Excellent process used. We live in a 'throw away world' and the art of engineering is slowly dying off, however, as seen in this video the working life of a brake disc can be extended if engineered correctly. The obvious benefits are less cost when compared to a new disc, less waste and the feeling of job satisfaction. It's a pity other people don't appreciate the process and skill used to engineer the discs as shown here. In summary, good explanations of the process used and the most critical point is that the process makes the car safer to drive
Yes I hate to see brake discs and stuff being trashed just because the have a few rings of rust on them. If you have the skills this is a great thing to do.
I’m about to embark on similar, but my lathe is much too small. Fortunately I have a decent sized mill that I’ve just trued up the ways on, so making an arbor to mount in a BT40 facemill arbor will be this week’s job on the lathe. And for those saying it’s a cheap part, it isn’t if you buy rotors that are made from decent metal, these stop much better even when warped/hot spotted and are worth resurfacing.
Was also thinking of building an adapter for this , But I found a way to do this on the lathe ,The center hole is clamped on the outside jaws of a 3 jaw chuck and indicated with a dial gauge , resurface the face then turn the large diameter in the rotor "this is for a true surface with the turned rotor face at 90 degrees for clamping in the chuck " Then turn the rotor to complete using the outside jaws and indicate then resurface . Works well for me !
Wicked cool British Made Steel Big Blue Shop vice in video! No doubt made of melted down bits of Surplus WW2 Enfield MK3's and recycled bumpers of old Austins! I could tell it was English because of the Embossed printing on the side!Also if you look Very closely the Vice is wearing a small Bowler Hat and is carrying an Umbrella! "Ripper" Video ! Cheers Mate!
Good day Bernie. Thanks for the perceptive comment. As you say the vice is dam cool.. I hadn't noticed the embossed design details as well as you! Peace, Bongo.
Excellent video! If I could add my 0.02c worth. When you're running the lathe tool across the face of the disc you are essentially introducing a 'thread' or spiral like pattern to the surface. When the brake pads are applied they will try to 'screw' into (or out from) the center. This can cause squealing until the the discs burnish in again - sometimes they keep squealing. I've adapted a home made chuck grinder with a 3" sanding disc attached and finish the brake disc face with an omnidirectional pattern - sort of a hone finish. That seems to fix the issue.
lots of critical comments like all RUclips video's. I, for one, appreciate your effort and thank you for the video. I intend to do the same thing, it was good to see someone else's approach.
Most brake discs rotors have the minimum thickness cast into them in a area that is not important. Sometimes very hard to find depending on the amount of rust they have. Otherwise like you said, check with automotive dealer. Good job. Been watch a bunch of your videos and enjoying them very much. Keep up the good work. Cheers Willy
As a machinist in the navy, I often resurfaced both discs and drums for the command vehicles. I made a jig for doing both sides of the disc without having to remove the disc insuring both sides were parallel.
@@FloweringElbow I had the luck of being able to choose from a 5" lathe all the way up to a 48" gap lathe so don't feel bad if you are limited. Keep up the good work and always think safety. In my experience it's not the operator that gets hurt the most but those around them. I was taught never to remove my hand from the chuck ky until ot was out of the chuck, preferably back in the holder provided for it. On our lathes that was usually a piece of angle with a hole in it bolted somewhere on the bed.
Holy cow! That is a lot of time and effort to resurface your rotors! Most garages or auto parts stores will resurface your rotors for a nominal fee. However, as a former mechanic, we generally would replace rotors with the pads because they are relatively inexpensive and helps insure the brake job won't come back on you because of a pulsation in the brake pedal. Besides, we recycled all of our scrap metals.
I clamped mine backwards in a 4-jaw chuck and trued them up with my indicator on the inside mounting surface. I was then able to turn both sides without having to take the disc out and turn it around.
a used hub flange can be used to bolt the disc to the lathe Even a new one would be cheap enough to invest in as a tool for resurfacing discs, you could add extra pcd patterns and use spigot rings to centre other discs.
Good job! Not sure if it’s been mentioned elsewhere but it may prove of value to mark/spray a thin layer of say red paint on the low-point (or even over the entire surface of the disc if the low-points and concentrical over the entire surface). That way (as you are skimming more and more across the entire surface of the disc with each pass) it should serve as a visual indicator as the paint mark will progressively disappear. You should be able to see the paint even when the disc is rotating at speed; when you have skimmed low enough to approach the low-point by then the paint would have almost disappeared completely. At that stage you will then have to rely on your micrometer to measure how close you are to being done. In effect it should speed up the beginning part of the skimming process with less risk of accidentally over-skimming between measurements. I hope this proves of value.
No disrespect here but I do have a suggestion. I have turned rotors almost the same way you do. You had me till after you faced off the steel tubing. Lol. I also chuck a piece of steel tubing in the lathe and face it off but then, I put the outside of the rotor up to it and run a bull nose live center up to it to hold it in place. And it's also centered up. Then you can take both cuts in the same setup and avoid rotor runout from multiple setups. Hope this helps. 👍
An excellent video. It shows what can be done by a skilled person who has all the neccessary equipment. Me, I would have to go to Autozone and buy the rotors.
I was trying to figure out what was the problem you just now sorted the problem out for me thank you very much for your important video I'm really impressed I'll be on the case this weekend to grind my
Great video, especially when the cat makes an appearance. When making the final light (finishing) cut, how did you know that the lathes tool slide (compound rest) is 90`deg to the lathe axis?
Hi Peter, thanks for watching friend. I didn't know the compound was square, but I wasn't using that to make the cut, but the lathe's cross slide that should be fairly well fixed at 90 to the bed of the lathe.
Well done video! I own a lathe big enough to do this but I think I will just get new rotors. I have resurfaced the brake rotors for my airplane but those were small disks that didn't need any fixture to mount them in the three jaw chuck.
This could be easily done on 3 jaw chuck without the need of spending hours making fixtures etc. Just put it in a Lathe and clock the hub surface true and skim the disk. Then turn round and clock the surface you just turned and skim other side. Done. Just done it last night on 3 jaw Lathe. Took me 20 minutes and all vibration under braking is gone now.
