Modifying GM Hubs for VW

Second video showing the machining of the GM wheels hubs to accept a 42mm bearing and to fit VW brake rotors and wheels. The purpose of this trial application to be able to run the larger GM axles.
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[@sandyscats4]

I realize not many women find metal work interesting, but I enjoy watching your work with my hubby!! Thanks for making the videos!!!

[@Abom79]

Thanks Sandy! Glad to hear you enjoy!

[@sandyscats4]

Meant as a compliment. Looks to me that you've lost some weight! Good job!

[@juliejones8785]

I'm glad you mentioned how difficult it was machining hardened steel. You make it look so easy, it looks like 12L14 :-)

[@samrobinson3949]

While watching this i spontaneously went deaf and attracted every tom-cat in a 10 mile radius....

[@simonscott1121]

what?

[@2lefThumbs]

*This* is where you shine Adam, thanks for this style of content👍

[@apollorobb]

This would have been a good time to use that fancy hardness tester you bought at the auction .Great video Adam

[@SaposJoint]

It shouldn't amaze me that you can hear the difference between harder and softer material, but the squeal is not something this ex-carpenter ever heard in wood. Thank goodness. Thanks, Adam!

[@randallparker8477]

I worked on a british navy ship that had lignum vitae (hard ass wood) pieces in the engines main shaft stern tubes... we wore out some tools before we slowed things way down when trying to cut/shape and drill them. That wood squeals believe me! LOL

[@thatrealba]

Wood screams like that when I'm working with it. That's probably why I put the rough in rough carpentry 😂

[@SaposJoint]

@@thatrealba Aww, that's just a dull saw blade. ;)

[@thatrealba]

@@SaposJoint oh. You mean it's not supposed to catch fire every time I make a cut? I always wondered why there were all those extra blades hanging up at the hardware store 🤦‍♂️😁

[@kunk9804]

Thank you for leaving the sound on. Machining is just as much hearing as feeling. On my manual equipment, I can feel what is going on. At work, I run Cnc and have to listen to the cut. Everyone should learn the sounds of actual cutting. You learn the sound, right before the drill breaks or the insert cracks. Hearing protection is a must, but the sounds are important.

[@freethought2296]

This looked like a good spot to use your rockwell hardness testing machine. Love the videos, keep em' coming!

[@siegfried-karlheinzvonsilb2840]

You are like the bob ross of machining. If you could throw a few happy little chips in there it would be complete. Always relaxing and a pleasure to watch. Awesome youtube channel.

[@scrout]

Let's put a friendly little radius right there, there we go. Isn't that nice?

[@siegfried-karlheinzvonsilb2840]

@@scrout exactly. I think we can forget the afro its a little to late for that but he could throw a happy little radius in there.

[@nivekastoreth]

Yo Adam, for all those people complaining about the audio -- I just want to say thanks. One of the big problems I've had when trying to learn this stuff by my lonesome is not knowing when something is right, and a lot of time the audio cues are what you have to go on. Knowing what you're hearing, what options you have, and what decisions you end up making is extremely useful information.

[@Abom79]

Sounds is definitely one of the things you have to learn when machining. You let the machines "talk" to you and you know what's going on. For the ones complaining, there's always the mute button.

[@RaysGarage]

Well done Adam, enjoyed watching you machine hardened steel like a pro!

[@randallparker8477]

Those dang hubs are heat treated by rapid induction coils in the factories... science and technology in action. Great job!

[@mattruth7109]

Adam is like the Bob Ross of machining

[@lukerickert5203]

CBN is your friend. It will cut this stuff like butter and the burning steel chips flying off makes for really cool pictures.

[@MatthewRulla]

I use the Starrett Master Vernier Height Gage 254MZ. Very similar to your height gage. Easy, quick and accurate! Thanks for taking the time to produce another excellent video.

[@jbaker265]

You never now what you are going to find when customizing car parts. They like to case harden areas. It makes machining very interesting and frustrating. Good job Adam.

[@lavonbpi]

Dude you made this look so easy... I have a Corrado and I'm working on some custom rear hub, and just having the right tools makes a world of difference.

[@willierants5880]

Thanks for re-explaining what this was actually for. I kept scratching my head watching you machine these asking why. Pretty cool stuff.

[@jeremyd9826]

Need some metric cutting oil for jobs like that, would make a world of difference...

