Flex-Hone - anyone familiar with?

[lobust]

Anyone used these before? Or maybe something similar.

Quoting a job right now that we usually send out for deep boring. This one is shorter than normal so considering doing it in house. 25mm hole through about 350mm, 17-4PH H1150. Hole needs a suitable surface for strain gauge mounting. We do not have any honing equipment.

Thinking to drill with a Tungaloy DeepTri drill, which claims surface finishes in the ballpark of 1.2μRA (somewhere between 32 and 64 μin).

Would one of these be at all capable of polishing the hole up a bit or would I be wasting my time? If it's good, about how long would it be likely to take on a hole that size and deep?

 

[Mud]

I use them for automotive stuff, occasionally in the machine shop. I think it will do what you want, but I'd ask the application engineers at Brush Research, they can probably give you chapter and verse on grits and processes to get the size and finish you need.

 

[Carbidebob]

We call them "Dingle-berries".
Time should be around a minute or less.
Unlike a fixed stone hone they leave a very, very small radius at each end of the bore so no burr.
(actually not a true radius , know as a waterfall edge)
Aslo unlike a stone they will not straighten or fix geometry or roundness problems.
Very handy tool. Use oil.
Bob

 

[g-coder05]

Very handy tool. Use oil.

Just NOT in the CNC. Went into a shop once that was running loop M99 G1’s and before each hone they had a squirt gun with some of that honing oil with kerosene. When the regular coolant came on it was all I could do to keep from vomiting.

Unlike a fixed stone hone they leave a very, very small radius at each end of the bore so no burr.

^^^^^
If you need a sharp edge avoid these or make sure all the balls stay in the hole. When Yamaha came out with the sleeveless aluminum watercraft blocks I tried to hone a scored cylinder and rolled the edges over. This new aluminum cylinder technology was brilliant on the manufactures part. Kill a cylinder and now instead of a $50 sleeve you have to buy a new block!

 

[lobust]

Thanks for the input guys.