Cheap but useful tool to hold reamers

[Tmuir]

All this recent talk about reaming holes for bushing has prompted me to show a tool I made a few weeks back which is perfect for holding reamers to give you better control than what you get with the small plastic handles that the reamers come with.

Its also useful for letting down clock main springs as you can clamp it onto the winding arbor and with the click released let it spin slowly in your hand by just applying a little pressure to the handle.

Its made from a spare chuck from cordless drill which you can generally find for a few dollars at car boot sales, or even out with curbside collections as so many people now buy new drills when their battery goes flat.

Mine has a length of brass bar tapped and screwed into the back of the chuck and then the brass rod was scuffed up with the edge of a file and araldite used to glue it into the wooden handle which had been drilled in a lathe to fit the brass rod, but depending on what you salvage the chuck from you made already have a nice rod that can be just fitted into the handle, or if you are worried it will slip cross drilled and pinned.

I wont claim credit for this as it was something our instructor made years ago and is something we all have made copies of in our class over the last 12 months.

[rogart63]

Like a big pin vise  

[oldhippy]

I had various pin vices for the smaller reamers, when it came to the large type they each had fixed wooden handles. A good handle will help in the work you are undertaking.