Hi. I was looking to pick up a 1.125” reamer for bearing holes. Specifically I was going to buy the WCP one but I don’t see it on the machine tools page.
Anyone have an alternative they like to use?
For the most part we’ve either routed 1.125 holes or used a 1.125 drill that creates a slightly undersized hole we press fit bearings into. We also looked for reamers not long ago and although we found a few options (I’ll see if I can dig them up again and share them) ultimately we just used our router so we never bought one.
We used this one this year and it worked fine. Took a little bit of time to dial in the exact dimension, but you can decide how tight to make the holes. My main qualm is that it doesn’t fit on our drill press, so we were just manually reaming holes out with the reamer and a wrench.
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Found the old links we looked at:
Drills and Cutters 1 1/8 inch HSS reamer - does require an arbor since it’s a shell reamer, just make sure you get the right one
McMaster has a few options, some are specialized but the top few results are probably what you’d want
SHARS 1.125 reamer - SHARS has made some decent stuff so we looked there too and they have one
Other than that eBay had a few used ones and I didn’t look but places like MSC probably have multiple options. Just make sure you pick the right once based off what your machine can hold. Another thing to consider that we ran into is that bearings are not perfectly 1.1250. We measured a bunch using micrometers and found a range of under and over sized ODs on bearings. Not a huge issue but a reamer will make a perfect 1.1250 hole but that won’t guarantee bearings fit perfectly. Hope this helps!
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Never used an adjustable one, overall how would you rate it?
It worked. It was way better than what we did before which was just filing holes until they were large enough. I could see it getting out of spec between uses if students are messing with it, but I would probably dial it in on the first use of the season and then lock it hard in place.
No idea how long it will last.
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There are step bits you can pick up from your local big box store that end at 1.125" We use this one: https://www.lowes.com/pd/IRWIN-Unibit-Step-9-2X-Step-Bit/5001600747
If you don’t need it this season, you might be interested in this post:
Plus that thread has a lot of recommendations for reamers.
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1-1/8 step drill for a slip fit works well for us.
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Same. Been doing it this way for years. Never needed a tighter tolerance for our use case.
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For a closer fit, I’ve heard/seen that annular cutters can hold tolerance better than regular twist/step bits (and way, way better than hole saws). Will require an adapter to use in a drill press, but they are obtainable.
Certainly not a reamed/bored fit, but still an improvement?
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If a step drill is good enough then there’s little or no value in getting anything fancier or more expensive.
Might be better tbh since bearings are not perfectly sized
You may find this video useful. It shows the testing we did of making bearing holes using various tools in the drill press.
https://youtu.be/QijnQIwtcTw?si=ssEu1XlBSOVU65uz
We’ve had good luck with our Hougen Rotacut set. The arbor is $50 and then replacement cutters can be found from $25-40 and they last for a few years.
Most step bits are better the more you spend. The annular cutter has a higher startup price, but over time has been well worth it. I also like that the holes are perfectly straight every time and it doesn’t rely on drilling far through the part like a step drill requires. The annular cutter only cuts what you need and has no risk of missing the size by going to far or beveling edges. Just don’t try to use them in a hand drill…
That’s what we thought until I bought an annular cutter for the team and that thing is great especially when needing to have a bearing on both sides of a 2x1 or 2x2. Keeps perfect alignment. The downside is you do have to have a bridgeport or an adapter for a drill press.
If you are good at sharpening tools, you can also grind a step drill that has a 1.125 maximum down a couple thousandths for a tighter fit.
We tried one of these in a mill and it works okay. https://www.harborfreight.com/1-18-in-carbide-tipped-hole-cutter-57963.html
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