[@DisabledCreation]

Get outta here, Tony

[@bobhudson6659]

Absolutely. Along with metric screwdrivers and metric left handed shifting spanners (adjustable wrenches to the USA folk). From the land down under.

[@Abom79]

Nothing more annoying...

[@SMOBY44]

Abom, a trick I've learned as my eyes get older is to use my phone to take a quick pic of those small numbers then blow the pic up to view. Works well for poor light and bad view angles too.

[@chriskelvin248]

I use this trick at work too to read tiny spec labels. Another trick camera phones can do is check to see if infrared emitters are working on say, a TV remote. With the naked eye, they appear invisible. Watch the same thing on your phone screen, it looks like a dim red LED.

[@paulrichmond6903]

Adam, you certainly earned your money on this job. Well done!

[@KenLyns]

Gonna be fun pressing the wheel stud into the welded hole!

[@ccrider5398]

Thanks for showing some machining of hardened material. It comes up more times than we might like to admit...

[@geckoproductions4128]

Nice series Adam. Thank you for giving us the speeds. It either reinforces what I though they should be, or corrects my error.

[@mainthink]

Dang, that high pitch brought to my yard half the city's dogs, a fawn, a talking crow and a Disney Princess

[@Pdro-gw7lu]

mainthink which Disney princess and why do you have her locked in the basement?

[@jeepmanxj]

The first 6 months in the current tool shop I work in were spent modifying and making parts for another employees old chevy truck. Modifying and doing this stuff is a giant pain.

[@johnnyholland8765]

I can tell you haven't been too keen on this project but I think you have managed to overcome the obstacles. Good idea talking with the owner and the both of you coming up with a plan. Just part of the job shop life. Sometimes you go into a job with good intentions only to have to make changes midstream.

[@phi376]

@abom79 - Words of wisdom at 13:00. Would make a nice t-shirt. 😬 “It’s a little soft right on the end, but it’s gonna start getting hard really quick. The shinier it gets the harder it is. We’ll have to slow it down.”

[@primus108]

Very precise, beautiful drafting. I admire the artistry in everything you do.

[@loydsa]

Great Video Adam. Nice to see your approach to what would have probably been a frustrating job for most people. Best Regards Sarah

[@stevebray71]

Greetings from the UK 🇬🇧 and although I don't do any of the type of work that you do I just want to say that you are fantastic in the way that you work with the manual machines. I learnt how to work with cnc Mills and lathes which yes they to take a lot to learn and understand but with the machines that you use it's different, thank you for sharing the videos you do and also the methods & techniques you use to teach others how they can do everything that a computerised machine can achieve 👍👌

[@heavymachining7830]

Just watched all of your metalizing videos again as I have to do my first job of this type, I'm sure glad you put out this content for us to use as a help during the learning curves ( and in machining there are a lot) keep up the good work, even if it's noisy.

[@tomp538]

It's called chasing the next weak link... Been there and done that. As always good job of working the problem for the desired results.

[@ypop417]

Yep I bet transmission next and depending on the class that one may be the killer

[@daddynichol52]

You're a first class educator, Adam.

[@anthonysmith6954]

Fascinating work you do Adam. Love the technical aspects of things you work on.

[@loganpe427]

Man, that's the first time I've had sound from a video _"hurt my ears"!_ Even turned way down, I had to just take them off during the cuts! Holy cow!

[@MR-yq5rj]

Nice machining job ! You can use the seco insert also to refresh your hard jaws. Works very good !

[@junglejonny1000]

So amazing to watch a master craftsman at his craft.

[@m.chaconaction8987]

hello such greetings from mexicali baja california mexico, I am also a tool maker and I am 28 years old, what good videos you have, a little long with a lot of information, in this video I realized that by centering the pie in the chuck you could haver used the counterpoint bolt instead of hitting with the hammer ... but it is the same result ..

[@swanvalleymachineshop]

Nice job on the hubs , Cheers from Perth W.A.

[@kevincosgrove4147]

Another amazing job done keep it up Adam and keep them coming awesome job every time

[@JRock17991]

Thanks for sharing this. I've worked on stuff with hard spots, and literally thought "Damn Abom never has these kind of problems. What Am I doing wrong?"

[@jerrylong381]

Lol, my dogs do NOT like this video. They went outside, and I gave a thumbs up. Thanks Adam

[@tonyus8197]

Great video and good job. As my (unsolicited) 2 cents, I would've annealed the hub. You effectively turned bearing races and the hardened welded up hole might become an issue since the stud's splines won't grip in the hub, risking that stud to spin when torquing down and/or taking off the wheel nut. The only place where it might be important for the hub to be quite hardened is the interior splines, even so, I doubt it would be an issue.

