Good Steel From Car Parts?

[intjonmiller]

I just got a lathe. I'm anxious to get some practice on it, and I want to focus on making things to be used in making more things. I honestly have no end goal with the lathe. I just love making stuff. My next-door-neighbor watched me haul in sheets of plywood the other day and then said, "So it seems like you just like making stuff?" Yep.

Due to my inexperience and the fact that this is all for fun, it's hard to justify purchasing stock if I have other options. There are nearby scrap yards which have served me well in the past, but I work at a major car dealership. Actually I'm at one of three dealerships in our auto group on the block, plus a body shop. I have virtually unlimited access to junk car parts. If I had a use for them I could get dozens of brake rotors and such today, and dozens more in the months to come. Other parts are less common, but I see quite a bit go through.

I figure any sort of axle or power transfer type shaft is going to be decent grade for making shop tools. What else? I'm friendly with a few of the dozens of mechanics (er, Certified Automotive Repair Parts Changers), who service all makes and models, and they're willing to watch for and hold onto things for me instead of throwing them in the scrap bin. I just need to let them know what to hold.

So what would you grab?

Thanks!

 

[jpfabricator]

Axles are some good steal, good for making punches, but a bear to turn unless you anneal them first.
Check into making a backyard aluminum forge to make castings, then refine them on the machines.
Crankshafts in larger motors have some pretty decent chunks of cast iron.
A project for this winter is to make some stub axles for some ford truck rotors I scrounged up, weld the stubbies into some pipe and make me a drag axle for a utility trailer.
Its really a matter of seeing the dimond in the rough when it comes to free junk!
Sent from somewhere in East Texas Jake Parker

 

[intjonmiller]

Like this?





I haven't done much form casting yet beyond pouring these cylinders for turning. I have good sand and clay for the purpose, and I've read extensively, but I haven't done it yet. I have had a 2"x72" knife makers' style grinder build on hold for a while. I want to add a 12" disc sander as one of the wheel options. I can't turn that on my 10" lathe but I can use my brother's 12", and that will be a fun project to cast. I figure I'll form a chuck-able section on both sides so I can face both sides, then turn it off of the unneeded side. That will also make the form more interesting to make.

 

[steve323]

The trouble with random car parts is that you never really know what type it is or what temper it is. Many parts will be hardened and then you have to go through the trouble of annealing it.

I grabbed a chunk of EMT conduit when I got my lathe and tried to turn it using the chipped carbide tool that came with the lathe. What a disaster. It works so much better after picking up a few 6061 aluminum rounds from Ebay and some good cutting tools.

Steve

 

[JR49]

Intjonmiller, absolutely ask any front end guys you're friendly with to save you all the steering linkage parts they replace. Especially the long arm that connects the front wheels (can't think of it's name) if the ball joint is bad, they throw the whole rod away. Just cut the ends off, and you have a great long piece of round stock 1" or on the bigger 4X4 trucks even 1 1/2" dia. These parts are not hard, and they machine beautifully. Happy Machining, JR49

 

[rgray]

I save the axles from cars and atv's. The shafts are surface hardened which is not so good for the lathe but great for grinding machines. Larger rear drive axles are usually workable away from the spline and bearing area. There is a nice chunk of steel to be had from front wheel hub assemblies.
I've been saving up the brake rotors and drums and want to attempt a cast iron pour some day.
Ruined cylinder heads both cast iron and aluminum should be good items to melt down.

 

[intjonmiller]

The trouble with random car parts is that you never really know what type it is or what temper it is. Many parts will be hardened and then you have to go through the trouble of annealing it.

I'm well aware of the challenges of dealing with mystery metal. I'm not trying to make quality knives out of bed frames or old circular saw blades. I'm not making parts for NASA. I'm talking about spiders, hold-downs, t-nuts, chuck keys, etc. I probably have half a ton of A36 hot rolled flat bar scraps of various widths and lengths (nearly all nominally 3/16" thick) from a shop where I used to work. That's great for welding up shelf brackets and all sorts of things. But it's not very good for machining things that I don't want to warp under moderate strain.

Last night my father came by to use his old lathe. He no longer has room for it, so he used it in my brother's garage, and now he'll occasionally use it in mine. He never had a decent center, and never a live center of any sort, so the first thing I ordered after getting the lathe was a "decent" live center from Shars. But it hadn't arrived and we needed a center for what he was doing, and the badly mushroomed 2" piece of mild steel he had turned to a point and chucked in the tailstock drill chuck wasn't going to cut it (honestly I don't know if it ever did). So we spent an hour setting up and turning a 2MT and a 60 degree point to make a new dead center. We used a piece of 5/8" hot rolled mild steel because that's all I had. Note that you can't get more than about 2" of taper from 5/8" stock, but it was sufficient for our needs last night. It sure would have been nice to have some good mystery metal of unquestionably better grade than that mild steel so our work would have produced something to last.

Intjonmiller, absolutely ask any front end guys you're friendly with to save you all the steering linkage parts they replace. Especially the long arm that connects the front wheels (can't think of it's name) if the ball joint is bad, they throw the whole rod away. Just cut the ends off, and you have a great long piece of round stock 1" or on the bigger 4X4 trucks even 1 1/2" dia. These parts are not hard, and they machine beautifully. Happy Machining, JR49

I save the axles from cars and atv's. The shafts are surface hardened which is not so good for the lathe but great for grinding machines. Larger rear drive axles are usually workable away from the spline and bearing area. There is a nice chunk of steel to be had from front wheel hub assemblies.
I've been saving up the brake rotors and drums and want to attempt a cast iron pour some day.
Ruined cylinder heads both cast iron and aluminum should be good items to melt down.

That's what I'm talking about! Thank you both, that is very helpful! What specifically would I look for with the front wheel hub assemblies? Plenty of those available, too. If it's worth the 6+ hour drive (each way) you're welcome to come down and pick up some yourself.

 

[intjonmiller]

I probably have half a ton of A36 hot rolled flat bar scraps of various widths and lengths (nearly all nominally 3/16" thick) from a shop where I used to work. That's great for welding up shelf brackets and all sorts of things. But it's not very good for machining things that I don't want to warp under moderate strain.

And incidentally, while I've never tried to machine it myself, I have heard plenty of horror stories about ruined bandsaw blades and end mills from hitting chunks of much harder steel in the middle of A36. That's a real mystery metal right there. Some areas behave like 1018, others like stainless, in the same visually continuous piece.

 

[kd4gij]

From the front end tie rods and sway bars.

 

[Grumpy Gator]

These make good grinder stand bases.

*G*