Projects What’s a brake lathe worth?

Every place I worked at since I was pumping gas had a brake lathe (or I had access to one) and some drums like to vibrate, so you need to have the band. I'm "thrifty", I'll turn the rotors on my moms car if it has a wobble vs spending $25-$45 a rotor for new ones.

To add pictures to my post above.
The hubless chuck in the picture would be your 3 jaw on your lathe.

 

I’ve never been up close and personal with one before, always watched from a distance. Thanks for the pic.

 

We use one at work and what I hate most of all is the minut fine metal dust everywhere, in the air, on everything within 5 foot of the machine.

I wouldn't say no to owning one if it were cheap or free. But if I'm going to spend 800 or so for one I'd pass and spend the money either on the car or a tool I would use a whole lot more often.

Went thru this a couple months ago, I don't remember what was offered to me but I turned it down and bought a big 9" disc sander with a 6" wide belt instead. I use it alot.

I build alot of my stuff, tube bender, shrinker/stretcher stand, mod'd bead roller/stand etc. My son gives me crap about all of the room this stuff takes up, I told him once my car was done I'd sell it all so I'd have room to actually park the car in the shop once it was done and probably walk away with enough money to buy a completed car!

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Well, even a grinder in the shop will put bad JuJu stuff in the air.
My dad told me a story once. He worked for a guy that taught him a lot of stuff.
The guy was at one end of the shop with an open container of grease doing something, my dad at the other end fired up the bench grinder and started grinding something. When the guy caught on he hollered something. As my dad walked up to see what it was about the guy was tossing the container of grease in the can for fear of contamination.
Maybe overboard, but has some merit.

 

IIRC rose gardeners liked the grindings from the brake lathe to put around their rose bushes.

 

Ya know, my dad did similar with drill bit shavings for my moms gardens. Said it added iron to the soil.

 

Yeah only steel wheels on this machine for sure! I won’t even try wires…

 

Otherwise known as Iron Chelate

 

I purchased a Aamco Brake Lathe buying an old auto parts building, instead of moving it $250 bought, with a wall full of adapters, spare cutting bits and other arbors. It had adapters for 50s Military vehicle drums to smaller cars, as well as the disc brake cutter. It was owned previously by the local Chevy dealership. Only thing I needed was the 90deg flywheel cutting tool holder...... found 2x and bought them. Replace starter ring gear, cut surface like new, still better than a flywheel from China.

 

Yep,.it's been 42 years since my service station career ended, but I still the owners remember offering "Mag Insurance" to folks with any type of aluminum wheel. I can't recall the amount, but the customer had to pay extra for a guarantee against breakage.

 

I'd say that his suggestion is the right one. Ask what they want for it and go from there. Around the PNW prices seem to have gone up on them as there is an AMMCO drum and disk lathe with a 1700 asking price on it and a Snap on that the guy wants 3500 for. Five or six years ago you could get them for around 600 in good working shape.
Around this area if you had a little cubby hole shop where all you did was turn drums and rotors and rebuild cylinder heads you could make a pretty decent living. The local farmers would keep you busy with head work and the local car guys would make the brake lathe pay for it's self. One local tire store will do them but wants 20 bucks each and getting them done at O'Reillys can be a hassle as only a couple of the people turn them.

 

I got mine for free from an auto parts shop moving/closing. Came with a lot of accessories, but I gave them away. I use it in my "side hustle" of dealing in vintage alloy wheels. If you spin the wheels on the lathe down to 3000 grit wet paper, it is almost indistinguishable from polishing.

 

Even with the VW adapter plate, I have seen them break. One place I worked, they refused to do mag wheels. But for our own cars, we broke them down by hand.

 

I know of one old place that turns drums and rotors, the owner even let me cut a few rotors, he was amazed that I could do it. He has all Ammco stuff, including the drum gauges and an old laminated card with rotor thicknesses on it, pretty outdated though.

