StealthElephant

http://www.thirdgenresource.com/inc/...l?v=1&pid=1129

So, my boss at work has a 3 axis mill/lathe/drill press.

Could I just buy stock aluminum and have him mill me some adapters rather then pay 360$+S/H?

I mean, what kind of aluminum is strong enough to do the job? Is this possible? Not something you want to be guessing with since if they fail you lose a wheel while moving, but it just seems like alot of money for what is basically a round piece of aluminum.

ede

i had considered making a set but the cost of the material didn't really off set any savings, unless you can find a piece or two of scrap aluminum laying around

StealthElephant

What is the material? I mean, does it have to be aluminum?

I would think stock round bars of aluminum or steel should be cheap. http://www.josephfazzioinc.com/prodpics.html look at the 5th picture from the top, the picture shows round aluminum stock, my boss lives 2 miles from this place.

That round bar of structural aluminum....that should work? I have no idea what strength is needed to make solid pieces to act as wheel adapters.

However I HAVE to think it's not very complicated when it comes to the design, all they do is offset the wheels, it's basically a spacer with 5 studs in them to bolt the wheels to right? I mean, would 4340 round steel stock do it?

alloy

iTrader: (16)

Well there are a lot of factors to consider here. First 4130 or 4140 would work, but steel is 2/3rd's more weight than the sime size piece of aluminum. And, this is unsprung weight you are adding at probably the worst place you could think of adding weight to. Not to mention any of the 4100 series of materials will be very expensive.

Can your boss mill these out? Sure he can. If he has CNC machines he can set up the double bolt patterns and drill with with great accuracy. He can also mill out the center to clear the hub section of your brake rotor. And, don't forget that the holes he drills for you to bolt these onto your car need a special taper in the bottom of the hole to match the conical lug nuts. Which means special tooling for that operation of the job.

Then you need to find the proper wheel studs to use, (not import crap studs) and the calculate the correct hole size and depth for a press fit of the knurled wheel studs into the adapters. And don't forget add the price of 20 additional lug nuts and 20 wheel studs to the cost of this project.

And, just as ede said, unless you can find some scrap or rems/drops of material to make these out of, you are much better off buying a known product with a proven design and many thousands of miles of testing behind the parts. As you said, these are pretty critical parts you are dealing with. So, probably best to just buy the adapters and call it good.

And, just in case you wonder who I am, I've owned a machine shop over 15 years now and I'm the designer/manufacturer if the Spohn 13" Pro series brake kits and the billet aluminum strut mounts he markets.

89FormulaRoth

iTrader: (1)

Yes, it is possible and I did it. I cut out two pieces of .500 thick 2024 aluminum plate about 1" larger than the diameter of my front brake rotor hub. I had a machine shop use a lathe to cut the spacer out and down to .375. I used a junkyard hub as a template and drilled the holes for the lugs to fit through. They work great and I wouldn't have been able to fit my SLP wheels on my front hubs (because they hit the tie rods) without these spacers. The stock SLP spacers were garbage!

ede

big differance between a shim and an adapter. don't remember of the top of my head now, but i was thinking just to get the material cut from supplier was in the 100 dollar range plus the material wasn't cheap, also in or above 100 dollars. add the cost of studs and nuts to it and it isn't, or wasn't, worth it to me

MrDude_1

unless you have everything you need already there, both tools and material, its not really cost effective..... like they said above...

VortecZ

iTrader: (2)

I agree with the guys suggesting you just buy them. However you can make them yourself. I made mine out of some steel tubing that I had that was 6" OD and 2" ID. They are 2" thick so I can run my C5 wheels. You do need to know exactly what the size and depth the holes need to be. I thing it took a 60 degree countersink to fit the lug nuts but I don't remember for sure. I designed them up on CAD and machined them out a couple years ago. I have over 75k milles on them now with no problems. Just about any steel will be strong enough but if you make them out of aluminum, you will want 6061. All I had to pay for was the studs and lug nuts but if you have to spend much more than that, you are better off buying them.

TexasLT1

I'm running custom made 1" adapters on front. We made them out of, I believe, 6061 aluminum. 6" bar stock, hole drilled in center to clear hub, countersunk holes to bolt adapter to hub, then longer studs put in to bolt wheel on. We made 4, but I'm only using 2....can get pics if needed.

89FormulaRoth

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, I'd buy them too, but in my situation I was able to make my own. Pictured are on the left mine and on the right the stock SLP version. The reason I made my own was because the SLP ones weren't thick enough to provide enough clearance between the rim and the tie rod.