Anybody need rotors/ drums turned in the area?

[67Dart273]

Well I finally did it, good or bad.

Bought an Ammco disc/ drum lathe off Craigs, paid 550

I had also previously bought, fer not much, a drum - only lathe and old valve grinder pretty cheap, bottom photo. Between the two I think I have enough adaptors and tooling to get to work. We'll see, I guess if this was a smart move.

Planning to offer turning services "cheap." If I can recover the cost of the machine, thas' all I'm after

 

[Wylde1]

Cool. I've been wanting one of those forever. Never got around to finding one close. My previous 2005 Grand Caravan used to go through pads and rotors every couple months. I've got a box filled with old rotors. lol

But these days rotors are really cheap and they're already made to min. thickness, so any turning and they'll probably warp. Not like the good old days when rotors and drums had enough meat on them to take a cut or two off.

It's been about 10 years or so since I've let someone cut a rotor for me. Stupid kid didn't know how to true it in the lathe. Was cutting it all wrong and took too much off. He looked at me as he was cutting it and said , "man you musta had a really bad vibration from the brakes. Look how bad it is." I kindly informed him what he was doing wrong and he just gave me a blank look back. He had no idea what he was doing. :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:




Wylde1.

 

[CrazyPete]

nice score ive been wanting one bad i just keep watching cl looking for my score

 

[67Dart273]

Just got back from the shed. The bottom one, bought earlier and cheaper (I have 50-60 bucks into it) is configured as "drum only" IE has no power crossfeed

Originally I was going to buy a disc cutter, but they run 300-350 and up!!!! on th' bay, so I was thinking of building one, then simply hand feeding it.

But the earlier one ALSO had a much better selection of cones and centering hardware, something the latest did not have "all of" so between the two, I've got a good working machine, with very little clean-up, oiling, etc. Some of the cones are rusty, so I'll have to clean them up.

The neighbor n I got 'er in the shed, oohed n' aaawwed over it awhile.

 

[pishta]

Riddle me this: How do you turn a rear drum if the wheels are lug-centric?

 

[67Dart273]

Should have nothing to do with it. The hub/ drum must be concentric to the centerline of the axle, just like the wheel "should" be

 

[67Dart273]

Well today I cleaned up most of the centering cones and threw some chips on an old drum. I don't have a dampener rubber, so for now robbed an old bicycle tube. I'll have to get a dampener, there's no substitute for a good one. Robbed the work light off the other one I'd bought which is in poor shape. (Main shaft has been allowed to get really rusty.)

 

[ramcharger]

Damn, I remember using that exact same machine at the auto parts store 30 years ago. How are the bits? IIRC, they were ferociously expensive, even back then. New bits will cut down on the howling quite a bit, but yeah, the dampers are mandatory.