I have thought of getting a pair of lathes, but I am short on room. I could keep them busy with a little advertisement.

 

I'd decide what wheel bolt pattern(s) you are likely to use in your builds and try to get axles for that/those pattern(s). A 4 3/4 Chevy and a Ford 4 1/2 probably would cover most things. Get the lug nuts too. Then remove the axle bearing and chopsaw the axle just behind the bearing journal. Should make a good surface for mounting in the lathe chuck and you can hang them on the wall near the lathe. The rear drums are somewhat resembling a bell in their shape and they tend to vibrate and resonate, so the elastic band dampens the problem.

 

@Budget36 , now that you're coming up with ways to turn drums/rotors on your existing lathe, I guess we'll never know what the shop wants for their machine. Too bad, I would ask anyway...could be happy to get it out of there without having to haul it for scrap just to free up space. Could be worth a conversation...besides, now our curiosity is piqued!

 

I know, dang tease! I’ll stop in tomorrow on my way to work.

 

Plus you have to worry about getting your old drums trashed. An owner of a place I worked at years ago didn't want to wait for the lathe I usually used to be free so he send the rotors out to a "machine shop", they can back looking like old records. To prove a point I put them on and had him take it for a drive, he came back and said it sounds like an airplane landing.

That one is double sided for smaller and larger registers, makes doing drums/rotors without hubs a breeze. That pic was me checking the runout on "new" repo drums from a known repo dealer...never again as they where 20-25 thousands off out of the box.

 

The thing I didn't clarify is that you want the drum located on that small hub on the axle because that what should make your cut be concentric when done.

 

Yeah, local parts house told me several times the brake lathe was broke. Then i mentioned that it had been broken for 6 years. The guy just smiled.

 

I’m working out in my mind-can’t find a notebook right now-to do this with wheel spacers. One set of drums I have are aftermarket 46-48 Ford fronts drums. So the likelihood of finding a axle with a proper register may not be possible. I don’t recall the rear drums on my ‘42 PU, but think they were pressed over the studs on the hubs as well.
My idea will be along the lines of having a place that make spacers just drill them with a 3/8ths hole. Just 5 holes in each one.
A little creative use of studs and beveling some nuts in my mind I can get things all lined up and square, bolt it all together, the chuck the spacer in the lathe.
It should cut as accurate as my chuck and spindle run out is.
The HAMBr I bought the drums from (AM from Brazil) said one is undersized, one is oversized.
I also have two F1 rear drums that show very little wear. (Only other 5.5 BP drums I have). I could use those as a test mule if not warped, and verify before I do my fronts.
What could possibly go wrong?

 

Last one I bought was 200 bucks. It was in good shape and I got all the parts and pieces that the shop had with it.

I still see them in the 200-1000 price range.

Two pieces of automotive repair equipment that I would like to have in my shop. Brake lathe and valve grind machine. No one turns drums any more and a valve grind is insanely expensive.

 

If you were nearby, I’d happily open the shop door and let you attack your stuff with my equipment! You could probably show be the proper way to do it!

 

I would gladly use it and show you how I use it. It may be wrong but its always worked for me. LOL

One thing to think about is that you really must be careful and not take too much out. Be sure and learn how to measure and follow the factory specs.

 

If the damned valve refacer wasn’t so heavy I’d send it to you to use, along with the seat grinders.
My Van Dorman valve refacer isn’t fully adjustable though. It has 3 notches to locate it. So if one wanted an exotic valve angle, it really couldn’t be done repeatedly.

 

This is the one I have.

 

SaltFlats that is an impressive mound of drum shavings. Dayum! I'd say way more than a few drums have been through your Kwik Way.

 

I have lost count how many times I have dumped that pan.

 

there is a ammco 3000 on ebay for $350 or OBO

 

I have a Van Dorman valve refacer that I took apart to clean. Took two days to clean and there it sits since I discovered my lathe will chuck w/in 2/10ths. Free.