer for me to use. I have more S&W 22's that go from needing a brushing every now and then to being perfect. I figure its no different than others changing springs, bobbing hammers, cutting barrels ect to get the firearm the way you/I feel it should be.
 
If I were going to use a reamer on one of my k-22 revolvers I would special order the reamer direct from Manson. I would ask them to cut the reamer to the low side of the Saami spec.
I spoke with them about this and they are willing to do it.
The cost is about the same as a standard reamer.
They told me they usually go to the high side of the spec.
I check my throats using a Cci standard velocity round pressed against the exit side of the cylinder. They measure about .223.
 
I Shoot Steel Challenge with my 617 and want to go the entire match without cleaning the cyliders. Before reaming I could get about 6 reloads before the empties became very hard to extract.

After the project I can run about 70 reloads and it still functions perfecty. I then take an electronic drill with brass brush and run it for 20 seconds on each chamber. I have not had a problem since.
 
There are quite a few choices for .22 LR chamber reamer specifications any more. One isn't restricted to just "SAAMI spec".
That said, I don't know how many .22 S&W revolvers (Pre-WWII to a couple with the lock) I've owned and none have suffered from hard extraction. Several go over a thousand rounds or more between cleanings.
I can see the utility for Steel Challenge if you have to press rounds in before closing the cylinder, but even then it won't be under timed conditions. Hopefully! Last time I ran a six shooter with iron sights whilst a friend shot a 10 shooter with a red dot. Neither of us had any dramas with loading or unloading. We did keep a cleaning rod handy, though.
 
jaymoore said:
There are quite a few choices for .22 LR chamber reamer specifications any more. One isn't restricted to just "SAAMI spec".
That said, I don't know how many .22 S&W revolvers (Pre-WWII to a couple with the lock) I've owned and none have suffered from hard extraction. Several go over a thousand rounds or more between cleanings.
I can see the utility for Steel Challenge if you have to press rounds in before closing the cylinder, but even then it won't be under timed conditions. Hopefully! Last time I ran a six shooter with iron sights whilst a friend shot a 10 shooter with a red dot. Neither of us had any dramas with loading or unloading. We did keep a cleaning rod handy, though.
Click to expand...

I bent a yoke on an M317 because of difficult extraction. S&W fixed it free, but I need to do something to avoid the problem again.

OP, thanks for the great write up!
 
It seems a lot of people resist reaming the chambers because they "assume" that S&W made them perfect to begin with. Like any production job, S&W wants to get the most number of cylinders out of each reamer. They seem to use one reamer (or one set of reamers) until they no longer cut very well. When new, the reamer(s) will cut a beautiful chamber, and all is well. Over time, cutting hundreds or thousands of chambers, the size of the reamer(s) gradually decreases. At the beginning, those cylinders have the SAMMI spec. chambers and work fine. But the chambers towards the end of reamer life are a variable amount smaller than SAMMI spec. The amount of material removed when you ream your own depends entirely on how worn out the original reamer was when it did that cylinder. The chamber reamer will not remove any more material than the size it is. If you put it in an on size chamber, it won't cut anything. The cylinder that comes on any given gun is simply luck of the draw, for better or worse.

You want to leave the extractor in place when running the chamber reamer. If you take it out, you will not cut it to match the rest of the chamber, and will have a step of the extractor that protrudes into the chamber. You want to run the reamer far enough in to just kiss the original surface of the cylinder where the rim of the cartridge seats. If the extractor is proud of the cylinder surface, you want to cut it down to match. If the extractor is lower than the cylinder surface, it's fine. The rim of the case needs to be solidly against the cylinder to act as an anvil where the firing pin hits. You don't want the extractor holding it back away from the cylinder face. You can blue or not blue the cut surfaces, either way works.
 
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Thanks for the demonstration. The only S&W rimfire I had with tight chambers was my 17-3. They built them with tight specifications to maximize accuracy. Some kinds of ammo would be stubborn to extract, but the problem went away after a few thousand rounds and several cleanings.
 
Thanks to everyone who posted about this. I have 2 revolvers with sticky extraction. A S&W 43c and a Ruger LCR 22lr. I have the stuff ordered from Brownell's to do mine. I wonder if it is safe to ream the aluminum cylinder in my 43c?
 
BILL said:
.......I wonder if it is safe to ream the aluminum cylinder in my 43c?
Click to expand...

I did my S&W 317 at some point, as I was working my way through my .22 revolvers. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the last one in the sequence, and my reamer worked fine on stainless after doing the 317. Not sure if a 317 cylinder is the same alloy as a 43c, so YMMV, but I did not find it to be an issue.

Lou
 
I have everything I need. Now I just have to work up the nerve to do it. I'm going to do the Ruger first.
 
I have a .358 reamer and have done quite a few .38/.357's but I only have one S&W .22 revolver. I found it easier and cheaper to just send it out.
 
I bought a reamer from Brownell's and did my often-used 34. I still can't get myself to do my old 5 screw Model 18, no dash, with color case hardened hammer and trigger.
 
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Climer useto have a "target ,22 chamber set" ruffer and finisher,
 
I did it. I reamed the chambers on the Ruger LCR. It's much better now.

The reamer didn't have to cut very much. I couldn't really see any chips. I think it just cleaned up a few rough spots. A couple chambers seemed like it felt like it was cutting more.

Before, I had to clean every cylinder full if I wanted easy extraction. I just fired 4 cylinders full of Velocitor, 5 1/2 of Mini Mags, 2 of Punch and 2 of Stinger without cleaning and had easy extraction with all of them.

I haven't decided if I'm going to do the aluminum cylinder on the 43c or not. It works ok with Velocitors, which is what I carry in it.
 
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