This old Ammco 4000 automotive brake lathe has seen better days. We need to fix some mechanical issues, do some heavy cleaning, paint it, and build it a bench. Let's get to it!
Loved watching the DuPont overhaul man! Looks great imo. I grew up on an Ammco Lathes. Brought back a lot of memories watching this haha. Second can I just come work with you? I think we'd get along just swell. Plus we could swap really cool sayings and fix stuff and throw some tools and things....
Brilliant Wes, My dads friend owned a VW bug repair shop in the 70’s. I would turn drums and rotors at his shop on the weekends when I was 10 years old up to 15 years old. That was the exact same lathe I used. He would have a stack of drums for me to turn. When he did a brake job during the week, he would swap out drums with ones I would pre turn. Funny thing. I bought a fiberglass 70’s dune buggy a couple months ago. I turned the drums on my lathe at work last week. Brought back a lot of memories. Then seeing this video just really made my day. Yes, this was a video worth making to me. Thank you Wes. I am only 50 years old. But in my lifetime I have seen the country become a throw away society. Glad you appreciate good equipment and now have the ability to use it.
Brake lathes are great, when working on oddball classic cars they actually are a must. Nobody makes rear drums for a lot of the stuff I see any more! That was a nice restoration and will go on giving great service for years to come. Hate the throwaway society, and every little helps. Nice one Wes, interesting content as always 👍
Even if you buy new you should still turn them to make sure they are perfectly round. I've had new rotors and drums warped/out of round new out of the box before. In the automotive industry it is standard practice to turn even new but most shops don't due to time constraints plus with rotors a slight warp won't cause an issue such as shaking or a slight out of round drum won't cause a brake pedal pulsation.
I have used that particular Brake Lathe for 25 years or so. Great machine they do really good finishing. And the setup is usually very good. You are missing some adapters but they are available. The the control is really simple and works well just try to make sure you're using Good Carbide Bits. All of best from Canada
The amount of knowledge you have at your young age is astounding. The electronics background on million dollar machinery and then to see you work on these rust bucket snow plows blows me away. You are a one of a kind incredible man of many talents and we appreciate watching you work on anything you tackle, thank you.
I have watched this before but with time on my hands I remembered I had enjoyed it so I watched it again. I enjoyed it again because of your calm & understated approach, your broad range of skills and your willingness to accept the value in things made in the past and to do your best to bring them into the current day and provide good service again. It's a bit like the "17 years in the wild forklift" story. It's not about scrimping & saving it's about the human spirit and self belief necessary to think it through, plan & deliver in front of up to 200,000 people. After 70 years of watching people do things like this and having been involved in a few less impressive things myself I offer my congratulations on a job well done and encourage you to take on even bigger challenges in the future. Cheers, Brian
Brother, the many different disciplines that you cover are what make your videos stand out. You dont burn out any one topic or repair. Definately a jack of all trades. Much appreciated!
Jack of all trades ? Nah, a real, traditionnal mechanic guy. A rarety now. I'm sure, when Wes was a kid, he put apart some stuff and put it back together - with maybe some left over parts !! Now, looking at something unusual to repair, he looks at it and figure out how it works and why it failed. Ilove and highly respect that kind of person.
Cool, I have one of these with the bench and was planning to restore it in the future. Used it at my dads shop when I was a kid. Thanks for the motivation!
One of the best episodes ever. You had it all-Great restoration, wife in fashion show(winner!) and so damn much dog I was so impressed. Great episode, hope the dog is Ok and I give this episode rotor turning thumbs, with a side of wife and dog!!!!!Thanks for the video!
Hey, is anyone NOT living in CA. still, getting the emails for WWW show notifications???? I am NOT, HELP??? I've checked my settings and find no problems...
Some thing to be proud of wes I’m a dinosaur and I thought the beak lathe was extinct and you just kept buying new junk rotors drums thanks for restoration video that could be in the salesman catalog
Loved this, bought a new one in Riyadh KSA in 1989 or there about. A real work horse And did stuff it was never designed to do like resurface a flywheel, hard spots can be a pain. This machine will save the day especially when dealing with stuff that brake drums/rotors haven't been available in 25 yrs or worse yet military applications. Id like to say the detractors don't know what the hell they are talking about. Not everything abailable from China.
The Backboard with the holes should have been mounted ABOVE the table, rather than underneath? Thats how ours was in the shop- at my age now I would HATE to bend over to get the adapters- LOOKS GOOD otherwise!!
Really enjoyed the restoration. I really wish the OEMs would make the rotors thicker. One turn and they're done for, if that, these days. Can the weight savings be that much? Wouldn't the added thickness help with overheating and brake fade and warping? Curious what your thoughts are?
Here we find The Wes in the rarest of habitats, the Restoration. The species is usually found in the realms of Mechanics, Electrics and less frequently Fabrication. Interestingly The Wes has duck-like traits where water careens off of its back, but in certain seasons new-age parasites burrow into its virtual skin and provoke retaliatory behaviour. This behaviour manifests itself into a silence when performing interesting tasks and witty sarcasm to allay the encroachment of grave anger. This technique works and usually results in terse written rebuttals, ensuring the non-endangered status of this unique creature.