I can beat that Martin. The best way I have found to turn these is to chuck a piece of steel tubing, 3 to 4 inches in diameter with a wall thickness at least a 1/2" to 3/4" thickness, face it off, put the outside of the brake rotor up to it and run a bull nose center up to it. Then you can take both cuts in one set up and avoid the risk of rotor runout from multiple setups. 😉
Dear Friend, I have done something similar to this that you show but only to remove heavy rust scale, however, To give good service life the surface must be made smooth like a ground surface. The surface you leave will not stop well and tear- up the linings/pads and shorten the service life.
That is a lot of machining just to make an adapter to fit one car. I know a good shop, with a brake lathe, another friend of mine gave me a set of spare rotors, and I had them machined for 15 pounds each. New rotors will be 50,60 pounds each. Normally, I do not even bother to machine them, if you get to the brakes before it went metal to metal. The ridge where the pads do not touch, I just remove it with a hand grinder.
I have machined several discs and drums with no problems, just bare in mind as others have said about minimum thickness. I made my arbour differently to yours. I welded my mounting flange onto the middle of a fairly stout round bar, then machined the whole thing between centres. That way I could mount the disk, machine one face and just turn the arbour round and machine the other side. Don't suppose it saved any money but it gave me satisfaction. Keep up the good work.
I have the old wheel hubs from when I did the rear bearings on my 03 mountaineer. If I had a lathe, they would be perfect as a fixture for turning rotors.
I appreciate your work and your idea to recycle!! But I don't have a $3000 lathe and can afford to buy one to save $25-40 USD for a rotor. :) I LIKED!! the video!
Looks like your making this a very complicated job. But what do I know I never turned anything bigger than 10cm on my lathe. You're result is great and that's what matters.
Maybe I am over complicating my description. Essentially all I am doing though is chucking up a mini face-plate (the fixture) that can be trued to the lathe and then bolting each brake rotor to it.
I use a grinder , while rotors are on vehicle . Not sure if just shitter cast or always had so many inclusions , but fixed about ten over the years. Just lift and block front end , take caliber a off and wire tie for support. Can manually spin and grind or let car idle as you grind high spots. Not saying it's best method, but saved my father in laws 700-880 US by grinding his front rotor . Shop would swap out both and add brakes and time.
I miss being a Machinist and performing this type of work. I'm in Info Technology now but eventually will buy me a lather and would like to start making money turning parts for profit
Cut both faces at once(2 tools), that's how an actual brake lathe does it....and it uses a big rubber band around the outside diameter to reduce harmonic vibration......
After machining the first part you could have turned the other side with a left hand side tool with out turning the disc and like that you will be 100% sure the faces are parallel thats how I do it never had any problems!!!!
Good afternoon John. Thanks for this. I have a question though, do you have a very large capacity lathe? For me the carriage won't fit past the brake rotor as it only just fits on without touching the ways...
I assume this is your workshop at home... This is a hobby, a pastime or a way of saving money. Then good for you. If you are trying to make money you may have a way to go. There are better ways of doing it but the result was good, you enjoyed it and you saved a few quid.
The bottom line is as follows 35£ for electric-Mig consumables-wear and tear plus his labour-minus 27£ for a set of new discs= Loss 40..i still cannot see any win win here...
@@dkaloupis75 true for one application, but just three times and he is coming ahead by far, let alone peace of mind and being done the right way "by yourself"..plus he can help some friends and family and that is priceless!
Hello sir, your video was interesting to watch and do some learning from! We had a longtime family friend who was a mechanic, machinist and tool maker at his home shop his entire life. If he didn't have the tool, he made it! Unfortunately, he passed away several years ago but the memories of his shop, work and spending time around him will last forever. I'm curious, what is the size of your lathe? I'm getting ready to purchase one for my shop and don't want to spend the big money only to find out that I didn't do my homework and ended up buying a tool that's not large enough to fabricate or repair pieces on. I'd definitely like the lathe to have the ability to turn automotive rotors on but will use it for ATV and ATC parts. Thank you!!
I much prefer the on car resurfacing. Because it cancels the imperfections of the wheel hub too. With new ceramic pads, hybrids and electrics, rotor wear is not a big problem anymore. 150 000 km on my W202 c class, with just half worn ceramics pads, rot wear being less than 0.2mm the car will be junked before another rotor change. 500 000 km pads/rotor on hybrids is common. Regenerative braking is more than enough for most normal driving on flat land. Brakes are now mostly for emergency braking. As for the price, just don't buy them from the dealer, there are much cheaper and better ones for most cars. Go for low dust low wear ceramic pads they might be more expensive but the last way longer to more than compensate (I experienced ATE's and EBC)
The reason people replace their rotors is because it’s only a few dollars more to buy them then it is to resurface them. The two other issues are 1) after resurfacing them they become thinner which in itself can cause warping of the disc 2) the spaces between both surfaces are there to dissipate the heat from the friction of braking. They become rusted and can’t dissipate the heat which can also cause warping of the disc. Usually each rotor is stamped with the minimum thickness they must have to be useable. Better off tossing them and buying a cheap set of new ones if you ask me. I do like your setup you designed for turning your rotors. Pretty resourceful.
Totally agree. In addition these discs are your only option to stop a car. In case of an emergency brake a force of about 10kN is applied to all 4 discs (1,5t car, 60->0mph) - and usually they are not just thrown away the metal is recycled. I'm not even going to touch how your insurance might think about it.
@@jeffreyplumber1975 I’ve never had any troubles with new brake discs. Old ones tend to warp because of the rust that usually fill the holes for cooling on the rotor. Turned used rotors are less efficient and prone to warping.
@@jeffreyplumber1975 I’ve never had a bad disc when I’ve bought the cheap ones. I’ve seen turned rotors warped more than a few times. Besides, all the time it takes to get a small portion of the rust and blockage you can’t get rid of hampers them from cooling off. For a few bucks more you get a fresh disc. Makes a lot more sense to me and I’ve been doing it for 30 years. That’s gotta say something right?
You remind me of Wil E Coyote. Spends $25,000 on equipment to catch a bird that is worth about $50. Just joking. I am impressed with your equipment and talent. Cheers.
