Paging Bonwick

Andy, can you recommend a type (and/or brand) of drills suited to drilling
very hard materials? this is smaller stuff in the 1-10mm range.

I was making up a new brake calliper pin from the nicely hardened shank of
an old screwdriver. Both my Snap-on and Tin coated drill sets refused to
co-operate in the making of the cotter pin hole. I'm pretty sure the former
set are Cobalt to boot.

 

Confucius he say, " Next time you do this, you Round-Eye dog, drill
hole _before_ hardening shank".

Or soften it by heating it up and letting the colours run off the end
of the shank and leaving it to cool, drill hole and re-harden by
heating until it's purple and quenching in oil. Probably.

If it's that hard, I'd file a couple of wee flats - or even a groove -
and use an R clip.

 

It came hardened

If I'd had some silver steel bar the right OD I'd have gone down this route.
Damn but I need a nice little lathe.

Is what I did but with brakes, hmm, I'd rather be sure so got a new original
in the end.

 

Hog wibbled like a little girl....

Surely it would be cheaper and easier to source a used pin from a breakers or buy a new one?

When I snapped a caliper pin off in the ZZR's rear brake I managed to
get the stub out using heat. I was still left without a pin. So off I
trundled up the garden to rob one from the CB250RS, which was lying
dormant at the time with a blown motor. After a few minutes of chopping
both ends down, I had one identical to the other side, complete with
cotter pin hole in the right place. Cost was bugger all.

Luckily there were 2 spare brake calipers in the boxes of spares I
bought for the Honda, from which I nicked a caliper pin when I was
putting it back on the road.



--
Lozzo
ZZR1100D, GPZ500S, CB250RS x3.
BOTAFOT#57/70a, BOTAFOF#57, two#49, MIB#22, TCP#7, BONY#9,
ANORAK#9, DIAABTCOD#14, UKRMT5BB, IBW#013, MIRTTH#15a/16,
BotToS#8, GP#2, SBS#10, SH#3, DFV#14, KoBV#3.
Url for ukrm newbies : http://www.ukrm.net/faq/ukrmscbt.html
www.mjkleathers.com

 

Aye but this was a late evening and I wanted to finish the damn thing.

Diabolical though the front brake pins are on the ZZR400 at least you can
split the calliper and twist/get at the buggers though one required drilling
out of the blank end as the pin had all but rusted through. WTF you do with
the rear calliper if the pin refuses to budge I don't know. Ridiculous (and
unnecessary) design flaw. Fortunately it was not quite so badly corroded and
heat/release agent has prevailed. It would have to be some creative Dremmel
action I think.

 

Hog wibbled like a little girl....

On the D model 1100 the caliper splits, so access is easy. On the C
model it's a single piston sliding job and the pads are held in place in
grooves in the caliper body and by one of the slider pins. They are
simple to work on.

--
Lozzo
ZZR1100D, GPZ500S, CB250RS x3.
BOTAFOT#57/70a, BOTAFOF#57, two#49, MIB#22, TCP#7, BONY#9,
ANORAK#9, DIAABTCOD#14, UKRMT5BB, IBW#013, MIRTTH#15a/16,
BotToS#8, GP#2, SBS#10, SH#3, DFV#14, KoBV#3.
Url for ukrm newbies : http://www.ukrm.net/faq/ukrmscbt.html
www.mjkleathers.com

 

One pad had a guide running on the sliding pin and both had top holes with
this single central pin.

 

Yeah, I do that too.

--
Platypus - Faster Than Champ
VN800 Drifter, R80RT
DIAABTCOD#2 GPOTHUF#19
BOTAFOS#6 BOTAFOT#89 FTB#11
BOB#1 SBS#35 ANORAK#18 TWA#15

 

Hog :

IANB, but I've always sworn by Tungsten Carbide bits - they go through
aluminium like it was warm butter, and hardened steel like it was...
cold butter.

Probably cheaper to buy a new calliper pin tho.

 

Thanks, I've done that of course but it's a materials problem that's come up
a few times. Know of a good online source?

 

Andy Bonwick :

**** me, that's exactly what I said.

Who would've thought, eh?