Thread: Flywheel machining

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

If the flywheel is cast iron, there will be a work-hardened skin on the surface. Chatter occurs if you are not taking a deep enough cut, that is, you are trying to cut in the work hardened zone, not in the soft iron underneath. Or if the setup is not sufficiently rigid.

I have noticed motor mechanical types, not machinists, using brake and flywheel lathes who seem afraid to take a deep cut. They think this will extend the component life and/or the life of the tungsten carbide inserts. False economy. The inserts will damage more easily if trying to cut the hard skin and not the soft cheese underneath.

Not sure that such reasoning comes into it, in my mechanicing days (25+ years ago) we were not trained at all in the finer points of turning, fellas using the brake lathe were learning as they went and taking as light a cut as possible seemed to make sense to most, we would take off a series of light cuts until the surface was flat then take an even finer cut with slow feed to finish. The machine would scream like a banshee all the while and we took that as normal. We would have been scared to take a deep cut whereas a trained machinist would have known what you've stated above. How deep a cut will take off the hard skin?

That's not a dm flywheel