using a brake lathe as a regular lathe

ok so I test fitted my different rear drums on my van and they need to be machined a bit to work, i need to cut the hub to drum mounting surface down, I had a brain storm to use my brake lathe at work to do it, the hub is shapped like a * star kinda so the mating surface is not continous, i nabbed this picture off the internet pretend the axle bolt holes are for wheel studs. anyone know if a brake lathe will turn something like that? i am going to buy the bits so if i ruin them theres no harm, but will I be able to cut down something like that without hurting the machine? what do y'all think?

 

Opinion only - it would seem that the bit impacting the surface (after passing through the air) would snap the bit right off

 

You can get tool bits with more impact resistance than what would be used for a constant cut in cast iron,,,, but,,,it would probably be more trouble than worth,,,,

 

OOPs, I read that backwards the first time and thought you were going to cut out the hole in the drum.

If you are going to cut down the outside surface of that part of the hub a bit I don't see a problem as long as you don't try to take too big of a cut.

Start out with a minimal clean up cut and probably only go .005 at a time and make a lot of passes.

 

I don't see why it wouldn't work, take it slow.

 

Do you have a picture of the actual part? The one in the picture would get real thin aroung the bearing if you cut thru all of the bolt holes. If you can get enough travel out of the lathe you should be able to do it.

 

After reading Gerry's post I do have to ask how much material are you planning on taking off the hub?

As long as you take very small cuts at a time I don't think it will be a problem. Probably no rougher on the bit than trying to take hard spots out of a flywheel or rotor.

 

if this were true you would not be able to turn drilled and slotted rotors on a brake lathe.

 

It's all about speed and depth here. Go slow and use the right tool steel you'll have no problems. A bridgeport would be better but what you have will work.


Tim

 

Could you turn the inside diameter of the drum, it may be easier on the equipment.

 

i think what he means is to make the hub smaller to fit the drum he wants to use, so cutting the drum hub diameter larger is not possible on most brake lathes because the hub centering equipment fills that hole for cutting drums. cutting the hub isn't difficult on a brake lathe, we did it a lot to remove rust up in salty-road Virginia.

 

Only consideration would be surface speed. Might be a little low that far into the center

 

Ive used my brake lather to machine ford hubs for buick drums before, also used it to cut the buick drum itself to fit the ford backing plate, and had a buddy that needed to take some fins off the outside of the buick drums too, it works just fine, the problem is the machines cranks arent as slow as a normal lathe so if you going for a id or od mod its harder to get it right on, if your just take some material off the surface and if you take .010 or .015 and it dont matter it will work fine, my lather also has s feed speed adjustment so you can slow it dont pretty slow, works good.

jeff

 

It will work no problem. I have done so many unusual things with my Ammco. Going over bolts holes, you can't even hear it. Smooth as silk because they are very beefy machines.

There are many different bit holders for Ammco's to do different things, at different cutting angles.

 

well i figured it wouldn't be a problem, I wish i had a picture of the hub, what i am doing in essence is the same as cutting a rotor on one side only, and the rotor looks like a 5 puck racing clutch. I was planning on taking off .003 at a time, i just bought a set of 12 bits for it so my work wont yell at me if i ruin the bit(s). and since they tell me they buy them for $40 a piece I may sell most of them to the company and keep a few for my personal stash for my customers. the lathe is a acuturn, are they decent lathes too?

 

If you can not cut it with a brake tool, use a good file as you turn it with the machine. Measure carefully with o/s caliper so you do not go too far.

 

Pretty much how life works, isn't it?

 

Years ago I took apart a slipping Mopar Sure-Grip rear diff and cut the cones down in a brake lathe to fit tighter in the cups (with stronger springs). Worked very well.

 

well an update, its working slowly but surely, taking off .007 at a time is as deep as I wanna go, 55rpm on the dial, its taking forever! but its working, thanks for the file idea paleot, cant get the bit into the very inside of the hub so I am going to have to finish up with a file, spent 4 1/2 hours yesterday after work on the brake lathe, I still have .550 to go till its done, but were gettin there.. WOO!