I used to turn brake rotors and drums when I was a kid at my dads auto repair shop. They just don’t make them like they used to. Pads have become more reliable with so many different types, but it’s so much cheaper to just buy new rotors and pads no Adams for what shops charge to turn them.
We always buffed over the rotor with a surfacing disc on and air tool after it was cut and still spinning to give a semi non directional finish to help seat the new pads.
I like your setup nice job! I want to get a regular lathe, I only have access to the type for doing rotors and drums and its very limited being a shaft mount style and not a jaw vise style although I have rigged up somethings on it to machine besides rotors and drums but it is difficult.
As always people want to make things complicated. Simply jack up the front of the car, remove everything except the rotors. Brace the steering wheel with a 2x4, now start the engine and hold down the pedal until you see the speedometer reach 100 mph. Hold the peda downl with a piece of wood. Safety first, wear heavy duty glove and eye protection. Attach sand paper to a flat surface and press against the rotor firmly, do this repeatedly until you have a smooth surface. Turn off engine flip the rotors repeat the process.
Appreciate the skill and ingenuity involved; however, if you need to pay a mechanic to do this, the time involved will cost far more than buying replacement rotors. It’s simple economics based on the cost of labor.
You can replace the bolt by pushing a plate against the disc with a live center. Only need to turn the register diameter and face, I use old engine pistons for that. If you mark the orientation, it can even be rechucked in a 3 jaw chuck and still run true enough.
Nice tutorial - Adnd I am particularly glad to see you had proper guidance under the shop supervisor!!! You may want to cover the ways of the lathe with cloths prior to doing this as the cast rion, as you mentioned, is not good for them!!! Keep up the great videos! PS I don't care where your from black cats are good luck!!!
I work at a VW workshop in Sweden. If the brake disc is bad we throw it away, but its because we dont have a lathe, and still the cost of the labour would still exceed the cost of brand new discs. We cost about 2000 SEK + 25% tax an hour wich i think is about 170 dollars an hour + tax. But if you have a lathe and you either have it as a hobby or a really low labour cost its probably worth it depending on how bad the disc is. I have actually taken a few throwaway discs from work to use as training material on my own small hobby lathe.
I was just on the local sale listings looking at lathes, I thought jeepers I'm gonna have to buy a lathe, make an adapter, nope, better head to RUclips. Perfect a DIY, haha still gotta buy a lathe and make an adapter! I was waiting for you to surface it in the back yard on an old axle spun up with a clapped out scooter. Anything specific I should look for in a lathe to do this specifically?
Good day Kris. If you want to do this specifically you will need a lathe with enough 'swing' (room between the ways and the spindle centre). But really there are tons of other things to look for in a lathe - check for play everywhere ;) Good luck :D
Hey. I'm a noob, but I'm curious to find out why you did not think it was necessary to resurface the internal hat surface, that which makes contact with the hub. Thanks!
Hi -- . It was some time ago now, but I believe I was using that as the master reference surface, I was cutting all other faces to... Hope that helps, Bongo.
This is very logical and straightforward. I have a crazy suggestion. Do you think you could make a 3D printed fixture to spin the rotor and then do the cleaning with a rigidly mounted but lightly cutting angle grinder?
Nice money saver. One extra thing I would have done though, which is to use the dial indicator to mark the high and low spots before removing the discs from the car. It is reassuring to find the same spots, with the same runout when you chuck the discs up. If there is a big difference, there is another problem, maybe in the hub.
Much as this is an admirable exercise and doubtless a satisfying short term gain, I never practice cheese-paring when it comes to brakes, steering and suspension. When the vehicle containing all your precious family are heading for the back of another at 70 and braking hard, your saving of a couple of hundred quid for another year or two pales into insignificance ... For myself, I would cheerfully replace the lot with OEM parts and count the money well spent. I defend to the death your right to do otherwise. Interesting upload. Thank you.
Think I'll have to leave this to the professionals who will probably charge me more than the cost of new discs hence why most people bin the old and replace with new.
Its not only the tools involved for this Job but the Time it takes to do it. Most discs average £25 a side.... Its not worth my time to do it when the delivery driver can get here almost as fast.
@@digitalacid My rotors are $290 a pair. I plan to bring in a stack of used ones to a shop and see if I can get a bulk discount. The majority of the time is setting up the tools to machine one... once that is done, the other 6 or 8 should go quickly.
It looks like you got it 100% true. Meaning there is zero run out on rotor. With zero runout on rotor now wat kicks your brake pads back into calipers. With zero runout you’ll boil your brake fluid. Your pads will not kick away from rotor thus heat warping them thus just a simple wire wheel to your old rotors is well sufficient until you need to cough up the 20-30$ for a new rotor
@@FloweringElbow Usually it's embossed, not stamped(sometimes in the "HAT" area, or on the outside diameter). That being said, a lot of new cars are coming thru with "disposable" or, 1 time use brake rotors. Older stuff, or 4wd stuff has apx .090" for "use" The manufacturers intend for the first set of pads to wear off apx .030", the re-surfacing to take apx .030", and the last .030" for the 2nd set of pads before needing replacement of the rotor. Usually once you go under that MIN size, you'll get the dreaded warpage(pedal pulsating under foot or, steering wheel shimmying to and fro)........my 2 pennies
Ghetto way of doing it that I did yesterday, was take wheels off the car at the front, put on stands. Start the engine and put in gear, then use an angle grinder with a grinding disk to go backwards and forwards over the disk surface a few times. Worked just fine, then just lightly buzzed the pads to get rid of the ridges on those.
All lathe bearings have some play it varies a double adjustable cutter system assures accuracy of equal variances of the lathe bearings,so if it's off it will still be equal to both sides perfectly,and no humpty hump
Good evening Alvin. Thanks, you make a good point. In an ideal world you would cut both sides at once. On my lathe there is no room to fit the cross slide between the rotor and the lathe ways though. Happy new year.
