Turning Brake Disks on Kz

Hey Gang - I am considering having a local automotive machine shop turn my disks on their cutting lathe to clean them up and get rid of the shallow grooves. I am talking only taking a few thousandths of an inch off to have the new pads sit better as well as clean up the appearance of the 3 disks on my 650 custom.

I know they used to do this years ago with auto brake disks but most places simply replace the disks these days.

Any advice on having this done from fellow members that have had it done?

Cheers-Colin Firth-Ontario Canada

dropped my three discs off at a tranny / driveshaft shop two weeks ago. i know a guy that works there, he stared at my rotors for a while and said "i've got just the machine."

he's going to use a machine that they use to turn flywheel and clutch stuff for big trucks and semis.

the cutting wheel looks like a wire cup brush, the kind that chucks in your drill, but obviously it's a lot bigger, impregnated with diamond chips, and rigidly mounted on a machine arm and it faces down toward a turntable for the workpiece.

he said he thought it would come out looking good as new. they said they will take as little material as possible to remove all the grooves and it should produce a new appearance.

will post up pics when they return!

a standard drum and rotor machine will not cut a bikes rotor, the best thing is to grind them, but you need to make sure they can be kept flat, also check the thickness to make sure you dont get them too thin

I think both sides of the rotor have to be ground at the same time to prevent warping. Its been awhile since I read the article in the filebase about the dual disc upgrade

sheik*yerbouti wrote:

dropped my three discs off at a tranny / driveshaft shop two weeks ago. i know a guy that works there, he stared at my rotors for a while and said "i've got just the machine."

he's going to use a machine that they use to turn flywheel and clutch stuff for big trucks and semis.

the cutting wheel looks like a wire cup brush, the kind that chucks in your drill, but obviously it's a lot bigger, impregnated with diamond chips, and rigidly mounted on a machine arm and it faces down toward a turntable for the workpiece.

he said he thought it would come out looking good as new. they said they will take as little material as possible to remove all the grooves and it should produce a new appearance.

will post up pics when they return!

thats exactly what i was gonna suggest;)

I agree also. My rotors were resurfaced at an engine machine shop on a flywheel refacer, instead of a brake lathe making sure the thickness stays uniform. It takes off only a few thou, leaving a nicer finish without chattering, eliminates the phonograph record groove effect, takes out the hard spots better, and gives you really smoooooooth braking for about $20 - $30 a rotor. The minimum rotor thickness will be found in your service manual. Worked great on my Corvette too. Best of luck to you.

Good topic. I have been wondering for a while what I could do about the "record look" on my front rotor. Thanks for the info.

Why waste the time when you can just pick up a cheap one like this:
Cheap disk on eBay
What a sweet deal!:laugh: Actually there was a place on e-bay that was advertising rotor grinding for $35 each I believe. Problem would be shipping charges! Let us know what you find I need a few done.

Post edited by: steell, at: 2007/03/12 23:27

holy crap, almost five hundo shipped for *one* rotor.

thank you allpro transmission shop! $50 to surface all three...

This guy on E-Bay will grind your disk for $43.00 including shipping. He's got over 1100 feed backs with 100%. I just sent my rear disk from an 85 1300 off to him. I did it despite knowing that it's way too grooved. Be interesting to see how he handles it.

Check him out. Search for "smw70ss" on E-Bay

KZCSI

Here is a link to one of his auctions...
tinyurl.com/2hydz5

Holy schnikes if mine look anything close to that I'll be ecstatic! Sounds more like the machine my shop is going to use, not a brake lathe but a rotary surface grinder...



Post edited by: sheik*yerbouti, at: 2007/03/13 02:09