[@paulmace7910]

Good job making the ChevroWagen frankenhub. Turning that out of a billet would have been a bear, even if you could broach the splines. Functionally it’s fine, just the aesthetics of the leftover holes detract from the part. The customer got what he wanted so all is good. Lets see some more paying jobs. Thanks for sharing.

[@zuestoots5176]

The holes wont be visible with the rotors and wheels on.

[@nivekastoreth]

I don't know what it was about the segment that starts at 18:00 but i started laughing out loud as soon as the whining picked again up after that nice quiet moment

[@wleyder]

Suggestion: on your height gage in stead of picking it up to read the very small scale, try taking a quick picture of the setting then “read” the zoomed image on your phone.

[@johnnytakisawa]

That is a smart move.

[@Just1GuyMetalworks]

Nice job turning that tough stuff. I've only ever run into 1 part with some weird hard spots like that. Well not so weird I guess, cut the material with a chop saw, it got heated red hot, then tossed into a snow bank lol. In any case, had to grind them off, hss just wouldn't cut it. Well done on a tough project (well it looked tough to me🤣).

[@jbcowherder6210]

awesome job machining. had to take the headphones off when you got into that hardened steel. my hat is off to you for taking this job on. on a side note: i wonder why the customer didn't want to go to something stronger like some chromolly RCV's and just make some custom hubs that use a much larger unit bearing than that one shown. when you're worried about horsepower breaking a cv shaft or wheel bearing why continue to use something that's "ok" when you can take that up to "unbreakable" level. broken cv's can break a transmission which is a whole lotta more money than stepping up to the plate

[@gullreefclub]

JB COW HERDER I am sure the customer would love to have everything you suggested made just as long as you are footing the bill for the work. 😁

[@davidbarnhart6228]

Gettin close to 300,000! Early congrats, Adam!!!

[@user-tw9io9nz2m]

I have a few of those seco inserts as well, I machined a modular milling head holder out of a very hard piece of shaft. I had to temper it back first because the tap wouldn't even touch it.

[@user-tw9io9nz2m]

I notice you're turning slowly, I've found these inserts meant for hardened materials work a lot better when you take them up to speed. I did a 20mm diameter at 1800rpm, no coolant and got an absolutely spectacular finish. My feed was quite slow at around .02mm/rev

[@DaRoach5882]

HEADPHONE USERS BEWARE! Fantastic job! One day I aspire to be at least a tenth as good as you bro!

[@johnshaft5613]

Great video from your end Adam... But as far as the people wanting this done...I have messed with wildly modified cars my whole life, and I just wanted to say there HAS to be a better way to achieve what they are after....

[@piperjohn_3]

Yeah, this was annoyingly dumb.

[@thatrealba]

I can't imagine why they didn't just modify and install a better axle, rather than this.

[@cozmium]

I really like hearing you use metric Adam, I know it's a metric based project, but just for what it's worth it means a lot to us in UK/EU.

[@shanek6582]

cozmium I like the thou measurements, please don’t go to metric!

[@frankierutherford1888]

Maybe you could get a clip of his VW doing a pull down the track.

[@shanek6582]

Man, your precision surface plate is bigger than my work bench.

[@JLanc1982]

Man you do some killer work!

[@Talisman-tb6vw]

I am working on a project where its the opposite - taking 5 hole hubs and re-drilling for a larger 5 hole pattern and trying to not break out on the outer diameter

[@frfrpr]

This guy knows his stuff

[@bart300166]

If he really did, he would have used CBN

[@stevenpleasant5834]

hi I watch your videos when I can I like how you know your job and how you do things and how you do your machine work -I wish I had some one able to do some of my fab work for my projects like you. any way nice work and you and your family keep safe and well.

[@bcbloc02]

Next time you can just make the hubs from scratch and cut the splines on the shaper. :-)

[@animalmother556x45]

He would either have to make them from a giant chunk of already hardened steel...which would mean removing WAY more material...or make it from the un-hardened steel and heat treat it and harden it properly to make it safe for a racecar. Yucky.

[@sunside79334]

@@animalmother556x45 hubs are usually never hardened but heat treated or forged. this one is an exception because of the bearing races on the shaft that requires surface hardening. the real expensive task would be the ID broaching for the drive shaft anyway when making from stock.

