I repair old condensate and vacuum pumps, primarily those used for old steam plants for building heating. Many of these old pumps use old style packing box type shaft seals.

Many times the packing box bores in the cast iron housings develop a corrosion build up that prevent the compression gland from entering the bore to compress the packing rings. As part of my repair work, I have to clean out this build up so the compression gland will enter this bore.

So far, I've been using abrasive flap wheels in a high speed die grinder and this will usually get the job done in a good enough sort of way, but not always.

I'd really like to come up with a hand rotated cutting tool for this job, but need some guidance as to how it might be constructed.

Case in point, a 2.137" packing box bore that is approximately 3" deep.

I'm hoping to find a small tool and cutter grinding shop that could make a hand reamer to this dimension, but no luck with that idea so far.

My dream solution would be a vertical milling machine with boring tool in an adjustable boring head. Problem is, I just don't have room for even a small vertical mill. Other problem is, sometimes I have to do this work at a job site where a vertical mill is not available.

Thanks all. Lots of good ideas here to consider.

For the example cited, the bottom of the stuffing box bore has a shaft sleeve hole of slightly more than 1.5", so the expanding adjustable hand reamer may be worth a try.

In any event, while it would be nice to clean out the entire stuffing box bore, what is really needed is to clean out the first 1/2" of depth so the compression gland will enter freely.

Thanks again.