Ammco lathes are pretty much bulletproof, the biggest problems are the operators being to tight to change out the cutting tips, they are a disposable commodity, also the drive belts, if they look bad, chuck them, bad belts can put vibrations into the machine. Next, taking heavy cuts to get the job done quicker is a false economy, heavy cuts can put weird patterns into the disk that are responsible for growling noises on brake application, also invest in the Ammco anti vibration straps for both disk and drum applications, well worth the expense. Never machine disks under size, that liability comes back on you regardless what the customer says. I did this for 20 years here in Oz as a mobile brake machinist with both on car and off car lathes, if a disk or drum is out of specs, dump it, replacements are cheap enough these days and every customer has a lawyer on speed dial if you stuff up.
Nicely done, I would love to see how you lathe a drum though. I never saw that and when you should do it. I always changed the drums what is expensive and hell.
I know you hate when people bitch to you about not wearing gloves. With that said, I won’t. What I will do is say that I wear gloves because I’d rather limit my chances of getting some kind of cancer when I’m older. You may not see anything now, but it’s not a risk I’m willing to take, as I’d like to see my child grow old with me.
Very cool, Wes. Your ability to tear into tired iron, particularly unfamiliar T.I., grasp the Insidious sneaky oddities and then explain them to us in concise, understandable terms is a rare gift. Thanks once again for allowing the Walter Mitte types in your crowd to slay another rusty dragon! You ARE the Man!
What a awesome restoration Wes on this old Ammco Brake Lathe Love the Red and blue and it works looks great wad a very entertaining restoration video @Watch Wes Work
The effect is enhanced by her "HeeHee, I just got away with something and you're never going to know what" grin. I know, I know, it just LOOKS that way... probably.
Hey, take it easy on the custom paint job (hammering on that freeze plug). Besides seeing Mrs. Wes in a dress, which was a real treat, I think you reviving "grandpa's" old work table and deploying it there in the shop was an awesome tribute to the "ole gent". Great work on your part, and great video Wes, as always. Thank you sir.
You did a nice job restoring the lathe, I owned the same machine 30 years ago. When I machined the front rotors on a car I would use a dial gauge on the car to check for run out then mark the rotor and set it up as close as I could on the lathe by turning the thingamadoies till it ran really close as it did on the car. That worked out really good so I did not have to buy one of those lathes that machined the rotors on the car snapon was selling. I know they don't do that at a parts store but you will end up with a better job if you take the extra couple of minutes it takes.
All my dogs do that also they got there perfectly good bed and nope they lay on a dirty floor after they got a bath or a Oil slick stained spot in the shop hope Max hip gets better @Watch Wes Work
Beautifully done!!! It's good to know there are true craftsman left in this country. We need you young guys to save the future of our decaying United States. Let's make America great again.
When I used that machine we also had a brake shoe sander to arc the brake shoes blew the aspestos into a catch bag back then who new it was poison ☠️ only used it on 40s cars drums would not fit unless you arced them
I'm considering buying 2 old Ammco lathes that look a bit worse than yours looked when you started. It was very helpful for me to see the disassembly. The dress was fine but the smile was even better.
Nice to see people are still doing this. When I replaced the front rotors on my Suburban, the new rotors were thinner than the old OEM. Guess they don't leave much room any more to take metal off. I hate throwing stuff away, it seems like such a waste.
Nice work! I used one like it also back at my first job in a Firestone tire store,back then was mostly drums we turned . We also had a grinder to re-arc brake shoes to fit the turned drums I'm sure it was a cancer causer for sure . Your machine looks great and thanks for taking us along I really enjoyed seeing it. B
@@larryalexander4833 I'm guessing that adding the weights will lower the resonance frequency of the rotor and the rubber in the band will provide some damping which will also help reduce vibrations. So my theory is that: when you strike the brake rotor before putting the band on, it will have a nice ring to it if it's not all cracked. When you place the band on the rotor and strike it, it should have more of a thud than a ring if the band is working properly. Would be neat to hear the difference.
Have way to much time using that exact machine in my younger years. Nothing like forgetting to knock off the outside ridge, setting it to run and a few minutes later hearing the chatter howl from across the shop!
I enjoyed watching your good and careful work again Wes. I liked the restoration in a can comment. For all the great work you did don’t beat yourself up on painting, it looks fine, great job as usual..
i had one of these in the 80's, used it just about on a daily bases, secret is don't get in a hurry and try and make it in one cut, do a touch off cut then two more cuts, just sneak up on it and it will do a great job. when i finished my cut i took a small side head grinder and 220 paper and cross hatched the rotor with the machine runing slow. that will stop pad squeal. just my 2 cents.
Wes, you have made my heart flutter. I spend 40 years servicing the different types of auto repair facilities and I've sold and serviced many of these machines. You did a great job of restoring a piece of equipment that will outlive you. We live in a world now that has no appreciation for what/how things used to be done. The simple act of oiling and greasing things to make them last longer is even a thing of the past. I have always said that it all started with the Bic pens. Throw away stuff. Why? Why not fix things and keep using them. Maybe the landfills wouldn't be overflowing with cheap crap.
I currently do the same work you did. I am jealous of the room and accessibility he had to work on this lathe. You know as well as I do that they are usually pushed against a wall and things stacked all around. And filthy! I’m sure you have plenty of stories with 40 years. I just finished year 8. We don’t do a ton of lathe servicing but I work on a handful a year. We mostly work on AC machines , lifts, tire machines and balancers.
Hey Wes, Nice work on this one! I used to use one of these at my first dealership jobs so it was really neat to see you take it apart and make it shiny again> A side note: I believe the double throw switch for the motor is because you spin the opposite direction to cut drums, it's been 5 years though so my memory is a bit fussy of the last time I used one.
