Anyone make their own bushings?

[swolfe]

- Bushings are expensive
- The geometry seems simple enough
- Plastic (Delrin/UHMWPE/PU) is super easy to turn

Has anyone done this? Good idea? Bad idea? Material? Dimensions?

[TobyB]

Yup.
UHMW for the rear subframe and diff, and acetal for the trailing arms.

I chickened out with the fronts, since the material wasn't that much
less than a set of purpose- made ones AND the unit loading has
the potential to be quite a bit higher.

No problems, other than you'd do well to use bits ground for stringy
materials. I polished up some that were intended for aluminum, and they
left a nice surface finish. Dealing with the 'chip' is a pain, tho.

It was fun- there's quite a bit of freedom to mess with geometry...

t

[AndrewBird]

FYI, you will want the sharpest cutter you can get. Tool steel works very well or any kind of insert made for aluminum. Carbide will not work well as it can not be sharpened to a fine enough edge. It will cut, but it will leave a much rougher finish, and if not fed into the material just right, will melt the plastic rather then cut it.

[Robotin]

my whole thing is most enthusiast arent gonna makethings like that better than the certified technicians that make 1000's of those bushings a day.

also why i dont agree with heating or cutting springs...

[TobyB]

Carbide will not work well as it can not be sharpened to a fine enough edge.

I had no problem... it's not the edge so much as the angle. The aluminum bits I had
(god I miss Boeing Surplus) were carbide, and I just did a gentle job on the
toolgrinding wheel I use for carbides... Not mirror smooth, but they cut fine.

And no, if you don't have a lathe, just buy them.

If you have a lathe and your time is free, you can make about 10 for each pair you buy.

Did I mention it was mostly for fun, and a bit for moving things like the subframe
and diff carrier around?

t

[AndrewBird]

I had no problem... it's not the edge so much as the angle. The aluminum bits I had
(god I miss Boeing Surplus) were carbide, and I just did a gentle job on the
toolgrinding wheel I use for carbides... Not mirror smooth, but they cut fine.

It's not that they won't work, it's that they won't work as well as other materials. There are a lot of factors that go into how a material will cut, and with plastic, having the sharpest edge possible is one factor in creating the best surface finish. Really, you could cut plastic with a spork, but for obvious reasons you wouldn't. Same goes for using carbide. But if it is what you have, then go for it.

And as far as enthusiasts not making them as well as "technicians" (as it was put), this isn't rocket science. As long as you are +/-.010 on your diameter, you can't go wrong. It's a bushing, not some complicated device that took hours of design work. The only real engineering was in the material used, but once you go to something harder like UHMW or polyurethane, it's kind of a moot point.

[TStroop]

When I made my front bushings "eyeball" I did it twice beings on new control arms the powdercoat/paint is very thick and tends to wear easy if there is any play, I would recomend removing that if your going to machine your own