Ronh911 Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Hi everyone, I need to make aluminum caliper adapters that are machinable. Are there any metallurgical or materials engineers on here who can recommend an aluminum type? Safety is my number 1 priority. Thanks Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmabarone Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Don't use aluminum foil or aluminum cans. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gearhead_42 Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 How thick will the adapter be? Are you though bolting or tapping threads? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technical Advisory Committee Chris Huggins Posted February 12, 2018 Technical Advisory Committee Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Various things all come into play. Is that a photo of your part? Are you copying/duplicating a commercially available design or is this 100% custom? What is rotor diameter? What is Caliper design? Lug mount or Radial mount? Weight of car stopping? Heat load of brakes? How much factor of safety do you want? Do you have a 3d model? Have you run it through FEA? Do they HAVE to be aluminum or would you consider alternate materials? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enginerd Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 (edited) 27 minutes ago, Ronh911 said: Hi everyone, I need to make aluminum caliper adapters that are machinable. Are there any metallurgical or materials engineers on here who can recommend an aluminum type? Safety is my number 1 priority. Thanks Ron @Slugworks Paul made adapters for some caliper conversion on DSMs, maybe he did some due diligence on material spec and can chime in. Edited February 12, 2018 by enginerd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronh911 Posted February 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 4 minutes ago, Gearhead_42 said: How thick will the adapter be? Are you though bolting or tapping threads? It will look exactly like this except the circled areas will be raised .375". The 2 radial holes(circled areas) will need threads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronh911 Posted February 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Huggy said: Various things all come into play. Is that a photo of your part? Are you copying/duplicating a commercially available design or is this 100% custom? What is rotor diameter? What is Caliper design? Lug mount or Radial mount? Weight of car stopping? Heat load of brakes? How much factor of safety do you want? Do you have a 3d model? Have you run it through FEA? Do they HAVE to be aluminum or would you consider alternate materials? This was a commercially available part but no longer available so I need to "copy" it (custom make it). Rotors=11.75D, Wilwood aluminum radial mount, 2400LBS W/driver and full tank. I would consider alternate materials but I am trying to keep the weight down. Edited February 12, 2018 by Ronh911 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gearhead_42 Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 (edited) Is your machinist going to get it right on the first try? Spring for a stick of 2024 T4 or T3 and never worry about them ever. Copper antisieze, proper torque, and run toughened (not hardened) bolts long enough to use the full thread depth without sticking out past the hole. Edited February 12, 2018 by Gearhead_42 Mixed my T's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Magic Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Ron, Use a radial mount off another car and redrill the holes for the spindle. Much easier than making your own. If needed you can even use a flat plate between the new mount (use a generic race knuckle one) and your knuckle. The cost to machine this vs a flat plate or hole relocation and spacers will be huge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bremsen Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Do the holes align otherwise? If all you need to do is raise the existing bracket, can you just make .375" spacers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhr650 Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Wilwood still makes perfectly good lug mount calipers. That makes life much easier since all you need is a flat piece of steel to mount your calipers instead of trying to fit a radial mount caliper where it was never designed to be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ogren-Engineering Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Yes. The flat style has a lot of options for centering /servicing etc. The radial mounts are crap in reality. Slight to no No options for slight misalignment or distance correction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slugworks Paul Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 On 2/12/2018 at 2:51 PM, enginerd said: @Slugworks Paul made adapters for some caliper conversion on DSMs, maybe he did some due diligence on material spec and can chime in. That's proprietary 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronh911 Posted February 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2018 Thanks for all the help everyone! Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbogrill Posted February 14, 2018 Report Share Posted February 14, 2018 So curious what was the verdict? Switch to lug mount and do either steel or 2024 alloy? Lots of aftermarket brackets are 6061 aluminium. I would just zipties and then dominate. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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