turning a break drum

As long as you follow proper procedure, and stay within the limits cast/stamped into the drum or rotor, you'll be fine.

BUT, as kd said, they are so cheap now, replacement is just about as cheap as a little bit of machine time. Doing it for yourself is one thing,
but for others.....nahhh, replace them. In fact, I have a 98 Jeep GC Laredo that had really bad rotors on the front. Machined them several
times because of warpage, and less than 500 miles later you couldn't tell they had been machined. Later I learned there was a recall on them,
but I didn't know in time. I replaced them with aftermarket and they stayed flat. Cheap too.
 
Tony Wells said:
As long as you follow proper procedure, and stay within the limits cast/stamped into the drum or rotor, you'll be fine.

BUT, as kd said, they are so cheap now, replacement is just about as cheap as a little bit of machine time. Doing it for yourself is one thing,
but for others.....nahhh, replace them. In fact, I have a 98 Jeep GC Laredo that had really bad rotors on the front. Machined them several
times because of warpage, and less than 500 miles later you couldn't tell they had been machined. Later I learned there was a recall on them,
but I didn't know in time. I replaced them with aftermarket and they stayed flat. Cheap too.
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he had me worried to the point i went out and chucked a pinto drum up ; yes i said ford pinto lol still runs. but anyway i am running true on the jig by useing the indicator just over a 1000th is this good enough or should i try for better, there is no chatter and i use a 3/4 boring bar with a left hand faceing bit i think that is what you call the bit that way i dont run my saddle into the drum. when i first made this jig i was turnning a rotor off a chevy 2500 and allmost did that but caught it in time my drum was only a 1/4 away from my bed, so i am limited on rotor and drum size. all info is greatly appreciated
 
As long as it's true in both axes, that's plenty close for a drum. Just watch the max diameter allowance. It will overheat, possibly crack under braking pressure, and possibly allow the pistons to travel out too far from the wheel cylinder. All bad things to happen.
 
Tony Wells said:
As long as it's true in both axes, that's plenty close for a drum. Just watch the max diameter allowance. It will overheat, possibly crack under braking pressure, and possibly allow the pistons to travel out too far from the wheel cylinder. All bad things to happen.
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oh you can bet im gonna be more careful now than i was, dont want no uh o's:phew:
 
I am the local mechanic of the family and friends and would never put anyone in danger. New drums over here are a lot more than over their, and some of these people are struggling to stay a float. No one wants to pay the mechanics high prices so they come to me, and then I get some more tool money to spend.
I would never machine a drum if it's going to be past it's limits, but most have never been done or have plenty left. Like I said with the disc's, it's easier to take them somewhere or do them on car.

As for helping them with no money, I remember once my daughter and her boy friend ran there car out of oil and seized the overhead cam on one of the bearings and snapped the timing pulley dowel. They asked how much to fix it and I said a new head etc, etc and they said we don't have that sort of money. So I said I would fix it at no cost but no guarantees.
I then lined the timing marks up and took the cam out on the side of the road, took it home and put it in the lathe where I removed the aluminum off the journal and then used some emery to make it smooth. I returned to the car with a new machined dowel, a new 5ltr of oil and my battery drill with a drum sander on it and gave the head bearing and cap a light clean up. After cleaning it up I re installed it and it ran like that for 2 years without any problems. At the 2 year mark the radiator let go, warped the head , but they where a bit better off and bought a second hand head cheap.

A few months after fixing the cam they sprung a leak in the exhaust valve port of the aluminum head, about 1 1/2 inches in on the bottom. They went around to all the places to see if it could be welded, and got the answer of we cant get to it you need to buy a new head. So once again no cost, no guarantee (but they had nothing to loose anyway) I stuffed a wet rag down the port, cleaned it up with the die grinder and aluminum mig welded it up, this also held until they took it off.

I have been heavily into cars, machining etc for around 27 years and have a show truck here built from the ground up that has a mile of my own custom mods that are all engineer approved after inspection, so there is no way I would let something out the gate if I thought it was dangerous.
I have also done panel beating repairs right up to replacing nearly 1/4 of cars from accident damage for other people, and have done a few power steer conversions with chassis mods for people with the same truck as me that wanted it, as it's not available anywhere and they have seen mine at shows.
I have also built pantech bodies and tail gate loader for trucks, and they have all passed engineering.

