Dropping TRUCK Axles?.......HOW?

Was wondering if anyone experienced in dropping truck axles has any tips or tricks? Pics of one being done or a proper jig would be cool as well. I know Sid does them but I can't afford the 300 bux and I have an old school machinist pal who knows metallurgy that I'm sure could pull it off with a little insight.

Lots of car axle dropping info up for grabs but nada when it comes to pickups.

I have an axle out of a 50's Chevy to practice on before doing one for real but I need some info on where to start. I have a general idea from the car axles but thats about the extent of it.

 

ANYBODY???? This is like voodoo magic.

 

don't see why it would not be teh same as a car,,different angles but in the end its basically the same I beam axle

 

Im sure you will find after going to all the work - time and expense to do it yourself. $300.oo is cheap.
There’s reasons we don’t drop axles for almost nothing.

 

VERY TRUE

Definitely not knocking the prices you guys charge to drop axles. I'm just on a VERY limited budget and would like to be able to expand into this market with my business, that would make it feasible to build a NICE jig, knowing that it would be used more than once. The closest place to have a truck axle dropped around here is Sid in Oklahoma so I would have the market cornered if I produced nice work and had a good jig that would knock them out the same every time.

 

there is a tech article here somewhere in the search function....however, there are some things I dont want to lose peace of mind over or have to buy again cause I screwed it up so I paid for it to be right and I have no worries.

 

I think it depends on your skill levels in general. If you have the skill and equipment to build a proper jig and can learn how to use it properly, go for it. For the ordinary guy like me, I'd be be sending my axle off to 296 V8 or one of the other guys who do it daily with a sack of change and be done with it.
But I see that you do have a fab shop so making a jig shouldn't be a real issue once you figure out what it needs to be.

 

I definitely have the skills and the equipment. Mig, tig, plasma, Lincoln SA200 pipeliner, mills, lathes, tools out the ying yang, and PLENTY of TIME.

I just need a better idea of jig layout, there are a few pics in a tech article or two on here but nothing that really shows the setup well.

 

pay the 300 or leave it alone.

 

Watch this on youtube,it's about 22 mins. long but it shows them doing one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsVmPZR9CMI

 

Cool link, thanks!