I loaned my machine to a friend many years ago. He had a wheel come loose and it bounced around on the lugs and ovaled out all the lug holes. I've been meaning to get it fixed for years. Well I finally decided just to fix it myself. Here's a pic from the backside of the holes. Forgot to take one from the front, it looked way worse. After talking to a real machinist. I made a plan - weld up the old holes and drill new ones. Did that about a week ago.
Then this weekend, I set about making some holes. I set the DRO up with an 8x8 bolt hole pattern. Spot drilled pilot holes and double check that everything was aligned. Then came back with a 1/2 & 3/4 drills. And finished off the holes with a 90 degree chamfer. Finally bead blasted to get it ready for some paint. Turned out awesome and fits on the machine perfect.
Looks great!!!!
Ha Mister: Very nice special skills!
Nice job.
It is a nice job. unfortunately, for me, I don't have the equipment, or time to do all that work, when a $31.50 part is available... https://www.shoupparts.com/RR8800-8-Bolt-Reinforcement-Ring To each his own, however, and the job does look better than any I have done, by adding the ring!
Awesome work ! Also didn't know about the add on rings Great thread
Nice job
The thing I'm not personally keen on regarding the repair/reinforcing ring is that it all depends on good quality welding for an acceptable end result. Not too many people who don't work as a welder for a living have that level of welding skills. Welding on wheel rims always gets me twitchy, but simply filling in the holes and re-drilling offset between the previous hole pattern is a procedure that has much more chance of a successful long-term result without inducing the possibility of more cracking IMHO.
Yeah, rings are definitely an option. Had a few people also tell me just to buy a new rim too. In this case I was really trying to restore the rim. These square center case rims are kind of rare and it's part of the original set. Local shop wanted $400 to do the repair. So I figured it was more than worth some of my time to get what I wanted. Plus I had the equipment. I just got the vert mill last fall and this was my first real project with it. It was about learning a bunch of new stuff as much as fixing the rim. The DRO does bolt hole patterns and made the job fairly easy. I think I have a total of 6 hrs into this (if you don't count all the youtube videos I watched), but I spend a lot of time double checking everything.