[@jerrycoleman2610]

Adam, great video really enjoyed the content thanks for sharing your skills hope your having a great day.!.!.!.

[@rjstiles80]

You make it look easy.

[@OldtimeIronman]

Adam -- I toured the GM plant a little while back and I spoke with their CNC machine setup guy. He said its all custom cutters and hobs with either CBN inserts or diamond. The minute a cmm picks up a variation, they change out a tool. Hope this helps.

[@johnapel2856]

Interesting couple of videos. Aside from the resonance from the squealing breaking my glasses and causing me to have seizures (😲) it had a lot of good information as usual. Often the sound something makes while turning is very helpful. Thanks for including it. It really helps me learn. Looking through the comments, I see the trolls are hard at it. Non carborundum illigitimi, don't let the bastards grind you down! Thanks.

[@MrMairu555]

"A nice interrupted cut... with a hard spot!" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@BogosortLife]

Looks like it is the perfect job for a CNC machine. Anyway I prefer see Abom doing it manually :)

[@user-tw9io9nz2m]

If I had to do this job and had the choice between cnc and manual I'd still go with manual on this one. However, if the job was to make a couple form scratch, I'd lean to the cnc.

[@AlbiesProductsOnline]

Will the customer need to have the parts case hardened before he can use them and won’t they be weakened to a point of dangerous having so much steel removed

[@scepternetworks]

Wondering the same thing.

[@kain0m]

Don't think so. The very hard part was an actual bearing race in the original part, whereas he'll be using a sealed bearïng afterwards. Actually, hardening is probably detrimental in this case as it would make the part more brittle...

[@ianwilliams487]

@@kain0m Do you think the needle race will preform the same as the angular contact with side loading??

[@borderm3]

This is why I would love to have a grinder attachment on my lathe!!!! 😄

[@jiml9944]

Consider replacing the scriber on height gage with a DTI when measuring heights. More accurate than sense of feel.

[@Toddster81]

I agree and buy a digital height guage.

[@michaeld.coulombesr.583]

Adam, I as one just noticed that you are growing a beard, looks good, let it grow some more, make it a real full beard. I've been growing mine since 1969, and I'm 76 now. I think you do great work. Thank you for the great videos. Michael said that bye for now my friend.

[@matthewhansen5008]

Well done!!

[@Pnrc-b2u]

Enjoyed this immensely. In the UK we would call the axles constant velocity joints. Had them on my Mini cares I owned during the 80’s

[@gabewhisen3446]

I'm so glad the Lord has blessed your channel , you are a good man Adam

[@Abom79]

Thanks Gabe 👍🏻

[@scottholt2]

I recently modified Some hubs for a VW and yes. Hard as a coffin nail.

[@Ms.Nightshade]

For hardened and heat treated machining, Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) is the way to go. I’m not a machinist myself, so I can’t say much about it, but what I do know is that CBN is perfect for hardened steel. EDIT: I recently learned that CBN grinding wheels exist for sharpening of wood turning tools, which is pretty neat! Anyways, just wanted to give my two cents. Keep it up Abom! :D

[@billaulicino1461]

Adam I just discovered your videos and I have to say that you are an incredibly experienced and patient craftsman but my experience has shown me that you went about disassembling those assemblies in the entirely incorrect way. They were designed to be disassembled using an hydraulic press, most auto repair shops don't have big lathes. As a matter of fact your customer should have just given you the two pieces of the hub and the bearing all separately.

[@gidixr2009]

do you have an example of separating the two? couldn't find an example of this being done to gm hub assembly besides this video

[@juusovirtanen441]

Perfect work! I really enjoy watching SNS.

[@bigbird2100]

Could use a carrier mounted electric grinder great video.

[@phillip5179]

Thanks for the machining Adam🤘🇺🇸

[@billcolq]

I'd assume you would have a tick list for particular comments every time you upload an automotive video, they always seem to attract controversy. Nice work, and keep up the great content! Your teaching this boilermaker how to use a lathe with all your great videos!

[@mariuskirsininkas8197]

Hey Adam I want to ask why you did not used simple tool as angle grinder n cut that bearing part at an angle? I am working as mechanic long time so I know that these things cracks so easy if you cut more than half of it so you save ur inserts and avoid that terrible sounds :D

[@janvanruth3485]

there is no inner bearing race, the balls run on the hardened hub

[@KPMACHINE1]

Appreciate your videos!

