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Thinking of making some, reasonably sure I have the tooling and ability but have a few questions.
Aluminium? What grade?
What bolts to hold to hub, ive seen allen cap heads used?
Can I use studs in the hub and nuts to hold adapters on? If so, what kind of nut and seat?
Studs for wheels or bolts?
How much material needed beneath the bolts holding it to the wheel.
Not sure if ill do adapters or re drill so gathering info to help me make the choice.
Thanks.
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steveg
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,565
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I looked at making some for my Volvo but by the time I got some machined and then bought some studs it was getting as expensive as it would to buy some. The ones I bought in the end use the standard studs in the hub with special wheel nuts to attach the adaptors. The wheels are then attached to the hubs using standard wheel studs and normal wheel nuts. A lot of what you can do depends on how thick an adaptor is, the narrowest you can get using press in studs is about 25mm. The thickness of the material under the nut is important, too little and the adaptor won't be strong enough. You don't have to make them out of alloy, steel would be better on thinner spacers. This is a drawing I did at the time. The nuts holding the adaptor on have standard size tapers on them but smaller Hex's to allow you to get a socket on them.  I'm not too keen on the alloy adaptors that have threaded holes in them for wheel bolts. Firstly you can only have bolts that are either exactly the right length or shorter and it's easy to damage an alloy thread. |
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Mar 31, 2016 10:51:27 GMT
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Thats alot of help, thanks.
Looking at the holes for the hub studs, I assume you cut the studs down and slimmed the nuts to be able to get them flush/below the surface?
I can turn them in alloy but my 114 year old lathe might struggle on steel.
If alloy, what grade?
Agreed about costs, adapters are under £300 to buy, making them might not be that much cheaper.
Might be easier to re drill the hubs but I need to get the back axle apart to see if I have room on my drill.
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I wouldn't like bolting wheels to an aluminium adapter, makes more sense to machine a top hat insert from steel, pressed in from the back of adapter. That's how the H&R ones are made.
But tbh, so long as you don't gorilla the wheel bolts tight, it should be fine.
Also regarding material. Buying enough 6061 or similar grade is probably going to cost the same as buying adapters. I made some years ago just because there wasn't any off the shelf. Not sure why you'd make them if a suitable adapter is available.
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'89 Black Polo Coupe S - Twin Cams, Twin 40's
'99 Black Saxo VTS - Track Day Carl
'05 Grey Golf GTi - Stage 2+ 286bhp
'04 Honda XR125 - MPG winning commuter
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I thought it would be a good exercise to teach me some more lathe skills, and I thought it would be cheaper.
It probably wont be!
Think ill have a look at redrilling and if I cant for any reason ill get some adapters made.
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steveg
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,565
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I wouldn't like bolting wheels to an aluminium adapter, makes more sense to machine a top hat insert from steel, pressed in from the back of adapter. That's how the H&R ones are made. But tbh, so long as you don't gorilla the wheel bolts tight, it should be fine. Also regarding material. Buying enough 6061 or similar grade is probably going to cost the same as buying adapters. I made some years ago just because there wasn't any off the shelf. Not sure why you'd make them if a suitable adapter is available. I didn't know if the H&R ones had thread inserts for wheel bolts or not. I have seen some of another make that didn't but when I found the H&R with studs available from the US cheaper then I could get any here I just bought some. What are these going to be for, your CF ? Are Carlton / Senator wheels the right stud pattern ? |
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Yeah CF.
5x6" to probably 5x4.75"
Ill probably drill, will just depend if I can get the halfshaft under my pillar drill.
I'm also considering 17" steels which I can get made in the correct pcd.
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Not difficult to do. Thinnest I have made is 18mm. Don't like wheel bolts into ally,so I use a slightly different method. Counterbore spacer from the back and cut a thread Normally metric fine. Mine were M12x1.5. Buy suitable hex headed bolts. Tighten them in from the back. When you counter bore the back,do it less than the thickness of the head. Tighten bolts in,put in the lathe and skim everything flush. Job done
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MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,786 
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I first made a set nearly 20 years ago now. I used aluminium (I forget what grade) and used helicoil inserts for the wheel bolts to screw into. Drove that car hard (Sprintfire) and never had a single problem.
AFAIK it still has them fitted now.
The turning is the easy part. You really need an indexing head on a pillar drill or preferably a vertical milling machine, to ensure you have the holes accurately positioned
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I was going to make an indent stop for the lathes spindle gear (antique lathe, all exposed geatring) so I could turn the adapters, scratch a circle at the correct pcd's then put my dremel or similar in the toolpost somehow. Then I could use the bull wheel as a dividing head and pilot the stud holes.
Then bang it in my ancient kerry super 8 pillar drill to do the holes fully.
Would all be a little homebrew but I think I could make it work.
Ill do similar if I end up redrilling hubs instead.
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