Good uses for old brake rotors?

Bi11Hudson said:
When rotors are "dead flat", such as surface plate flat, the pads don't get pushed clear when the brakes are released.
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pads are retracted by the deformation of the o-rings in the piston bores and the reduction in brake fluid pressure. Press on the brake pedal, o-ring deforms a little, release the brake pedal, o-ring goes back to original shape. If the piston travel is large (like getting pads back to the disks after pushing the piston in) then the o-ring slips. Reduction in brake fluid pressure also pulls the piston back a bit, until the return port in the master cylinder is opened. Total pad travel from brakes off to on is really small, which is why the rotors have to be dead flat. Getting the pads to clear warped or bent rotors = lots of pad travel and brakes that engage way too late.
 
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I am worry about the cast iron dust on a lathe, but wonder if it can be used to make a steady rest. People cut them into chip, I cut them and they turn into powder.
 
GunsOfNavarone said:
Very cool idea! Out of curiosity...what is the "foot pedal" hanging by threaded rod at the bottom?
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You can just see the chrome sleeve from a Harley rear spring below the bowling ball. The spring provides the clamping pressure. The foot pedal pulls the lower disk down to loosen the ball so you can position the vise.
 
nnam said:
I am worry about the cast iron dust on a lathe, but wonder if it can be used to make a steady rest. People cut them into chip, I cut them and they turn into powder.
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re: The dust from cast iron.

My usual practice is to lay paper towels along the ways. Cast iron (and ductile iron) make dust where steel makes curli-ques, chips. It is a known factor. I have a use for the commercial rolls of paper towels from Sam's and just tear off a couple of pieces to protect the lathe when I'm working cast.

The dust is abrasive, when mixed with oil could just as well be lapping compound. It should be avoided at all costs from settling on the machine.

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I do the same thing with paper towels but I also spray some light oil on the paper towels to make the dust stick a little. Not 100% effective but it helps.
 
Superburban said:
Many of them say they should be turned on the car after mounting them. Depending on how they are mounted, they can be twisted by uneven tightening of the lugs. I think that mainly applies to the style that have the rotor held to the hub by the lugs, not the ones where the rotor is captured between the hub and the wheel. Do many shops even have the equipment to resurface rotors mounted on a vehicle?
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i've heard that too but i believe i am safe in saying that the car manufacturers do not turn them on the car on the assembly line so i have always ignored that theory.
i can do them either way. the only way i do them on the vehicle is if the rotors do not come off easily.

i have a horror story of how the so called "machinist" did them at a car dealership i worked at when i was a puppy.
 
Reddinr said:
I do the same thing with paper towels but I also spray some light oil on the paper towels to make the dust stick a little. Not 100% effective but it helps.
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My machine is so old and loose and literally awash with oil, that laying paper towels or news paper or even grocery bag paper will soak up so much oil it becomes saturated on contact. Of course, the flat, non-prismatic ways of the Atlas just reinforce this.

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Hawkeye said:
You can just see the chrome sleeve from a Harley rear spring below the bowling ball. The spring provides the clamping pressure. The foot pedal pulls the lower disk down to loosen the ball so you can position the vise.
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That's REALLY slick! Here I am using it as a door stop....;)
 
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