Todays Project - What did you do today?

[TomG]

I made this fun little taper reamer yesterday for a fixture I'm building for work. One of the parts required a tapered bore to accept a fine point Sharpie and the only way I could think to make a tapered bore that long was with a single flute reamer, or "D" drill. I used a piece of drill rod and turned the taper leaving a temporary full diameter section on the end. Then I grabbed it in the mill vise and milled the tapered section exactly to center to create a cutting edge, removed the temporary end and ground a little relief on the end so it would cut as well. Since the part getting reamed was aluminum and it was a one time use, there was no need to harden the reamer. I'm always amazed that these things cut but it worked like a champ.

Tom