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Sunday, January 28, 2024

Is A Reamer Overkill?

One of the YouTube videos on tapping carbon fiber recommended drilling a. undersize hole then using a carbide reamer before using a carbide tap.  Yes, carbide for drill, reamer, and tap.  Carbon fiber composite wears out high speed steel quickly. 

Since I am sure some of you know: is the reamer step really needed?  The carbide reamers are both hard to find and expensive.  I had originally planned to use stainless steel 1/4"-20 and 6-32 fasteners.  The shear strength of 6-32 stainles screws is about 850 pounds.  Nothing on this mount will have such demands.  The 1/4"-20 fasteners are completely unneeded (4687 pounds).  There is no need for this strength so 6-32 everywhere.  This reduces the number of cutting tools.

1 comment:

  1. Probably overkill at that size. But because of the fibrous nature of the material, I guess the thinking is it might keep the tips of the threads from being ragged.

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