Can You Machine a Flywheel with a Brake Lathe??

[EricTheCarGuy]

I’ve always wanted to try this. Now that I have, I think it’s pretty cool.

A couple of take aways. Set the bit toward the outside for your first pass. Just the opposite of what you would do with a rotor. That way you avoid burning up your bit like I did.

If it starts to chatter, take an old brake pad and hold it on the flywheel as it cuts. This will help keep it quiet.

So, what do you think?

Topic

[Greg]

We have done a few on the brake lathe but when we did it we used the cutter for the brake drums and put it in the fixture backwards to get it to cut the entire flywheel. There were a few we couldn’t do because flywheel wouldn’t fit over the arbor on our lathe. We never tried to do a stepped flywheel either. But none of that matters now because we have a flywheel machine. None the less a great video to show others how to get more use out of equipment that they may own.

[EricTheCarGuy]

[quote=”gmule” post=166035]We have done a few on the brake lathe but when we did it we used the cutter for the brake drums and put it in the fixture backwards to get it to cut the entire flywheel. There were a few we couldn’t do because flywheel wouldn’t fit over the arbor on our lathe. We never tried to do a stepped flywheel either. But none of that matters now because we have a flywheel machine. None the less a great video to show others how to get more use out of equipment that they may own.[/quote]

Yea, I think grinding works better than this, but if you have access to a brake lathe it might save you some money on machining.

Thanks for your input.

[Author]

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