Possible to axially cut on the lathe?

I'm looking to cut the entire flange off of a couple of wheel bearings using my lathe. Is it possible to use a cutting tool axially to cit this? Wish I knew how to post a picture because it would be easier to explain.

Thanks!

Sounds like "Trepanning" is what you're looking for.

12LbChevelle said:

I'm looking to cut the entire flange off of a couple of wheel bearings using my lathe. Is it possible to use a cutting tool axially to cit this? Wish I knew how to post a picture because it would be easier to explain.

Thanks!

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A cousin to trepanning, presuming what you seek is faster removal than taking pass after pass from a large major diameter downward?

No free lunch, though.

You would be plunging a cousin of a parting-off tool straight into the face.
As we do for face-grooving, but clear through?

Not "free" because.. of the curve.

It can be challenging to grind a single-point (or stepped-edge) tool such that it has the SUPPORT it needs to work deep and fast, and the "heel" clearance, larger-diameter sidewall side, to not drag.

The "balanced" boring bar concept, in the form of a full-circle "annular" cutter is better suited.

If you have MANY, an annular cutter - custom ground, if need be - may be your best shot. It won't necessarily even need a lathe.

Basic progressive turning large OD to smaller can be saner for fewsies.

Well-proven. Nothing 'special' to the tooling or the technique either one.

"JFDI" and soon done.

Would seem to be a trepanning tool, tube form with a MT tang, tube at diameter of the cut, if you do stick a prong out to register something solid, bed carriage etc in case you spin out, can chew up the tailstock bore, or make a tube that fits the toolpost which is safer, sandvick make face grooving tools but they were quite expensive last time I looked
Mark

boslab said:

Would seem to be a trepanning tool, tube form with a MT tang, tube at diameter of the cut, if you do stick a prong out to register something solid, bed carriage etc in case you spin out, can chew up the tailstock bore, or make a tube that fits the toolpost which is safer, sandvick make face grooving tools but they were quite expensive last time I looked
Mark

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Same page, conceptually, but....

Not yet specified if small model slot car, mini ATV, Golf cart or passenger-car axles....

Or rather larger .... ag equipment, rail, industrial MHE..... Belarus Earthmovers.... lime kilns.. hydro turbines... so...

Wish I knew how to post a picture because it would be easier to explain.

Click to expand...

One of the how to threads on photo posting

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...es-south-bend-forum-372508/?highlight=posting

have fun

If you are only doing a couple it might be better to saw the flange off in sections and then mount in the lathe and turn to final dimensions.

as others have said, you'll need generous side clearance to deal with the curve and I'd be concerned as to what happens as the tool breaks through. If it snags it could become a crash. Not pretty.

Thanks for the super prompt and great answers to my question! I've been watching a couple of videos on trepanning and it looks like I would need to grind a custom cutter for the job which I've never done but think would be fun. However I'm concerned that the depth of cut might be too high which because flange is close to .625 or so just eye balling it.

Maybe I should just go at it by reducing the diameter as mentioned by thermite.. I'm so new to the lathe that maybe thats the obvious answer for my situation. I'm only doing two wheel hubs anyways.

Does anyone know if wheel hubs are hardened?

12LbChevelle said:

Thanks for the super prompt and great answers to my question! I've been watching a couple of videos on trepanning and it looks like I would need to grind a custom cutter for the job which I've never done but think would be fun. However I'm concerned that the depth of cut might be too high which because flange is close to .625 or so just eye balling it.

Click to expand...

LOL! "depth of cut too HIGH?"

Somewhere in PM's archives..." is a still YOUNG John Oder, overseeing a trepanning operation.. a tad over half-way down a 'normous length of solid steel round to make it into a tube .. for drilling OIL WELLS. If that were not challenge enough? They then MET that half.. from the other end, and then... had a slug of steel good enough to make smaller goods from.

My modest collection of annular cutters presently stops at two-inch depth before it hits the slug.

Six-inch ones are stock items.

Maybe I should just go at it by reducing the diameter as mentioned by thermite.. I'm so new to the lathe that maybe thats the obvious answer for my situation. I'm only doing two wheel hubs anyways.

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Just TWO?

No further pondering needed, then.

JFDI.

"Hardened?" Most everything is.

REAL question is "to what level of hardness, and how deeply?"

For wheel hub flanges, it will not be by enough to bother decent HSS cutting tools, nor trifle Carbides in the least if you run those.

Interrupted cut, OTOH, as initial passes may be, flanges not always being true "round", HS manages better.

One can also switch tooling, mid job.

We did that OFTEN to get past the worst of corncob stick-weld repair build-ups, some tasking best served by three different HSS flavours, and now and then carbide TOO!

First comes safe. Later comes fast.

Start cautious. Gentle cuts. Workholding has to be "right" lest you pop the work out of the chuck and into something it can harm.

If yah pay attention, the machine-tool, cutter, and workpiece sorta "talk" to yah, and it becomes more natural.

Are you sure you're leaving enough diameter to keep your wheels pointed where you want them to go?

martinberryman said:

Are you sure you're leaving enough diameter to keep your wheels pointed where you want them to go?

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I'm planning to use the barrel of the wheel hub as a lower gate hinge for my driveway gate since it uses tapered bearings it can take a heavy axial and radial load.

12LbChevelle said:

I'm planning to use the barrel of the wheel hub as a lower gate hinge for my driveway gate since it uses tapered bearings it can take a heavy axial and radial load.

