Cutting Polyurethane Bushings

Just wondering how hard it is to cut polyurethane tube into slices for bushings.
I bought a 2" by 12" tube of polyurethane that has a hardness rating of 90A.
Want to cut it into discs to use for body mounting of my A Tudor to the frame.
Plan on buying a fine tooth blade for my miter saw and see if I can't slice it up that way.
Any suggestions?

WILL IT WORK? WON'T IN WORK?

 

You can chuck the harder stuff into a lathe and cut it that way. I did that for a friends jeep project but ti depends how stiff the material is. The mitre saw should work also.

 

I'd think hand cutting a slice would be a lot less exciting than the miter saw.

Post pictures of the damage.

I've cut Energy Suspention poly bushings in the lathe and band saw. Seems to me their stuff is never the right dimentions.

Is your material harder or softer then the ES stuff?

 

I have cut it before on a bandsaw with a metal cutting blaed....

 

I cut the stuff a few times on my band saw, you need to secure it good and make a slow cut or the blade will grab and launch it. I clamp it into a piece of angle iron and use the finest tooth blade I own. The lathe works great for the thin cuts you'll need.

 

I have a good question. Why bushings between the frame and body? Will this be in place of the wood blocks? Or is the body modified to not mount to the frame as similar to stock?

 

Depending on the material, you can sometimes get better machining performance by freezing it. Use new blades or very sharp tools (if using a lathe).

It will heat up as you machine it, but in a borderline situation, freezing sometimes will get you "over the hump"


Machining is definitely possible. There is a company out there that makes hydraulic seals by machining the profile out of a tube of polyurethane with a CNC lathe.

If you have access to a lathe, I'd rough cut it with a bandsaw, then (if necessary) freeze it again and chuck it up on a lathe to face it.

 

They will replace the wood and I don't have access to a lathe but I do a band saw.
Originally I was going to cut it with the band saw and then use a belt sander to smooth the edges then my neighbor suggested using the miter saw.
Just don't want to end up with a missile in my shop if the miter saw isn't a good idea.
It has a durameter rating of 90A which is about like skateboard wheels I think.

When I rebuilt all of my subrails with originals I then lined the inside of the subrails with 1" x 2" 14 ga tubing so the bushings will be between the tubing and the frame.
If you search my sign on name I have some pictures on here of the new subrails and how they were reinforced with the tubing.

Hope I didn't waste my money trying to make my own bushings, the stuff is kind of pricey.

 

Yup, freeze it first.

 

Skateboard wheels vary 88A to about 98A these days... durometer.

Last time I used one of these little razor saws. Available at your local hobby store. The stuff I was cutting was about 2" across and I worked my way around it. But nice clean cut...

 

Agreed, freezing first. You dont want to get the material hot enough to smoke while cutting/machining. It will release isocyanates which are bad.

 

A japanese Pull-saw would also work, I have made very precise cuts with mine.

 

Never heard of a Japanese pull saw.
I guess no one has tried cutting it with a miter saw.

 

Here is a good link with video.

http://www.asktooltalk.com/articles/productstools/pullsaw.php

And the mitre saw will work with a fine blade on frozen poly.

 

Thanks TMAN I always seem to learn something on here every time I post.

 

I recently made some bushings the same way you are. I first used my band saw but actually had a more controlled, safer cut and finish with a simple HAND Mitre saw not a powered saw. Then you don't need to freeze it, very low tech. Of course if you have a bunch, freeze and power saw. Still gonna want to distort. go slow.

 

have you seen these by Bob Drake? http://store.bobdrake.com/shokshims.html

seams to me to be a lot easier. anyone use them?

 

Used my radial arm saw plenty of times to do this,havent had any issues.Burl

 

I have had good success with putting the urethane in a metal tube that has the same ID as the urethane's OD and then cutting it in a band saw with a fine tooth blade. If you can run water soluble coolant it works even better.

 

Good to know at least one person has had success cutting it with a powered saw other than a band saw.
Burl did you try to clamp it down so it couldn't get away from you or did it just cut like ****er or more like a piece of oak.
How fine a saw blade were you using?