hardened steel / opening out a hole

Colin Wilson · 2004-08-14T11:34:06+00:00

This may sound like a dumb question, but i`ve got some hardened steel washers that came with radial bearings i`d like to put in use.The problem is they`re 25mm and the shaft they need to go on is a little larger (perhaps an inch, but without having a micrometer / calipers to hand I can`t be sure on the exact radius...)I might, at a push, be able to get someone to try a cone drill to open it out a little (I can forsee problems holding them in place to enable then to be drilled though), and a regular half-round file isn`t touching them (its blunting the file).Any simple ideas for this one ?I recently bought a dremel style thing, and I might be able to try to use a grinding wheel on them (which seem to wear at an alarming rate), but apart from that i`m out of ideas :-}

Aug 14, 2004 21 Replies

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Dave Plowman (News) 21 years ago

If you've got a cone cutter or easy way to enlarge the hole, B&Q do mild steel washers big enough for an inch shaft on a non critical device. ;-)

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Andy Dingley 21 years ago

I've never been impressed with cone cutters. You need to clamp the workpiece _very_ firmly, and they still tend to make off centre holes.

For enlarging holes, a much better tool is a five-sided tapered reamer. For some weird geometrical reason, a five-sided cutter runs true. As it's not an unbalanced single-edge cutter, it cuts more evenly too.

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