It’s a lot easier to leave the rotor on the vehicle and just use a grinding disk on a angle grinder and one should always mike the thickness of the rotor to make sure it is within safety limits which is stamped in the rotor hub most of the time
Hi Adam, thanks for the question. Not 100% sure but think I was going about 200rpm for for first cuts and 50 for final skim. About 0.04mm/rev ... it worked but may have been way slower than necessary? Cheers, Bongo.
After considering many projects over the past couple of years a lathe would definitely suit me better than a mill. Just keep on the local machinery for sale ads in your state and you can find some deals sometimes. Remember you'll spend a good bit on tooling as well so look for a combo deal.
Scrap cast iron isn't really worth anything, roughly $0.05 USD per lb (one kilo is 2.2 lbs). If you wanted to scrap them yourself, or had a use for a rusted up chunk of iron, I'm sure they would return them to you if you asked, but most people would rather just let the mechanic get rid of the old ones rather than bother with them.
A bit of advice for machining your own brake rotors/discs, make sure you get the brake rotor/disc machining tolerances BEFORE you machine them. BEWARE, if you machine too much material off, you can cause a loss of stopping power or COMPLETE BRAKE FAILURE, which will result in severe bodily injury or a tragic fatality. So do your research before attempting this type of machine work.
These days I guess most rotors are blanchard ground, instead of turned. But turned worked for decades and I see no reason it won't give acceptable results now.
I'm assuming you have never heard of a brake lathe that is not only designed to do this but also comes with pre-made adapters. The time it took to make the adapters and resurface or Skim as you called it is unrealistic. Might as well purchase new rotors. The other problem is the hub on the car could have runout. The best method is to use an on the car lathe like the ProCut. It also didn't do any good to skim the surface where the wheel mounts but more importantly would have been to skim the surface where the rotor mounts to the wheel hub.
Dude. Just buy the front face of the cars wheel bearing. It's already got a shaft on it and a backing plate to screw the disk on to. They normally cost less than half of 1 disk. And no warping or anything. You can even return it back if you don't damage it
I've yet to work on anyone's car that I could even think about machining the rotors. Usually they are so rotted out or tore up you'll just waste time trying to save them. I just did a coworkers ford and I had to heat and beat the rotors to get them off. Needless to say they aren't usable again.
Modern non-asbestos pads wear discs out at a horrible rate such that often when the pads are worn out so are the discs. If you have a warped or grooved disc then you have probably not maintained the braking system properly and if you bought it as such then a complete overhaul is due. Usually, there is minimal material left to be able to true up any run out and to have acceptable disc life left. Also, the cost of machining the disc totally outweighs the price of new discs. Skimming discs is purely an academic exercise not a practical one.
clive williams I skim quite a few discs at work , usually large grooved /drilled discs off sports cars, sometimes off trucks n tractors. Usually takes 45mins /1hr too skim a pair depends on how thick they are, thin ones can “ring” a lot so need to slow the speed down.
Christian Brown try stretching a rubber strap all the way around the outside of the center of the disc while surfacing it. That will minimize the sound and reduce vibrations
Excellent process used. We live in a 'throw away world' and the art of engineering is slowly dying off, however, as seen in this video the working life of a brake disc can be extended if engineered correctly. The obvious benefits are less cost when compared to a new disc, less waste and the feeling of job satisfaction. It's a pity other people don't appreciate the process and skill used to engineer the discs as shown here. In summary, good explanations of the process used and the most critical point is that the process makes the car safer to drive
Thanks for the encouragement Mike, means a lot 😀
Yes I hate to see brake discs and stuff being trashed just because the have a few rings of rust on them. If you have the skills this is a great thing to do.
It's not "dying off". It's simply adapting to the commercial realities. We've actually never had so much engineering before as we have today.
Discs are ground not turned .. look up why .
ThIs is garbage, new ones cheap and guaranteed 12 mouths went not fitted by a clown.
I’m about to embark on similar, but my lathe is much too small. Fortunately I have a decent sized mill that I’ve just trued up the ways on, so making an arbor to mount in a BT40 facemill arbor will be this week’s job on the lathe.
And for those saying it’s a cheap part, it isn’t if you buy rotors that are made from decent metal, these stop much better even when warped/hot spotted and are worth resurfacing.
I work as a machinist and I see nothing wrong here. Nice job on the resurfacing!!
a lot of work for an inexpensive replacement park but much respect for your initiative and resourcefulness!
Was also thinking of building an adapter for this , But I found a way to do this on the lathe ,The center hole is clamped on the outside jaws of a 3 jaw chuck and indicated with a dial gauge , resurface the face then turn the large diameter in the rotor "this is for a true surface with the turned rotor face at 90 degrees for clamping in the chuck " Then turn the rotor to complete using the outside jaws and indicate then resurface . Works well for me !
Not a bad process. I just wanted to dial indicate as little as possible - lazy ;)
Wicked cool British Made Steel Big Blue Shop vice in video! No doubt made of melted down bits of Surplus WW2 Enfield MK3's and recycled bumpers of old Austins! I could tell it was English because of the Embossed printing on the side!Also if you look Very closely the Vice is wearing a small Bowler Hat and is carrying an Umbrella! "Ripper" Video ! Cheers Mate!
Good day Bernie. Thanks for the perceptive comment. As you say the vice is dam cool.. I hadn't noticed the embossed design details as well as you!
Peace, Bongo.
Hah! The first thing I noticed too damn awesome vice... Looks like a tank. I'm jealous.😂.
Excellent video! If I could add my 0.02c worth. When you're running the lathe tool across the face of the disc you are essentially introducing a 'thread' or spiral like pattern to the surface. When the brake pads are applied they will try to 'screw' into (or out from) the center. This can cause squealing until the the discs burnish in again - sometimes they keep squealing. I've adapted a home made chuck grinder with a 3" sanding disc attached and finish the brake disc face with an omnidirectional pattern - sort of a hone finish. That seems to fix the issue.
Loved your idea and video. Made my own arbor like yours and now my brake discs are no longer throw away items. Saving the planet bit by bit.
Side note, a lot of disc's have the min thk printed somewhere on the disc
lots of critical comments like all RUclips video's. I, for one, appreciate your effort and thank you for the video. I intend to do the same thing, it was good to see someone else's approach.
