Peghead Bushing Reamers

Nice tool, I like the control it adds, even when used in a hand drill. But you need a .442 or .443. .440 is too tight when working with very hard wood as was the case with my maple neck. Pressing the bushings was a little bit more challenging than it needed to be. This is quarter sawn maple, so the potential for splitting was very real. Luckily that didn't happen. A slightly larger diameter reamer would be just the thing for this type of situation.

Great tools. Simple and accurate, but to be complete the set needs an off-sized reamer of .380

I bought the whole set of these bushing reamers - this week I had two mandolins and a very old uke banjo in for repair and new tuners . One was an ancient bowl back 'neapolitan' mandolin. I bought new tuners and one of these cut the bushings so perfectly I was awe struck - bit of masking tape around the bit to give me an accurate depth check and it cut so fine. Just perfect. Not sure you can see it in this picture but it is perfect.

This bushing reamer works perfect! I would much rather ream the bushing area and leave the rest of the smaller hole for support on the tuner shaft rather than do what many others do and just open the complete hole up to the bushing size. The cutters are of excellent quality and cuts are smooth and percise. The bushings pushed in by hand and were seated with a light tap of a dead blow for a perfect snug fit. Nice tool StewMac!

Bought one of these to install Grover Sta-Tites and it cut very clean and true with no heat using my mini-mill. RPM was about 750 or so on a mahogany headstock. One can also flip the neck over and c'bore a little .060 deep clearance pocket for the small washer on the mounting face of these tuners for a flush fit. Good geometry on the cutting edges, good material, and good price for a quality tool. Would recommend to anyone and would buy again.

Perhaps Stew-Mac could offer a TicN coated version as well in the future for more abrasive woods?

These peghead bushing reamers are the absolutely perfect tool for this job. After using this, the bushings on my tuning machines fit perfectly, and could be pressed in by hand to a snug fit, without risking a crack in the peghead. Well worth it.

Essential tool

title says it all.

It is unbelievably expensive to have a stepped drill bit made these days and even if you have the money and find a machinist to do it well, it is far more likely to chip the fragile Ebony headstock overlay... furthermore you will only have one size. This takes just a couple minutes longer and the cut is absolutely clean and perfect. Furthermore it is always best to go ahead and do a stepped hole rather than using one larger diameter hole and not locking in the back. This way you can be sure that the tuner will be lined up and secure.

Just be sure to ream the 1/4" hole enough so that ppossible humidity changes down the road don't cause the back hole to tighten onto the shaft too much and cause tuner grab or malfunction. I have started using these on all my builds. Superb job guys! Keep up the good work.

You can't do without em!