Clutch disc and floater grinder

Who makes the best unit that will do both?

Or do most teams have a unit for disk and a seperate unit for floaters?

 

Check with Jeff or Gary Bohr, they sell the Boninfante and it will do it all...they also advertise on here!

www.bohrracing.com

Brandon Booher
NHRA TAD #35

 

i agree Will but the technique to cutting a floater is a very important process. I have found floaters to be flat with one way of checking them, but they have waves in them if you check the surface to itself so pay close attention to the process

 

I LOVE my VanNorman (I think the BEST) but just because you have the BEST, doesn't guarantee a PERFECT disk! I had one of my guys cutting for half a season GUARANTEEing they were PERFECT when they were getting cut with .002 to .003 TAPER! AAGGHH!!! Long story short, had to start doing it myself and getting within.0004 and car works GREAT (again). Just had to vent, I feel better now

 

Bohr's grinder works great, just grind your floaters SLOW. Most do that already from what I see at the track. Grinding too fast will heat them up and tweak them more. Van Norman's are great and what we use at our shop, but bringing one to the track is a logistical nightmare for most teams. I'm curious when you guys see the waves, is that cutting them wet or dry?

 

I always do floaters wet, havn't seen these "waves"?? But I do them slow also. Ive seen some "Jam" on them throwing sparks 5ft!

 

lol. I've seen that too, especially when they get thin.

 

Clutch grinder.

Atchison Machine sells a disc and floater grinder. Can ship anywhere. Call Bob Atchison @ 519-451-3890. Can see in Las Vegas at the nationals if you are interested.

 

The waves you will see is when your checking the flatness to its self not to another surface you will see it when cutting wet or dry if you try to cut to fast the wave will not go away the floater will clean up but the wave is still there now to check the surface to its self you need a big surface plate. 3 jack stands, and a indicator on a sliding adjustable base I designed my tool to duplicate that process and made it a portable unit and light weight

 

Van Norman FG-4000

I bought one of these a couple years ago. Well worth the investment. I agree with Will, not something I want to haul around in the trailer. We do the floaters at home in the shop and use a East/West disc grinder at the track.

Nice thing about a big heavy machine and leaving it in one place is it stays true. Lot's of people have caused themselves trouble because their portable machine isn't set up right anymore and no one checked it.

 

We have an FG4000. nice machine, but it changes if the motor heats way up. Clutch work alone is a full time job just running 10 races year.

Charlie's fixtures are great!

Mark

 

Cost?

Just curious, what is the cost of a Bonifonte machine?

Bob

 

Flatness

I'm wondering if anybody checks their floaters when they are new, and if they ever find a problem then ?
Does anyone check the lug placement to see if used floaters are spreading out , so to speak ?

 

I check every floater and disc as soon as they come in. I haven't found floaters to be out when there new, but I always cut the disc, there usually all over the place. I haven't had problems with the lugs at all.

Mark you are so right...... Managing your clutch program becomes a full time job when running 10 or more races a year plus testing....

 

I've found that my waves would dissappear when i let the wheel totally spark out, but thats a long process... From what i've seen go with the Van Norman grinding floaters and discs is a 40 hr week in itself.I cant speak for all portable units but we have a Bull and in my opinion its just not rigid enough dont get me wrong it does get the job done but is very slow.Plus grinding floaters at the track is going to cover everything in grinding dust and the funny part is you wont see until the next morning.Everything you own will have rust specs on it!!!!

 

Floaters and discs

Whats a wave?

 

The floater surface is flat from the I.D. to the O.D. and looks dead nuts using a flat bar, but the floater is just a couple thousandths different thickness from one spot to another. Pretty much the only way to check is using one of the jigs as mentioned above unless you have a big flat plate and a way to hold a dial indicator in a fixed vertical position.

 

I wonder if keeping Freshly dressed stone and multiple flips of the floater accompanied by light pressure will chase the wave away?