Thanks friend. Good luck!
Kitty doing the final inspection is golden.
Most brake discs rotors have the minimum thickness cast into them in a area that is not important. Sometimes very hard to find depending on the amount of rust they have. Otherwise like you said, check with automotive dealer. Good job.
Been watch a bunch of your videos and enjoying them very much. Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Willy
Most of the time it is cast on the outside edge of the disc
As a machinist in the navy, I often resurfaced both discs and drums for the command vehicles. I made a jig for doing both sides of the disc without having to remove the disc insuring both sides were parallel.
Hi Will. Thanks for sharing... I couldn't quite work out how to do both sides at once using the smallish cross slide.
@@FloweringElbow I had the luck of being able to choose from a 5" lathe all the way up to a 48" gap lathe so don't feel bad if you are limited. Keep up the good work and always think safety. In my experience it's not the operator that gets hurt the most but those around them. I was taught never to remove my hand from the chuck ky until ot was out of the chuck, preferably back in the holder provided for it. On our lathes that was usually a piece of angle with a hole in it bolted somewhere on the bed.
@@willwade1101 thanks for this. A really good safety tip I plan to implement- a simple chuck key holder...
Holy cow! That is a lot of time and effort to resurface your rotors!
Most garages or auto parts stores will resurface your rotors for a nominal fee. However, as a former mechanic, we generally would replace rotors with the pads because they are relatively inexpensive and helps insure the brake job won't come back on you because of a pulsation in the brake pedal. Besides, we recycled all of our scrap metals.
I clamped mine backwards in a 4-jaw chuck and trued them up with my indicator on the inside mounting surface. I was then able to turn both sides without having to take the disc out and turn it around.
Awesome work! I enjoy building stuff out of garbage. We do live in a throwaway world, even the people are throw away nowadays lol 🤣🤣🤣
a used hub flange can be used to bolt the disc to the lathe
Even a new one would be cheap enough to invest in as a tool for resurfacing discs, you could add extra pcd patterns and use spigot rings to centre other discs.
Good job! Not sure if it’s been mentioned elsewhere but it may prove of value to mark/spray a thin layer of say red paint on the low-point (or even over the entire surface of the disc if the low-points and concentrical over the entire surface). That way (as you are skimming more and more across the entire surface of the disc with each pass) it should serve as a visual indicator as the paint mark will progressively disappear. You should be able to see the paint even when the disc is rotating at speed; when you have skimmed low enough to approach the low-point by then the paint would have almost disappeared completely. At that stage you will then have to rely on your micrometer to measure how close you are to being done. In effect it should speed up the beginning part of the skimming process with less risk of accidentally over-skimming between measurements. I hope this proves of value.
No disrespect here but I do have a suggestion. I have turned rotors almost the same way you do. You had me till after you faced off the steel tubing. Lol. I also chuck a piece of steel tubing in the lathe and face it off but then, I put the outside of the rotor up to it and run a bull nose live center up to it to hold it in place. And it's also centered up. Then you can take both cuts in the same setup and avoid rotor runout from multiple setups. Hope this helps. 👍
U a genius. Fm
Thanks for the video. Way better than just mounting it in on my 3 jaw chuck
An excellent video. It shows what can be done by a skilled person who has all the neccessary equipment. Me, I would have to go to Autozone and buy the rotors.
Thanks for watching!
I was trying to figure out what was the problem you just now sorted the problem out for me thank you very much for your important video I'm really impressed I'll be on the case this weekend to grind my
This is the correct way to do it on a standard lathe if you don't have access to a brake lathe👍
Great video, especially when the cat makes an appearance. When making the final light (finishing) cut, how did you know that the lathes tool slide (compound rest) is 90`deg to the lathe axis?
Hi Peter, thanks for watching friend. I didn't know the compound was square, but I wasn't using that to make the cut, but the lathe's cross slide that should be fairly well fixed at 90 to the bed of the lathe.
Well done video! I own a lathe big enough to do this but I think I will just get new rotors. I have resurfaced the brake rotors for my airplane but those were small disks that didn't need any fixture to mount them in the three jaw chuck.
This could be easily done on 3 jaw chuck without the need of spending hours making fixtures etc. Just put it in a Lathe and clock the hub surface true and skim the disk. Then turn round and clock the surface you just turned and skim other side. Done. Just done it last night on 3 jaw Lathe. Took me 20 minutes and all vibration under braking is gone now.
yeah i didnt really understand why he made that whole thing either
I can beat that Martin. The best way I have found to turn these is to chuck a piece of steel tubing, 3 to 4 inches in diameter with a wall thickness at least a 1/2" to 3/4" thickness, face it off, put the outside of the brake rotor up to it and run a bull nose center up to it. Then you can take both cuts in one set up and avoid the risk of rotor runout from multiple setups. 😉
Dear Friend,
I have done something similar to this that you show but only to remove heavy rust scale, however, To give good service life the surface must be made smooth like a ground surface. The surface you leave will not stop well and tear- up the linings/pads and shorten the service life.
Great idea. And thanks for mentioning that some disks aren’t made to be resurfaced today. Always google the disk and see if it’s resurfaceable.
That is a lot of machining just to make an adapter to fit one car. I know a good shop, with a brake lathe, another friend of mine gave me a set of spare rotors, and I had them machined for 15 pounds each. New rotors will be 50,60 pounds each. Normally, I do not even bother to machine them, if you get to the brakes before it went metal to metal. The ridge where the pads do not touch, I just remove it with a hand grinder.
Nicely done. Ive watched too many people go about doing this all wrong. Loved your fixture and actually referencing off of the correct surface.
Ahhh, wooly pully sweater. Who does that!?
Great video ...helpful. S/F
Bloody awesome! Thanks mate. Cheers from Australia!
I have machined several discs and drums with no problems, just bare in mind as others have said about minimum thickness. I made my arbour differently to yours. I welded my mounting flange onto the middle of a fairly stout round bar, then machined the whole thing between centres. That way I could mount the disk, machine one face and just turn the arbour round and machine the other side. Don't suppose it saved any money but it gave me satisfaction. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the great video, newbie here, learning.
very hard work and very skillfully
I have the old wheel hubs from when I did the rear bearings on my 03 mountaineer. If I had a lathe, they would be perfect as a fixture for turning rotors.
nice idea SwapPart!
