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I Forge Iron

Semi-Truck Brake Drums


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Any of you know if these are made from steel or iron? At 100+ pounds a piece I'd like to use them for bases/stands. Possibly a semi-portable vise. (Pun intended) 

I know steel is a bit of a long shot, but given the nature of use, it would not be surprising. I just want to know if I should drill/bolt it together it if I might get away welding most of it. 

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For simplicity, just cut a steel plate to fit over what you need to, drill holes matching the drum holes and bolt the plate down.  That way you can weld what you need (posts, brackets, etc.) to the plate.  Easy to remove and change later if needed.

 

 

Grinder stand 03.JPG

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Don't use a semi wheel or brake drum use a piece of flat steel plate. If you torch it in a circle say 36" dia. it'll be very stable and if you need to pull on the work hard standing on the plate anchors it. When you wish to move it just tip it on edge and roll it.

Semi brake drums and wheels make dandy buried anchors and in some cases fire pits but not a lot else.

Frosty The Lucky.

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I actually just got an idea that will be more stable/reliable than welding or bolting regardless. I'll update in the next day or so. 

For the XXXXXXX  of it, I'm also going to cut a piece off and try to forge it. That will probably be the simplest and most reliable way to tell short of lab testing. (spending my time making attempts to hassle manufacturers not withstanding) 

Watch the language, and read the Tos. this is a G Rated family friendly forum. please follow the rules if you wish to remain here.

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Hey Panday, let me save you some time. Semi brake drums and for that matter all brake drums and rotors are made out of cast iron. They are useful for bases as described by others above. I drag them home from work and use them mostly for bases, I also scrap them they are worth more than regular cast iron due to their type of cast iron so I scrap them separate from other cast. Also if you have a angle grinder try doing a spark test if you are not sure what you have when you find something like that.

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You would be wrong sir. There are brake drums/rotors for high performance specifications made from steel. (Steel rotors being much more common.) I've found reference to specialty "lightweight drums" for Semi-Truck applications made from steel. Case in point....

http://www.kic-group.com/trident.html

I was just wondering if it was specialty applications only, or a standard material. 

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Well, you guys are each half right. The braking surface is still cast iron, it only has a steel outer shell. Most brake drums have a steel center that the axle attaches to with a cast iron braking surface cast to it.  You can weld to the center fine, just not the outer without a lot of extra work. Cast will just splatter if heated and hammered, so be careful. Cast is easy to ID by cutting it. It does not form chips like steel does, it just kind of crumbles off when sawn, or machined. 

I have seen them along with rims used as bases, but as Frosty has mentioned they can get in the way at times. The base for my post vise,and another vise I have are on 2" thick plates 24" in diameter. They can be rolled around, and you can stand on the plate if need be.

How do they ring? I always wanted to get one to see if it would make a bell. Suspend it , or balance it on the center, and give it a rap with a hammer. 

 

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Biggun, your bell idea is interesting; I'll try it this week. I inquired at a wheel service shop here recently about said drums (scrap), they had some of the "lightweight ones" next to the regular cast iron and the weight difference is remarkable (the owner said they were quite a bit more expensive new). His scrap buyer said cast is "worthless" right now, hadn't picked up the last pile, and I was offered one of each free. I'm with Frosty; even though my demand for stands and bases exceeds my supply, I left them there. But if the bell idea works...

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Scrap here is 1/2¢ a pound for all grades. Which is good for us since higher prices mean we pay more for mystery metals....hahaha!   Hopefully it stays in the gutter, so more good scrap is passed on to smiths instead of China. It was sickening to watch entire wrecking yards full of cars from the 50's and 60's crushed when scrap was $200+ a ton... Short sightedness for quick profits.

The drum will need to be able to vibrate to ring, so a loose fitting mount is best. I have a weld on steel pipe cap that is 14" or so in diameter, and about 6" deep. I have it balanced on a piece of concrete form bar stuck in the ground, and it has a great ring to it. 

On the link you supplied they mentioned that the outer shell on the steel drums is a high carbon steel, but that can be relative in terms. It would be interesting to find out how high the carbon content is. Is it actually high enough to be useful, or is it like a "high carbon" railroad spike which is still considered a mild steel. Only testing will show.

Semi drums can be 100# each, so even at 10¢ a pound, ($200 a ton ) they were only $10 each in scrap back then. So if you can sell a bell out of them for a good price you could offer him something like $2 each for them since scrap won't go up until China starts buying again. Who knows, they may go even less on them just to get rid of them.

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Yep you are correct there are brake drums/rotors made from other materials I think racing applications have some different ones too. Most of the common drums and rotors we use are cast. We have 2 semis, 8 triaxle end dumps two lowboys two 45' trailers several trailers with pintle hitches we use to move dozers and smaller excavators. On all we use the standard cast drums, much more economical and best for heavy off highway. I do brake jobs on them occasionally, the drums new are 120 lbs we've got a special dolly to cradle and move them saves lots of backaches and fingers, one of my coworkers lost a finger in the shop when a drum slipped. I too have considered making a bell from one of the drums just haven't got around to it! Fun project though. My favorite bases are dozer sprockets, they are heavy and low profile. Every time we do an undercarrige on one of the JD 550 or case 850's I drag the old sprockets home and sometimes an idler as they are heavy too. I'm lucky to have the equipment and thus the scrap at work to bring home, I also like to use old cutting edges from the dozers and graders as it is good for projects too. If you know anyone in the construction or equipment repair you might inquire for dozer sprockets and old cutting edges. Incidentally the bigger dozers and excavators have multi-piece sprockets which are easy to replace but no good for bases. Around here scrap is next to worthless too, we just hauled a dump truck load just to get it out of the way. We've got a pallet or two of rotors from the fleet pickups just sitting there too I brought a bunch home to hold a tarp over one of  my wood piles. Some of them are shaped such that they are deep enough to make a fire pot for a forge.

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Done. Well, not really done. I'm going to add a small shelf and still have to finish painting it. But its functional and more than adequate for my usage. 

20151206_165949.jpg

I ended up cutting holes in it and running a piece of channel through for the leg to rest on. 

20151206_170011.jpg

Also had to make a new wedge/key.

20151206_150929.jpg

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Thank you. You bring up a good point about stuff falling inside. I'm going to hold off on that for now as I'm probably going to change this and put a piece of pipe in place of my post and tie it into the cross brace underneath to help stiffen it up a bit. That channel flexes way too much, but it's good enough to get me through the holidays. 

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Panday, this is my setup...might be hard to see.  Vise is bolted to a support on top of a 4" pipe which in turn is welded to a thick plate on its bottom, which is bolted to the truck drum.  The foot of the vise rests on a cross brace inside the drum.  That sucker is HEAVY!

 

post vise.jpg

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Here's the cast iron version that I thought should ring like a bell; it doesn't. A soft dull ring at best. I also tried the lighter version (part steel) and was surprised at the pleasant tone but it would not ring loudly whether struck with wood or a scrap rotor. I give up, if they weren't so insanely heavy I would use them as planters.001.thumb.JPG.2c3aa7c639870a606cf74b95fa

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  • 4 years later...

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