I understand your concern about safety, but as you can see I am not just your average back yard guy endangering people, I have a lot of experience behind me.

As for machining brake drums, as long as they are lined up to run true in the lathe, there is nothing to it. The worst thing that could happen is they would be out of round and lock up the wheel, which you would find out on the first small drive.

Dave
 
Davo J said:
I am the local mechanic of the family and friends and would never put anyone in danger. New drums over here are a lot more than over their, and some of these people are struggling to stay a float. No one wants to pay the mechanics high prices so they come to me, and then I get some more tool money to spend.
I would never machine a drum if it's going to be past it's limits, but most have never been done or have plenty left. Like I said with the disc's, it's easier to take them somewhere or do them on car.

As for helping them with no money, I remember once my daughter and her boy friend ran there car out of oil and seized the overhead cam on one of the bearings and snapped the timing pulley dowel. They asked how much to fix it and I said a new head etc, etc and they said we don't have that sort of money. So I said I would fix it at no cost but no guarantees.
I then lined the timing marks up and took the cam out on the side of the road, took it home and put it in the lathe where I removed the aluminum off the journal and then used some emery to make it smooth. I returned to the car with a new machined dowel, a new 5ltr of oil and my battery drill with a drum sander on it and gave the head bearing and cap a light clean up. After cleaning it up I re installed it and it ran like that for 2 years without any problems. At the 2 year mark the radiator let go, warped the head , but they where a bit better off and bought a second hand head cheap.

A few months after fixing the cam they sprung a leak in the exhaust valve port of the aluminum head, about 1 1/2 inches in on the bottom. They went around to all the places to see if it could be welded, and got the answer of we cant get to it you need to buy a new head. So once again no cost, no guarantee (but they had nothing to loose anyway) I stuffed a wet rag down the port, cleaned it up with the die grinder and aluminum mig welded it up, this also held until they took it off.

I have been heavily into cars, machining etc for around 27 years and have a show truck here built from the ground up that has a mile of my own custom mods that are all engineer approved after inspection, so there is no way I would let something out the gate if I thought it was dangerous.
I have also done panel beating repairs right up to replacing nearly 1/4 of cars from accident damage for other people, and have done a few power steer conversions with chassis mods for people with the same truck as me that wanted it, as it's not available anywhere and they have seen mine at shows.
I have also built pantech bodies and tail gate loader for trucks, and they have all passed engineering.

I understand your concern about safety, but as you can see I am not just your average back yard guy endangering people, I have a lot of experience behind me.

As for machining brake drums, as long as they are lined up to run true in the lathe, there is nothing to it. The worst thing that could happen is they would be out of round and lock up the wheel, which you would find out on the first small drive.

Dave
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oh i wasnt implying that anyone was gonna hurt anybody i just wanted to make sure i didnt lol, i'm on a fixed income and when i can save a buck and do it safely i will lol, 29 yrs at one shop went in for a in and out surgery and landed in the hospital for a month cause the surgeons tool sliped and cut my spinal sac then it took them a week to get it to stop after 6 surgerys, now cant walk far have no feelings in arms legs back, but i am lucky i can still walk short distance hug my wife and kids and still tinker God is great:biggrin:
 
Thats fine, and thinking about, it is good you bring this up as just because someone owns a tool like a lathe, doesn't mean they can machine something properly and safe.

Really sorry to hear about you injury, I am in a similar boat with a broken disk in my neck, and it gets you down. The surgery made me worse than what it was when I went in as well.

Dave
 
Sorry for the off topic but Davo J I'd love to see some pics of your show truck, start a thread in the auto section and show us some of the machining you've done for it while you're at it.
 
hq308 said:
Sorry for the off topic but Davo J I'd love to see some pics of your show truck, start a thread in the auto section and show us some of the machining you've done for it while you're at it.
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that would be great
 
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