Well done! Now you have a possible extra source of income from turning brake disks! Smart thinking!
Bravo job very well done. and thanks from a environementalist, my disc always serves me 3 sets of pad.
Hay Martin, Thanks for this. As a fellow environmentalist, I would love to hear any feedback on my latest vid on the diesel to veg oil van conversion
I appreciate your work and your idea to recycle!! But I don't have a $3000 lathe and can afford to buy one to save $25-40 USD for a rotor. :) I LIKED!! the video!
Looks like your making this a very complicated job. But what do I know I never turned anything bigger than 10cm on my lathe.
You're result is great and that's what matters.
Maybe I am over complicating my description. Essentially all I am doing though is chucking up a mini face-plate (the fixture) that can be trued to the lathe and then bolting each brake rotor to it.
I use a grinder , while rotors are on vehicle . Not sure if just shitter cast or always had so many inclusions , but fixed about ten over the years. Just lift and block front end , take caliber a off and wire tie for support. Can manually spin and grind or let car idle as you grind high spots. Not saying it's best method, but saved my father in laws 700-880 US by grinding his front rotor . Shop would swap out both and add brakes and time.
I think the job is less precision-critical than you're making it, but that's what machinists do.
Impressive skils, but really worth it for the average DIYer? Rube goldberg machine comes to mind.
I miss being a Machinist and performing this type of work. I'm in Info Technology now but eventually will buy me a lather and would like to start making money turning parts for profit
Good luck !
@@FloweringElbow thanks !
I liked the fixture! The biggest problem I fight on the lathe are harmonics. Seem like a rigid fixture would help alot.
Cut both faces at once(2 tools), that's how an actual brake lathe does it....and it uses a big rubber band around the outside diameter to reduce harmonic vibration......
After machining the first part you could have turned the other side with a left hand side tool with out turning the disc and like that you will be 100% sure the faces are parallel thats how I do it never had any problems!!!!
Good afternoon John. Thanks for this. I have a question though, do you have a very large capacity lathe? For me the carriage won't fit past the brake rotor as it only just fits on without touching the ways...
Great work buddy 👍👍
Thanks 👍
@@FloweringElbow welcome 🙂
Well done very good video but only one think it be really nice if I could see how much is of on the Dial Test Indicator .
I admire your resourcefulness. Should work fine. Not for everybody, but completely acceptable process.
I assume this is your workshop at home... This is a hobby, a pastime or a way of saving money. Then good for you. If you are trying to make money you may have a way to go. There are better ways of doing it but the result was good, you enjoyed it and you saved a few quid.
Spot on.
The bottom line is as follows 35£ for electric-Mig consumables-wear and tear plus his labour-minus 27£ for a set of new discs= Loss 40..i still cannot see any win win here...
Cheaper than a night out and he enjoys it.
@@dkaloupis75 true for one application, but just three times and he is coming ahead by far, let alone peace of mind and being done the right way "by yourself"..plus he can help some friends and family and that is priceless!
@@dcgo44r 3 times that? lol
A relatively simple operation made very complicated and not a great result.
From a former brake specialist. GG.
This was an awesome and informative video, keep it up!
Thanks so much Noppa Plays!
Hello sir, your video was interesting to watch and do some learning from! We had a longtime family friend who was a mechanic, machinist and tool maker at his home shop his entire life. If he didn't have the tool, he made it! Unfortunately, he passed away several years ago but the memories of his shop, work and spending time around him will last forever. I'm curious, what is the size of your lathe? I'm getting ready to purchase one for my shop and don't want to spend the big money only to find out that I didn't do my homework and ended up buying a tool that's not large enough to fabricate or repair pieces on. I'd definitely like the lathe to have the ability to turn automotive rotors on but will use it for ATV and ATC parts. Thank you!!
I much prefer the on car resurfacing.
Because it cancels the imperfections of the wheel hub too.
With new ceramic pads, hybrids and electrics, rotor wear is not a big problem anymore. 150 000 km on my W202 c class, with just half worn ceramics pads, rot wear being less than 0.2mm the car will be junked before another rotor change. 500 000 km pads/rotor on hybrids is common.
Regenerative braking is more than enough for most normal driving on flat land. Brakes are now mostly for emergency braking.
As for the price, just don't buy them from the dealer, there are much cheaper and better ones for most cars. Go for low dust low wear ceramic pads they might be more expensive but the last way longer to more than compensate (I experienced ATE's and EBC)
The reason people replace their rotors is because it’s only a few dollars more to buy them then it is to resurface them. The two other issues are 1) after resurfacing them they become thinner which in itself can cause warping of the disc 2) the spaces between both surfaces are there to dissipate the heat from the friction of braking. They become rusted and can’t dissipate the heat which can also cause warping of the disc. Usually each rotor is stamped with the minimum thickness they must have to be useable. Better off tossing them and buying a cheap set of new ones if you ask me.
I do like your setup you designed for turning your rotors. Pretty resourceful.
Totally agree. In addition these discs are your only option to stop a car. In case of an emergency brake a force of about 10kN is applied to all 4 discs (1,5t car, 60->0mph) - and usually they are not just thrown away the metal is recycled. I'm not even going to touch how your insurance might think about it.
id take turned rotors over new made in china
@@jeffreyplumber1975 I’ve never had any troubles with new brake discs. Old ones tend to warp because of the rust that usually fill the holes for cooling on the rotor. Turned used rotors are less efficient and prone to warping.
@@jeffreyplumber1975 I’ve never had a bad disc when I’ve bought the cheap ones. I’ve seen turned rotors warped more than a few times. Besides, all the time it takes to get a small portion of the rust and blockage you can’t get rid of hampers them from cooling off. For a few bucks more you get a fresh disc. Makes a lot more sense to me and I’ve been doing it for 30 years. That’s gotta say something right?
You remind me of Wil E Coyote. Spends $25,000 on equipment to catch a bird that is worth about $50. Just joking. I am impressed with your equipment and talent. Cheers.
