drilling my own rer hubs? Options

[blaize]

In the middle of a 5 lug conv. all the prices I have seen are around 300 for redrilled rear hubs and thats plus core. so I started thinking and a drill press is only 200. Ques. is has anyone ever tried this? I presume all one needs is alot of time on setup and it cant be that tough.

Thoughts?

[MattR]

Im doing the same thing, and Fat performance in Orange, CA is significantly cheaper. I think they charge 40 bucks a hub minus studs.

www.fatperformance.com

[Brad Roberts]

I havent done it, but my concern would be: how you are going to hold the hub while drilling. Most people use a Bridgeport mill with a monster holding table and some kind of tool steel fixture. If you get it wrong.. you will eat wheel bearings and lose fillings... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)


B

[Mueller]

accuracy will suffer unless you have a proper fixture with the new bolt pattern and hardened drill guides/bushings

i wouldn't recommend it at all since the rear hubs are not hubcentric and the wheel relies on the studs for it's location. if you are off too much, major wheel balancing problems will happen, that is if you can get the wheel mounted onto the studs if too far off or if the studs are not perp. with the hub surface

the spot drilling on the far side can be done with a drill press as long as you can safely hold the part.

[airsix]

all the prices I have seen are around 300 for redrilled rear hubs and thats plus core.

Wow. Have prices gone up that much? Rich Johnson did mine for $180 including studs. (2 yrs ago)

I would not dare try this without a large mill and a rotary table. I'm afraid that trying this job with even a top-quality drill press will just result in a pair of really ugly paper-weights.

-Ben M.

[Andyrew]

I wouldnt do that to my car.. and if I did, I would kick myself every day for trying to be cheap.

Dont do it yourself, its just one of those things you just dont do yourself.. ( like Knife edgeing the crank. or regrinding the cams...)

Get someone else to do it who knows what their doing and has done it before.

Andrew

[MattR]

And, you have to wonder how good a 200 dollar drill press is. If I had a 10,000 dollar bridgeport sitting in my garage ("if"), I would only start to consider it, but without quality machinery and the knowledge to do it, you are bound for disaster.

[thesey914]

I just took mine to a local engineer. Doesn't need to be someone who works with cars for that matter. It a very straight forward job for any machine shop. Should be inexpensive. Re-drilling, spot facing and pressing in the new studs was about 70 quid , maybe $100 back then.
Hard bit will be getting the buggers off the trailing arm.

I have to salute the "have a go" attitude though (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[RON S.]

I did a set on my six a few years back.
What I did was draw up a Round drill template on AutoCad. Od was same od as rotor,Id was same size as hub,so it would slip over nicely.
I eyeballed the template to tranfer punch the holes between the vanes in the rotors.
Removed the template,laid the rotor flat on the drill press,and drilled right thru.
When done I chamfered all holes top & bottom to try to minimize cracking.
With the drill template.2 rotros took less than 30 minutes,start to finish to do.
Also,the material that rotors are made of is very soft,there no need to lock the rotor down while drilling.I held it by hand.
Ron

[RON S.]

forgot to mention.
The templates were lasered out.
Ron

[Mueller]

forgot to mention.
The templates were lasered out.

minor detail eh??? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

FAT used to use an old 5 lug Fuch for thier template, the hard part with that is centering the wheel to the hub.

If I had a 10,000 dollar bridgeport sitting in my garage ("if")

i do (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif), ok, it didn't cost that much, it was only $1200 for an older NC Bridgeport.....converting to be able to use only 1 phase is turning out to be more expensive than I orginally planned (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

[phantom914]

converting to be able to use only 1 phase is turning out to be more expensive than I orginally planned

Mueller,

Why? Won't the static converters work for you? The motor loses some power, but I doubt it would ever matter.


Andrew

[Mueller]

for the main motor, I bought a VFD (varible freq. drive, this takes in 220v 1 ph and outputs 3 phase) and for the stepper motors, I'm going to re-wire the transformers to run off of 220 single phase...not a big fan of static converters, or at least not for a CNC machine

[Dave_Darling]

I eyeballed the template to tranfer punch the holes between the vanes in the rotors.

Sounds like you're talking about cross-drilling the rotor surfaces. The original post is about drilling the five-lug pattern in the hub.

Are you sure that the $300 is only for the hubs? Does it include studs and wheel bearings as well? I seem to remember one of our competitors in San Luis Obispo selling a kit for $3-something, but it included much more than just the hubs.

--DD

[phantom914]

for the main motor, I bought a VFD (varible freq. drive, this takes in 220v 1 ph and outputs 3 phase) and for the stepper motors, I'm going to re-wire the transformers to run off of 220 single phase...not a big fan of static converters, or at least not for a CNC machine

Oh. I don't have CNC. If you already have a converter, why do you need to rewire the stepper motors for single phase?

And how is the VFD different than the 1 phase motor/ 3phase generator setups (forget what they are called) , or rather how is it better?

Andrew

[RON S.]

Dave,
You are right,
I misread the post.
My Bad.
Ron

[Eric_Shea]

Send them to me. I'll do them for $80.00 plus $2.00 per stud if you want them studded. That's a "Ben" Plus Shipping.

[Mueller]

thats a good price...you should jump on it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)


Andrew,

The VFD, is an inverter, it mimics the 3 different legs, what is nice is the controller can change the frequency, so instead of 60hz, I can slow down or speed up the motor with just a few clicks of a button

the VFD cannot be used on transformers, it is only for motors. The static converters cheat by using resitors and caps, but they are really not a true 3phase. Rotary converters are basicly a 3phase motor that is turned into a generator to supply the 3phase, these work really well, but can get expensive and they suck up more electricity.

[phantom914]

Mueller,

Cool. Did you not have a variable speed head on your mill, or did you just want to be really cool? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) How much do VFD's run?

Andrew

[rick 918-S]

I did my fronts on a bench top drill press. I used my wheel spacers for a templet. I did the rears on the car. Used the spacer as a templet. I used one of the factory 4 hole bolts to align spacer, and the pin that slides out of the end of my digital caliper to check the spacer (which was machine cut) alignment to the rotor all around. I have a round table on the drill press. I could easily spin the table and drop the bit into the next hole without moving the drill head. Worked for me. I had to bring the fronts to a machine shop to spot face the back side of the fronts. the web was in the way on the head on the lug stud.