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Load transferred to WHAT, though?

PM has some threads as have covered the challenges of gates and anchors.

Consensus - if any - was that it is all about the primary pillar posts and their support infrastructure.

Hinge itself was otherwise not such a big factor.

"Page Two":

Some among us have "cartridge" type front wheel spindles. My 2005 XJ-8L uses one also found on FAR more numerous Fords.

They can be had NEW for as little as a hundred bucks a pair, about twice that when not on sale. See Detroit Axle for promo sales now and then. I mount NEW ones every time I mount new tires. Because they are BALL bearings, not tapered, and don't take road shocks as well as tapered, they eventually "rumble".

That said, they'd last a long time with a gate as load rather than a motorcar. So would the old ones we pull for discard.

Less "surgery" required. They are built with "ears" to bolt flat to a flange, so you just use them as-is by machining a steel plate off your anchor post. Or welding-on a salvaged front suspension plate they bolt to.

Japanese cars use them, too.

You could just make a hole big enough with the excavator, bury a cheap Jap rusticle on its side, one front spindle plumbed vertical, fill the voids with concrete, and bolt your gate to the dead motorcar-shaped-object.

If/as/when a replacement needed, it would be an unaltered bolt-in swap.

And.. I still say that a hinge isn't the biggest challenge for an endurng swinging gate. It's really all about the stability of the post, preferrably "H" braced, "L", or "T" braced.

Really heavy gate? Just bury a Komatsu bulldozer instead of a Honda.

So it finally comes out, you can destroy the outer flange, your keeping the center hub.

Trepanning is used when you want to keep as much of both parts as possible.

What kind of "lathe" are going to use for the attempt ?

I think on a lathe it would be a big thing to part off. Perhaps bust or cutting wheel it off and trim on a lathe might be safer..

May be cast iron so not easy to weld in place.

Oh, I see post #9 ..very good..it is a nice low price bearting device...

michiganbuck said:

I think on a lathe it would be a big thing to part off. Perhaps bust or cutting wheel it off and trim on a lathe might be safer..

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IF.. I had to doo this.. light/medium lathe... I could come at it from the face. To avoid interrupted-cut "ears" if the flange has such.

But.. not a groove or plunge. Wide path, partial facing cut with a broader round tip, back and forth for plenty of clearance.

Stop short of going clear through. He sez it is only .625", so BFD, yer "there" right swiftly.

Knock the weakened flange remains off with a hammer or notch with angle-grinder, then grip and break with channelocks.

Trim the burr.

Could save time if all yah have is a low-powered lathe?

Too much fuss over something simple.

I would just grind a good chip breaker in a large tool bit and start hogging. Would not take very long and a lot safer than so called trepanning or plunging a parting tool into the face of the rim.

I have broken parting tools due to misuse and you do not want to be within 50 feet of the lathe when this happens.

If you don't like that, then gas ax off most and head to the lathe.

SilveradoHauler said:

Too much fuss over something simple.

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No s**t!



Yah want a strong gate hinge?

Leave the whole damned axle intact!

Bolt the unaltered wheel-flange to a concreted-in wheel welded atop a driven steel piling.

U-bolt the gate to the axle housing.

If that ain't durable enough?

Protect it from being rammed by placing an anti-tank ditch either side, zero-in a four-deuce mortar section, add covering fire from belt-fed machine guns, pre-arrange air assets on-call.... to nail rioters or enemy sappers.

Figure out how to PAY for 24 by 7 Security platoons and the air-wing?

Good to go with a "Bunker Mentality"?

WTF? The OP running for Congress?

Or just Big Shiddy MAYOR?

..back in the "real world".. sliding gates on rollers are far the better deal that swinging ones.

When I first did such a job I ground a HSS bit with a curved side relief. I cut in maybe 1/8 inch then withdraw and move over a fraction to increase diameter of cut and go in 1/4" back and forth so the binding cut was never more then about 1/8" deep.
Bil lD

Hubs look like cast iron to me. I would turn the flanges into chips instead of trying to trepan them off. Hope you have a bull nose live center.
When you get them off how are you going to attach the gate to them?
How are you gonna keep the rain water out of the top?

If I understand your post and photos correctly, you want to cut the flange off, leaving the hub. And as much of the flange as possible would remain.

There is no reason why this can not be done, but you will probably have to grind your own tool. The problem here is the relief on the outer edge of that tool. It must have enough relief so that it does not come in contact with the circular edge that it has just cut. Judging by your photos, this would be around a 4" radius so the radius in a vertical direction on the outer edge of the tool must be less than that. And that relief must extend far enough back from the tip of the tool to allow for the full depth of the cut.

The tip of the tool, as viewed from above, can be an angle. It may be best to have the outside edge (the one that needs the clearance I mentioned above) parallel to the axis of the lathe or even a bit beyond that so that the tip of that edge passes through the flange first. This will simplify the relief requirements as the relief I talked about above would be on the surface below that edge. No other facets of the bit would need this extra relief.

The inner cutting edge of the tool can be at perhaps a 45° angle and it too will need relief but that can be the standard relief you would grind on any lathe tool.

I would keep the total width of the cutting part of the tool as small as possible. I would suggest about 1/8" to 3/16", depending on the power available in your lathe. This width must also extend far enough back from the tip of the tool as needed to allow the tip to cut to full depth.

The tool I describe above will leave a 45° protruding edge on the hub but after the flange is cut off, that can be finished with a regular lathe tool.