Tapered Hole needed..
Discussion
I need a ball joint hole drilling for a set of hubs that I am modifying. I can see the hole on the existing hubs is (tapered)?? well in my terms bigger one end than the other :P How are these holes done like that? Does anyone have the tools or knowledge?? Im based in Redditch.
Many Thanks
Neal
Tapered holes are produced with a tapered drill and then finished with a tapered reamer of the appropriate size and angle of taper. Engineering has lots of specialist tapers for different applications such as Morse tapers for holding lathe and milling tools, Jacobs chuck mounting tapers, R8 milling cutter holder tapers etc etc. Normally only firms specialising in producing each specific bit of kit will have such rare tooling so you aren't going to get it done easily at an average jobbing machine shop. Most generic tooling is only for producing parallel holes.
You'll have to identify which particular taper you need then see if you can find someone with that specific tooling or that can buy it and to be honest that's probably only going to be a specialist suspension manufacturer.
Here's the type of thing but there'll be loads of different specs for different cars.
http://www.pmzracingproducts.com/ball_joint_reamer...
Tapers are normally identified in one of two ways.
1) Taper in inches per foot which is the change in diameter (not radius) per foot of linear length of the centreline of the tool.
2) The included angle i.e. between the opposite sides of the taper in degrees.
Clearly it's trivially easy to convert between the two with basic trigonometry. Well it's trivially easy if you're an engineer I suppose. With today's education standards I suppose it's close to black magic but I digress.
Common ball joint tapers for British and American cars are 1.5" per foot which equates to 7.153 degrees and 2" per foot which equates to 9.527 degrees included angle. Sometimes these are rounded to 7 and 10 degrees.
You'll have to identify which particular taper you need then see if you can find someone with that specific tooling or that can buy it and to be honest that's probably only going to be a specialist suspension manufacturer.
Here's the type of thing but there'll be loads of different specs for different cars.
http://www.pmzracingproducts.com/ball_joint_reamer...
Tapers are normally identified in one of two ways.
1) Taper in inches per foot which is the change in diameter (not radius) per foot of linear length of the centreline of the tool.
2) The included angle i.e. between the opposite sides of the taper in degrees.
Clearly it's trivially easy to convert between the two with basic trigonometry. Well it's trivially easy if you're an engineer I suppose. With today's education standards I suppose it's close to black magic but I digress.
Common ball joint tapers for British and American cars are 1.5" per foot which equates to 7.153 degrees and 2" per foot which equates to 9.527 degrees included angle. Sometimes these are rounded to 7 and 10 degrees.
Edited by Pumaracing on Thursday 15th October 11:18
Theres probably a few places in Redditch that could do that for you. I would suggest starting off asking in a couple of the engineering shops in the Enfield Trading estate.
If you turn into the Enfield trading estate and follow your nose right down to the end of the road there's an engineering shop down there with a mature " old school" engineering guy who, I have no doubt, would solve your problem for a very small fee. I had two Lexus power steering pulleys turned down to fit Rover pump shafts and it was a fiver each.
He's also a classic Bentley enthusiast, was restoring a 1950's example, so understands why we do the things we do.
Cheers,
Tony
If you turn into the Enfield trading estate and follow your nose right down to the end of the road there's an engineering shop down there with a mature " old school" engineering guy who, I have no doubt, would solve your problem for a very small fee. I had two Lexus power steering pulleys turned down to fit Rover pump shafts and it was a fiver each.
He's also a classic Bentley enthusiast, was restoring a 1950's example, so understands why we do the things we do.
Cheers,
Tony
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