Sort of got a bit side tracked with the building of the new shed - but in the meantime I invested in some reamers.

Not being in anyway an 'engineer' this was a bit mysterious to me. Anyway - I found they were surprisingly cheap -

RGD Tools - rgdtools.co.uk - do a 5/8th 'hand reamer' for about £6 - and a huge range of 'adjustable' reamers.

( so why, he askes - is a taper reamer for a cello peghole, £ 80 ! )

So I got a 5/8th - and a tap holder as well - and got an adjustable which goes sort of'either side' of half inch, which is the conrod and propshaft bearing size. I figured an adjustable was better for 'sweetening' a binding bigend shell.

The hand reamer, as standard from RGD, is actually slightly undersized for the first 20mm or so, so it leads in. Also - and this is the important bit - the striaght shank above the cutters is exactly 5/8th - so the thing will go right down to the bitter end.

Its just right to go through both halves of a crankcase, so long as you run the reamer right down to the tap holder.

The adjustable ones - are odd. They have about six grooves with sliding cutters - as you alter the position of the nuts at either end, they gradually widen up, but stay parallel. The half inch was only £5 !

Other places list them at about double these prices - so doubless there is some choice on quality.

As you see - the reamer will pass right through both bearings, with the top shank being exactly 5/8, cutter size.

This is a 71 replacement crank half, but carries the proper serial lrtters for the model, ie, its a WSPCL. I'm keeping it with a Villiers Magneto, mainly because I don't have a spare Wipac one !