I used to turn brake rotors and drums when I was a kid at my dads auto repair shop. They just don’t make them like they used to. Pads have become more reliable with so many different types, but it’s so much cheaper to just buy new rotors and pads no Adams for what shops charge to turn them.
We always buffed over the rotor with a surfacing disc on and air tool after it was cut and still spinning to give a semi non directional finish to help seat the new pads.
I like your setup nice job! I want to get a regular lathe, I only have access to the type for doing rotors and drums and its very limited being a shaft mount style and not a jaw vise style although I have rigged up somethings on it to machine besides rotors and drums but it is difficult.
A face plate would be a lot quicker and useful for lots of other jobs .Worth looking out for one to fit your lathe if you don't already own one.
better yet a brake lathe
As always people want to make things complicated. Simply jack up the front of the car, remove everything except the rotors. Brace the steering wheel with a 2x4, now start the engine and hold down the pedal until you see the speedometer reach 100 mph. Hold the peda downl with a piece of wood. Safety first, wear heavy duty glove and eye protection. Attach sand paper to a flat surface and press against the rotor firmly, do this repeatedly until you have a smooth surface. Turn off engine flip the rotors repeat the process.
Appreciate the skill and ingenuity involved; however, if you need to pay a mechanic to do this, the time involved will cost far more than buying replacement rotors. It’s simple economics based on the cost of labor.
Hi Mike, I agree with you. Unless you both enjoy the process and can do it your self, it doesn't make economic sense.
FloweringElbow But it sure looks like fun! Wish I had a shop like yours 👍
Thanks Mike. Your not wrong :D
You can replace the bolt by pushing a plate against the disc with a live center. Only need to turn the register diameter and face, I use old engine pistons for that. If you mark the orientation, it can even be rechucked in a 3 jaw chuck and still run true enough.
I think some of the disks have the min thickness stamped on it. it's a good video - good idea.
Thanks Thomas!
Nice tutorial - Adnd I am particularly glad to see you had proper guidance under the shop supervisor!!! You may want to cover the ways of the lathe with cloths prior to doing this as the cast rion, as you mentioned, is not good for them!!!
Keep up the great videos!
PS I don't care where your from black cats are good luck!!!
Haha. Thanks Mr Clickbang!
think the vacuum he hooked up did
just fine catching the chips?
I work at a VW workshop in Sweden. If the brake disc is bad we throw it away, but its because we dont have a lathe, and still the cost of the labour would still exceed the cost of brand new discs. We cost about 2000 SEK + 25% tax an hour wich i think is about 170 dollars an hour + tax. But if you have a lathe and you either have it as a hobby or a really low labour cost its probably worth it depending on how bad the disc is. I have actually taken a few throwaway discs from work to use as training material on my own small hobby lathe.
Excellent video! Well explained and shot.
Only wish I had a lathe, I guess I'm stuck trying my rotor with a bastard file 😜
Hi Keith, haha, good luck friend.
I used to do these on a rotary surface grinder.
I was just on the local sale listings looking at lathes, I thought jeepers I'm gonna have to buy a lathe, make an adapter, nope, better head to RUclips. Perfect a DIY, haha still gotta buy a lathe and make an adapter! I was waiting for you to surface it in the back yard on an old axle spun up with a clapped out scooter. Anything specific I should look for in a lathe to do this specifically?
Good day Kris. If you want to do this specifically you will need a lathe with enough 'swing' (room between the ways and the spindle centre). But really there are tons of other things to look for in a lathe - check for play everywhere ;)
Good luck :D
Hey. I'm a noob, but I'm curious to find out why you did not think it was necessary to resurface the internal hat surface, that which makes contact with the hub. Thanks!
Hi -- . It was some time ago now, but I believe I was using that as the master reference surface, I was cutting all other faces to...
Hope that helps, Bongo.
This is very logical and straightforward. I have a crazy suggestion. Do you think you could make a 3D printed fixture to spin the rotor and then do the cleaning with a rigidly mounted but lightly cutting angle grinder?
Cool idea! I guess consideration would be needed to make the 3d print rigid enough...
Why not keep the disc on the axle and use that to turn it?
Great video 👍👍, thank you
Nice money saver. One extra thing I would have done though, which is to use the dial indicator to mark the high and low spots before removing the discs from the car. It is reassuring to find the same spots, with the same runout when you chuck the discs up. If there is a big difference, there is another problem, maybe in the hub.
Nice tip!
You could reface the hub to match the rotor
Great video- what lathe u have?
Good morning Alex. Thank you for getting in touch. The lathe is mad in China and is the cq6230b...
Hope that helps, Bongo.
Now, all I need is a metal lathe. And a welder.
What size is your lathe and how big of a diameter rotor were you able to turn on your lathe?
Much as this is an admirable exercise and doubtless a satisfying short term gain, I never practice cheese-paring when it comes to brakes, steering and suspension.
When the vehicle containing all your precious family are heading for the back of another at 70 and braking hard, your saving of a couple of hundred quid for another year or two pales into insignificance ...
For myself, I would cheerfully replace the lot with OEM parts and count the money well spent.
I defend to the death your right to do otherwise.
Interesting upload. Thank you.
Think I'll have to leave this to the professionals who will probably charge me more than the cost of new discs hence why most people bin the old and replace with new.
Its not only the tools involved for this Job but the Time it takes to do it. Most discs average £25 a side.... Its not worth my time to do it when the delivery driver can get here almost as fast.
@@digitalacid My rotors are $290 a pair. I plan to bring in a stack of used ones to a shop and see if I can get a bulk discount. The majority of the time is setting up the tools to machine one... once that is done, the other 6 or 8 should go quickly.
It looks like you got it 100% true. Meaning there is zero run out on rotor. With zero runout on rotor now wat kicks your brake pads back into calipers. With zero runout you’ll boil your brake fluid. Your pads will not kick away from rotor thus heat warping them thus just a simple wire wheel to your old rotors is well sufficient until you need to cough up the 20-30$ for a new rotor
When you have no idea what you're talking about 😂😂
The minimum rotor thickness is stamped on it.
