[Woodwind instruments making] making reamers

[Christophe Mineau]

Here is my second article about woodwind instrument making, it's about reamers, straight and conical.
Here again, the information is very difficult to find on the web, I hope this will help some beginner makers.


I explain two different technics, the one I used before I had a mill, and the preferred one, with a mill.

In English : Tapered Reamers

In French : Alésoirs coniques

In terms of tooling, there are interesting new stuff showed in this article :

- A spreadsheet for establishing a machining plan for roughing out a cone with steps :
Spreadsheet

- How to make any profile reamer, especially when copying an existing instrument, not really conical :



- My sort of tournebroche for holding the reamer while grinding the flute

- Very useful info : the fixture for holding the blank reamer for milling the flute.
Believe me, I have used several of them, this one is the most efficient and versatile for different sizes


- example of straight reamer, with three flutes:



- How to sharpen, raise the burr


- example of finished reamers :