[George C]

We've had great success this year starting with a centre drill, then 1/8 or so, then 1" (largest drill we have) then reaming to 1 1/8. As said previously, a 1 1/8 reamer has a very large shank and is very long. We cut it off just long enough so that when we chucked it up in a lathe with the teeth behind the chuck we didn't damage the teeth. We then turned the shank down to 1/2. We do as much of the reaming as possible in a vertical mill because it's more rigid, we can secure the work better and we can cut the rpm way down. Has worked really well.