What is this tool?

[J.C.]

This one has me stumped... it looks like it goes in a chuck - has witness marks that look like that - and reminds me a bit of a tap, but it's not tapered. The female threaded part is jammed on tight - I'm presuming it comes off - so it's currently soaking in penetrant.

Has some imperial sizes on it - 2?/32 to 2?/32, and "MELB". I could guess it was made in Melbourne..? Anyone?

The thread doesn't look like it is continuous - and the female part has two flat spots for spanners at 90 degrees to each other, on either end.

 

[oldgoaly]

an adjustable reamer, cleans up and over sizes bushings. sizes marked on it are for minimum and maximum sizes it can ream, most of the time there would be 6-12 in a set.

 

[BuffettFan]

^^^^
Yup.

View media item 91969

 

[larry_g]

As said that is an adjustable reamer. If you look close you will see that the groves in the body are at an angle so when you loosen the upper nut and tighten the lower nut the cutting blades move up the groves and also out from the center of the tool effectively enlarging the OD of the cutter blades and allowing to ream a larger diameter. Used a lot back in the day when hand 'fitting' a pin to a bore. I still have some and use them when I don't have a proper sized fixed reamer.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Milton Shaw]

Instead of ball joints or struts older pickups and cars had kingpins and bushings. Bushings were pressed into the spindle and then reamed to size with that type reamer to fit the kingpin. Then Ford came out with plastic bushings in F100 and up and cars started having ball joints and those became just about useless. Most tractor trailers still have kingpin and bushings I think but those are much larger than that one.

 

[2oolhound]

Looking at this adjustable reamer isn't it thrashed? It has to shave off a few thou of an inch so the blades need to be very precise to one another in depth. Adjustables cut further along the length than chucking reamers. The blades need a slight leading edge making them difficult to sharpen without good dedicated grinders. Manufacturers usually offer sharpening services or sell replacement blades but even the slots are pitted on that reamer. If you're patient you can find quality reamer sets in good shape for about $100.

 

[J.C.]

Thanks guys, that answers that. Learn something new every day!