I want to resurface one of my flywheels for FCGizmo but it's warped about .001 and I'm not sure where there is a good machined surface to hold it by. I have a lathe with a 3 jaw and a 4 jaw chuck that I don't want to use and a mill with a turntable that I plan to put tool & cutter grinder wheels in and then I'll put it on a buff to give it a polish.
Now.... On the back, there is a lip maybe half an inch thick that was machined on a lathe at the factory (if you look its the only part besides the center that is machined and it has lathe lines from not being polished). I want to avoid using a chuck. Is that lip something I can assume is true? If not, can I assume the *** end of the taper - the part that looks like a washer - is true?

 

Go by a machine shop and ask them where they would hold it by.

 

That's a damn fine idea man.
Granted I work at a machine shop and nobody there would be able to help at all... And I wanna get it done before Monday too. So now I have a plan B. Thanks for saying the most obvious thing that anyone could have possibly said and giving about the best advice I have ever heard on this forum, lol
Has anyone ever even done this before? And if so, how? It's worth mentioning that I got a lathe with a 6" swing and a gap table that I dont wanna use because we're pushing it to get to the outside and I got a worn out lathe with a 13" swing that I don't wanna use because it's worn out. Hence the mill and the turntable.

 

Lol, yeah well I've never done one personally, always had the machine shop do it (usually around 30-40 bucks, sometimes 50), so that was the most useful answer I could think of But if you want it done by Monday, well...

Maybe if we had pics of your machine, could answer you better. I can't envision it in my head, so can't even give you a SWAG

 

Well I can manipulate my equipment pretty good, but the problem is the flywheel itself. I have a pretty jenky setup right now but it (i think) works. I just need to know what on the other side of the flywheel is true?
All I know is that no matter how I set it up I'm getting at LEAST .001 warpage per dial gauge and I know that the contacting surface is warpo because I set it on two flat jigs and it wobbled.

 

Have you ever seen a flywheel resurfacign machine.... every time I've seen it done they were using a grinder, a big grinder.... but a grinder none the less.

A lathe just isn't the tool for the job.

 

Have a machine shop do it. It will be a lot truer than a lathe. Last time i got one done the "end mill" was about three inches.

 

That's called a tool & cutter grinder. The average one of those is accurate to about .00005 (half a ten thousandth), which is about the same as the lathe I would be using or the mill I am using.

But even a machine shop needs a true surface on the other side. I could use a digital balance and the turntable on the lathe as well as a runout gauge to make sure it's spinning true but if I have a machined surface to start out with - one that started out true to the taper on the inside - it would be accurate enough. A flywheel with a few ten thousandths of play is fine as long as it is balanced.

So anyone know where there is a machined surface to use for resurfacing?

 

I am by no means a machinist, but I did work at a machine shop back in the day as an apprenticeship. The way we resurfaced the flywheels there(take this as a grain of sand that place sucked as i found out after i left there) was on a lathe, basically we worked it like milling brake rotors cutting down enough to where the surface was true, but not enough to be out of spec. We did this through a series of "fast" cuts that left the surface rough to the touch then to a slow cut and a even slower cut(cannot remember the rpms sorry) and finished off the surface with 120 grit paper in a swirling motion so it does not have a uniform direction

But like I said take this as a grain of sand, the place closed down not to long ago due to shaddy business, and shoddy work.

 

yeah see that's what I would like to do but like I said I don't wanna use the gap table because I can't hardly get to the outside of the surface and I don't wanna use the lathe with the 13" swing because it's so wore out it's just not accurate worth anything. I can see it missing with my eyes. I made a collet/chuck thing so I can put tool & cutter grinder stones in the mill but I'm not sure what on the back of the flywheel is true. Worst case scenario I'll use a 3 jaw chuck on the mill but I would rather use my turntable because it's bad ***.

 

Something to look at while waiting for a answer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY_r01cR114


and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCEXBapyRhE

 

Thanks for deleting the flamebait fellas.
HAILERS, did you see the power feed on that second video? that thing is bad ***! It can prolly thread a table length piece of all thread without anyone even watching lol

Mazda asserts that from the factory everything machined was true to everything else. What useful information, lol