How did you done it? My 59 Pontiacs drums feels little unround.I and machinist try to put them in lathe with hub (i´m talking front drums).No can do.There is no enough machnined surface to attach it properly.Next thing came mind was taking the drums out of hubs, big mistake! Nice amount of oxyacetylene based heat and gentle force of hydraulic press.Result? Really bad warped center cection of drum.Cause new drums didn´t exactly grow in trees atleast here, i wonder, what the heck.If it goes warped with press, it will go straigth in press and indeed after few hours of trying and pation the drum is again allmost perfectly round.
The old US brake drum lathes have the proper adapters to fit in the bearing races in the hub. When you remove the drum from the hub, you must first grind off the deformed (swaged) metal around the studs, then press each stud out of the hub, using a pipe under the hub. After the studs are removed, the drum will come off the hub easily. At least that is how I've always done it.
you need a brake drum lathe and someone that knows how to operate it...notice the anti chatter belt on this one while it is trued. The drum is turned with the drum still attached to the hub. If you do replace the drum on a used hub...the proper procedure is to turn the drum once it is mounted to the old hub
Tommy is dead on....find someone with the proper equipment that knows how to use it. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Hopefully you can find a parts store that has a brake drum lathe or a repair shop. Being in Finland may make it harder.HRP
HRP brings a good point it's getting harder to find shops that actually turn drums anymore, I know our brake lathe at work very rarely gets used anymore. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
yes, you have to center on the hub bearing races. when i turn a drum still mounted on a hub i put a couple washers over each stud and tighten down the lug nuts on backwards. i feel this helps hold the hub/drums together
Damnit!! Missed the part that he is in Finland....that would make it even more challenging I'm assuming. I hope he gets it figured out. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Well, in these days it dont make much of difference where you are, texas or finland.Old brake drum lathes are gone long times ago. I did try to mock up some alternatives witch i got in my junkpile/treasuresource... 85 pontiac safari rear drum is allmost perfect fit, saddly its 1/4 inch too narrow.82 c10 pick-up hd rear drum is wide enough but offset is 1/2 inch wrong.Dammit. I was thinking.. Take one c10 rear axle shaft and made thin spacer so the drum center section wont matter and it how i say it, sits tightly.This way it could asset perfectly in normal lathe? I mean in very near of center, there is a little area that is outer and it will not sit straight if you just bolt the drum backwards in axle flange. Hope you understand, english is not my origin language.
No one around here turns drums any more. I have some drums and some rotors that I could save if I could just find a brake lathe, even if no one wanted to turn them for me. Oh I meant to say Pontmerc sorry you screwed your drums up, hope it work out for ya. Maybe next time ask before you take a hot wrench to anything.
Just one drum.And like i told, i press it again and made it allmost perfectly round again.So no major damage was made. Still thinking how to got them attached properly in lathe to turn them absolutely round. Thank you all for the tips so on..
Most lathes these days are a disc/drum combo. The best bet is to find an old shop with an Ammco drum lathe, truck shops may have them too. If you're slick, they can be done on a big enough engine lathe with a little tooling made up.
Not to mention that the cutting bits on a brake drum lathe are different than standard tooling for machine work.
If I were going to try to turn a front drum/hub in a normal lathe, I'd probably make some adapters to turn it on centers. The adapters don't have to be too complicated, some type of disk with a tapered outer edge to put between the center and the bearing race.
Make up a couple of mild-steel bearing adapters. Just follow suit from whatever you've seen on an old drum lathe. Hold the outer adapter in a chuck (or turn a 1" arbor on it and use a collet), load the drum, place the inner adapter in place and hold with the tail stock. But you have to have a lathe with a 12" swing to do most drums.
Try a shop that does over the road trucks, springs and brakes plus axle bending for correct caster and camber. Most of the over the road trucks still use leaf springs, solid axles and drum brakes no matter which country you are in.
even we in the big truck industry use slide on drums now ( and some disc brake ) the old hub drum days are over as they want them light and often they are burned too much or worn past limits to cut . and the lathe spindle is a little large to fit a car hub on they are often 3" in diameter as we cut them with the tire attached to the hub assy . around here OSha put a crimp on cutting drums as they want a dust collector for possible asbestoes fibers .
Here too, in fact we still teach it as part of the apprenticeship program, even though no one does it regularly there are still machines in the corner of most shops.
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