[@arkansas1336]

Nice machinist work!

[@e-ironmanmarsden754]

Headphones users, your heads up was the moment he said he has his hearing protection in. That part had a lot to say and at a very high frequency.

[@had2galsinthebooth]

I try not to bother with many questions because I don't work in any related field or even machine as hobby,I just like watching. After machining and drilling new pattern it looks like it would be out of balance. Is it not critical for drag racing straight down a track? Am I wrong about the balance being off and just tricked by the camera and my own eyes? Is it such a small amount that it is no concern? If it was discussed and I missed it I apologize. There,that's exceeded my quota of questions for a while. :)

[@nivekastoreth]

i scrolled through the previous video, and i don't think he mentioned it there (so it may or may not be true for this job) but in the past i clearly remember this question coming up before and he mentioned that the customer takes care of it themselves (found it, SNS 169 Part 2, 12:30ish)

[@ypop417]

The amount it will be out of balance will be minimal can be taken up with wheel balance on the rim if it shows up. Raced in my younger years Drag and Circle Track

[@AdamEarl2]

Those will be induction hardened, so only 2-3mm of case depth before the core material which would only be normalized (~20Hrc). Taking off a few mm will definitely affect the longevity of these hubs.

[@piperjohn_3]

I was wondering how they hardened them dimensionally so precisely. Really interesting.

[@AdamEarl2]

John Arrington look up induction hardening videos, really cool process. I missed the part in his video where he mentioned that there was an inner race being pressed on, so the heat treatment doesn’t matter

[@bobhudson6659]

@@piperjohn_3 I dare say parts are roughed close to size, heat treated and then ground to final size.

[@johnknox5692]

that was pretty cool thk for taking me along

[@shortribslongbow5312]

Very nice video thanks for sharing.

[@finnsailing69]

wireless mike would be a great investment :) great work with the hubs bro!

[@johnhayes9437]

nice watching you work... that's gotta be one strong dub.

[@DavoShed]

Maybe your customer can send you some footage of the car racing. It would be great to see some of your work in action! Great video :)

[@brand-x7049]

Edit: nvm, looked up the SECO insert, question answered. :) We would use that kind of insert to rough off the ends of hydraulic cylinder rods that had been case-hardened with an induction machine, then plated with industrial-grade chrome - the stuff was so tough, it would leave dents in 4145 bar stock and you couldn't even see where the rod hit it, tested out something like 80 Rockwell C...

[@KeefJudge]

I wonder how precise the manufacturers of these parts make the hardness gradient through the material. Hard to tell from the vid, but am I right in thinking the parts where the bearing race would have run were hardest? 🤔

[@JRock17991]

Honest question, what about tempering it after you've welded it, to make sure the HAZ isn't brittle? The post heat does that?

[@sthenzel]

I wonder if it would have been easier to bore out the VW hubs and rebroach the splines...

[@Rail9222]

Over the counter parts are available for them. They just want you to reinvent the wheel for cheaper.

[@Abom79]

Please share the part numbers

[@xenonram]

Lol. I guarantee you that having Adam machine them is a lot more expensive than buying "off the shelf" parts. So I'm sure they would have bought the off the shelf parts if they were actually made.

[@optimumperformance6998]

Pretty sure 50% of the viewers have zero understanding of what the Customer was doing. Using an off the shelf part that is modified to fit the vehicle while gaining the strength of a larger drive axle spline. Which is also an off the shelf part. The modified/machined parts are reuseable, the axle and bearing is replaceable. #KeyboardMechanics

[@Rail9222]

Abom79 gear-one.com/

[@throttlebottle5906]

I doubt they have any pre-made to accept "gm" axle splines. in the vw rails and racing, everyone went to bus or porsche outer cv's and swapped axle stubs machined/made to adapt the larger cv to car hubs and other aftermarket things. I'm guessing they're breaking things all too often drag racing and not using vw engine/trans.

[@byker4lyfe1]

Great work adam 🖒 and i guess since the hub will be behind the rotor ya cant see them other holes lol hey whats that beveled hole for you never did say

[@larrysbk]

I put my iPhone running an audio analyzer app next to the speaker while the part was screeching. It showed a whole group of frequencies starting at 2500 Hz all the way up to 16 Khz. I'll bet there were frequencies out past 20 KHz present that your camera wasn't capable of recording.