Slotted balls

[Duarte19]

Hi Guys,

I have some swivel balls I need slotted for castor correction, does anyone know where in Melbourne I can get this done?

LRAutomotive can't do it till next week and i was hoping to get it done by the weekend,

[steveG]

Don't know of anyone else that offers the service, but its not a difficult job, and I'd expect any decent machinist should be able to do it for you (I've even done my own in the past in the drill press).

You might struggle to get someone who hasn't done it before to finish it by the weekend though, and likely find they load the price accordingly.

Steve

[fender95vnt]

I have a pair of slotted balls that are surplus to needs: Swivel Balls that is! and I am in Melbourne.

[POD]

You could do them yourself with a round file and a few hours. Seriously.

[uninformed]

You could do them yourself with a round file and a few hours. Seriously.

I doubt it....... Seriously!

[steveG]

You could do them yourself with a round file and a few hours. Seriously.

Possibly, but you'd also need a few large buckets of enthusiasm.
You'd also want to make sure that you protected the ball well or a few good pokes from the end of the file would gouge the chrome.

IMO, the easiest way to do them yourself at home would be to get a couple of rings of 12mm steel laser cut with holes to match the existing holes in the ball flange. Sit the ring on the ball, rotate the holes to the desired position and tack weld the ring in place. Drill through the ring to give the holes in the new location, grind the tacks off and finish the slots with a die grinder.

If you really wanted to do them with a file I'm happy to come over and document the process with a couple of beers, but guaranteed I won't be driving home afterwards :angel:

Steve

[rangieman]

Possibly, but you'd also need a few large buckets of enthusiasm.
You'd also want to make sure that you protected the ball well or a few good pokes from the end of the file would gouge the chrome.

IMO, the easiest way to do them yourself at home would be to get a couple of rings of 12mm steel laser cut with holes to match the existing holes in the ball flange. Sit the ring on the ball, rotate the holes to the desired position and tack weld the ring in place. Drill through the ring to give the holes in the new location, grind the tacks off and finish the slots with a die grinder.

If you really wanted to do them with a file I'm happy to come over and document the process with a couple of beers, but guaranteed I won't be driving home afterwards :angel:

Steve
You must be a very slow drinker for just a couple of beers for a job like this:D

[steveG]

You must be a very slow drinker for just a couple of beers for a job like this:D

Per hole ;)

Steve

[POD]

When I did the caster correction on my last car, I took the swivel housings to a local engineering shop, the bloke who owns the shop, whom I know reasonably well, said that if he were to take the job on, he would set his apprentice to it with a file rather than use the mill. Lamented about how filing is getting to be a lost art and everyone wants to do everything by machine, etc....explained how with a job like this it takes longer to set up in a machine than it would take to do with a file- also about $100 per hour more expensive.

I did mine with an end mill in the drill press, cos I'm just as lazy a git as the rest of you lot. It was very hard on the morse taper of the drill press as they are not intended to take side loads.
I think SteveG's suggestion would result in drunken holes as well as a drunk observer, as the drill would cut into the guide in an unpredictable manner. Might work with an end mill with flutes shorter than the thickness of the guide plate.
My next set are going to be done with a milling arrangement in the lathe, using the jig I fabricated for the drill press arrangement. I could offer to do Duarte's but no way I would be able to spend the time to do a job like this within the next several weeks.

[uninformed]

When I did the caster correction on my last car, I took the swivel housings to a local engineering shop, the bloke who owns the shop, whom I know reasonably well, said that if he were to take the job on, he would set his apprentice to it with a file rather than use the mill. Lamented about how filing is getting to be a lost art and everyone wants to do everything by machine, etc....explained how with a job like this it takes longer to set up in a machine than it would take to do with a file- also about $100 per hour more expensive.

I did mine with an end mill in the drill press, cos I'm just as lazy a git as the rest of you lot. It was very hard on the morse taper of the drill press as they are not intended to take side loads.
I think SteveG's suggestion would result in drunken holes as well as a drunk observer, as the drill would cut into the guide in an unpredictable manner. Might work with an end mill with flutes shorter than the thickness of the guide plate.
My next set are going to be done with a milling arrangement in the lathe, using the jig I fabricated for the drill press arrangement. I could offer to do Duarte's but no way I would be able to spend the time to do a job like this within the next several weeks.

All well and good, And yes at apprentice wages it possibly could be cheaper.

AT a "few hrs" thats 180min, dived that by 14 holes and thats less than 13min per hole. How far and accurate could you file one hole in 13min?

I had mine done by LRA, I can tell by the witness marks that the material is bloody hard. They are AM balls, all be it OEM (what ever that means these days) So maybe the Genuine are a little softer??

But I still think hand filling and doing it accurately would be min of 8 hr job!

[POD]

Wasn't suggesting it would be easy. Was suggesting it would be a way to get it done by the end of the week. Not my choice of how to go about it, but if that was what was standing between me and a big trip, I reckon I'd find the motivation.
Time now to move on methinks.

[steveG]

When I did the caster correction on my last car, I took the swivel housings to a local engineering shop, the bloke who owns the shop, whom I know reasonably well, said that if he were to take the job on, he would set his apprentice to it with a file rather than use the mill. Lamented about how filing is getting to be a lost art and everyone wants to do everything by machine, etc....explained how with a job like this it takes longer to set up in a machine than it would take to do with a file- also about $100 per hour more expensive.

I did mine with an end mill in the drill press, cos I'm just as lazy a git as the rest of you lot. It was very hard on the morse taper of the drill press as they are not intended to take side loads.
I think SteveG's suggestion would result in drunken holes as well as a drunk observer, as the drill would cut into the guide in an unpredictable manner. Might work with an end mill with flutes shorter than the thickness of the guide plate.
My next set are going to be done with a milling arrangement in the lathe, using the jig I fabricated for the drill press arrangement. I could offer to do Duarte's but no way I would be able to spend the time to do a job like this within the next several weeks.

It doesn't. There's plenty of meat in the guide, and you'd only be using each guide hole once. Typically you're cutting more than half a hole in the swivel so its cutting around most of the drill circumference and therefore not a lot of side load. I did my last set using a 15mm block with a single hole which I moved from hole to hole. After 7 holes it was starting to show a bit of wear so I used a new block for the second swivel.
The swivel is located by the raised center portion which sits inside the axle housing, so even if the holes/slots aren't perfect it doesn't affect the setup.

Steve

[POD]

I like the sound of your technique Steve, I would have thought the flutes of the drill would bite more than that when drilling off centre of an existing hole, but if it works, great. You could even use the bolt ring of a stuffed swivel housing as a template, cut the rest off in a lathe. The bolts do just provide clamping force rather than actually locating the thing, I put in 2 extra bolts with non-slotted holes to prevent any rotation but in reality I can't see the thing rotating anyway once clamped up.

[uninformed]

Wasn't suggesting it would be easy. Was suggesting it would be a way to get it done by the end of the week. Not my choice of how to go about it, but if that was what was standing between me and a big trip, I reckon I'd find the motivation.
Time now to move on methinks.

ahhh, understand now.... I guess it was the "few hrs" and "seriously" that led me to think that. For me most things that can be done in a "few hrs" are relativey easy ;)