I didn't see it anywhere though it may have been corroded. Or did you see it in the video? If so I've missed it completely .
I didn't see it on the video. It's usually stamped on the circumference.
Not always. But you can usually find it the workshop manual or do a Google search
@@FloweringElbow Usually it's embossed, not stamped(sometimes in the "HAT" area, or on the outside diameter). That being said, a lot of new cars are coming thru with "disposable" or, 1 time use brake rotors. Older stuff, or 4wd stuff has apx .090" for "use" The manufacturers intend for the first set of pads to wear off apx .030", the re-surfacing to take apx .030", and the last .030" for the 2nd set of pads before needing replacement of the rotor. Usually once you go under that MIN size, you'll get the dreaded warpage(pedal pulsating under foot or, steering wheel shimmying to and fro)........my 2 pennies
Good day Bryan, thanks for sharing this useful info ;)
Very informative. Thanks.
Ghetto way of doing it that I did yesterday, was take wheels off the car at the front, put on stands. Start the engine and put in gear, then use an angle grinder with a grinding disk to go backwards and forwards over the disk surface a few times. Worked just fine, then just lightly buzzed the pads to get rid of the ridges on those.
Thanks for the video very nice. Quick question do you resurface the pads that you are reusing if so how?
I didn't reuse the pads. I had new ones... I would recommend new pads if you do the rotors.
Fantastic job sir thanks
Hey thanks Jogo!
Good job !
Now where do I find an affordable lathe ...
And where to place it ... ?
What o profitable forward thought! You are a genius as the creator of this video!
All lathe bearings have some play it varies a double adjustable cutter system assures accuracy of equal variances of the lathe bearings,so if it's off it will still be equal to both sides perfectly,and no humpty hump
Good evening Alvin. Thanks, you make a good point. In an ideal world you would cut both sides at once. On my lathe there is no room to fit the cross slide between the rotor and the lathe ways though.
Happy new year.
its ok do all the work on the disc what happens if the hub has run out.had it before my self.
Not sure... not experienced that one, thankfully.
If only I had a Lathe!
I use an angle grinder and I leave the rotor right on the front i spin it and then the grinder keeps it turning
I have cut hundreds of drums and rotors on a 4 jaw chuck with no problems
It’s a lot easier to leave the rotor on the vehicle and just use a grinding disk on a angle grinder and one should always mike the thickness of the rotor to make sure it is within safety limits which is stamped in the rotor hub most of the time
complete waste of time!
What speed and feed did you decide to go with?
Hi Adam, thanks for the question. Not 100% sure but think I was going about 200rpm for for first cuts and 50 for final skim. About 0.04mm/rev ... it worked but may have been way slower than necessary?
Cheers, Bongo.
Iy seems every usefull vid i watch involves a lathe...i think i see a lathe in my near future.
After considering many projects over the past couple of years a lathe would definitely suit me better than a mill. Just keep on the local machinery for sale ads in your state and you can find some deals sometimes. Remember you'll spend a good bit on tooling as well so look for a combo deal.
You could also get the brake rotor flex hone to use after you turned them
Great video, just imagine the savings in just energy alone reusing, I don't know why dealers don't do a return your old disks when buying new?
Scrap cast iron isn't really worth anything, roughly $0.05 USD per lb (one kilo is 2.2 lbs). If you wanted to scrap them yourself, or had a use for a rusted up chunk of iron, I'm sure they would return them to you if you asked, but most people would rather just let the mechanic get rid of the old ones rather than bother with them.
Nice sir
Liked the video, tell the people that min. dimensions matter & they are usualy stamped or cast onto the disc.
A bit of advice for machining your own brake rotors/discs, make sure you get the brake rotor/disc machining tolerances BEFORE you machine them. BEWARE, if you machine too much material off, you can cause a loss of stopping power or COMPLETE BRAKE FAILURE, which will result in severe bodily injury or a tragic fatality. So do your research before attempting this type of machine work.
is a brake lathe the same as a resurfacing
Yes.
These days I guess most rotors are blanchard ground, instead of turned. But turned worked for decades and I see no reason it won't give acceptable results now.
Rich, being cast iron cut dry, slow speed always preferred over coolant.
Someone tryed to do one at work and it sounded horrible. He must of been going too fast then.
I'm assuming you have never heard of a brake lathe that is not only designed to do this but also comes with pre-made adapters. The time it took to make the adapters and resurface or Skim as you called it is unrealistic. Might as well purchase new rotors. The other problem is the hub on the car could have runout. The best method is to use an on the car lathe like the ProCut. It also didn't do any good to skim the surface where the wheel mounts but more importantly would have been to skim the surface where the rotor mounts to the wheel hub.
Have heard of a brake lathe, I just don't have one. Sometimes it's nice to work with the tools at your disposal...
Dude. Just buy the front face of the cars wheel bearing. It's already got a shaft on it and a backing plate to screw the disk on to. They normally cost less than half of 1 disk. And no warping or anything. You can even return it back if you don't damage it
I've yet to work on anyone's car that I could even think about machining the rotors. Usually they are so rotted out or tore up you'll just waste time trying to save them. I just did a coworkers ford and I had to heat and beat the rotors to get them off. Needless to say they aren't usable again.
If you really know what are you doing, if you are a machnist, a professional, no problem in reusing.
This sounds very like the cars in my life.
Modern non-asbestos pads wear discs out at a horrible rate such that often when the pads are worn out so are the discs. If you have a warped or grooved disc then you have probably not maintained the braking system properly and if you bought it as such then a complete overhaul is due. Usually, there is minimal material left to be able to true up any run out and to have acceptable disc life left. Also, the cost of machining the disc totally outweighs the price of new discs. Skimming discs is purely an academic exercise not a practical one.
clive williams I skim quite a few discs at work , usually large grooved /drilled discs off sports cars, sometimes off trucks n tractors. Usually takes 45mins /1hr too skim a pair depends on how thick they are, thin ones can “ring” a lot so need to slow the speed down.
Christian Brown try stretching a rubber strap all the way around the outside of the center of the disc while surfacing it. That will minimize the sound and reduce vibrations