I talked to a guy at a company that makes rotary forged wheels. He said if it was a light car and it wasn’t going to be driven hard then a billet center would be fine. He said in order to sell me a center blank I would have to order a 50 pc. min @ 65.00 ea. I can’t remember but I believe the government doesn’t have a regulation on wheel testing, but there are places that test per: ASTM, DOT, SAE, ECE and SEMA. I think for big auto companies to cover there a@#!! If you cant find singlepc. blanks, then I would just buy hoops and go the three pc. route. This is what I am going to do when I begin to build my wheels!! All you need is nuts, bolts and some non acidic silicone sealant to put them together. I also was going to get my wheel FEA tested just for good measure. At http://www.forgeline.com/wheels/accessories.html you can buy the hoops and the bolts if you wanted to. This is at retail but it’s a start if you couldn’t find them else were.

I looked at doing these for my Mustang. It is really hard to find wheel blanks that someone will sell you. This place http://www.amtcorporate.com/spinning.html has them. I was looking at building three pc. wheels. You can get the hoops no problem, but when it comes to getting the centers there is a minimum of 50pc. I would buy just the hoops with the backspace then make the center out of billet, as long as its a light car. All the centers are 6061 rotary forged so they can handle the heavy loads. Also if you build a wheel and you want it tested you can get them tested @ a specialty wheel testers like this one http://www.smithersscientific.com/tirewheeltesting.htm

I use one made by Parlec. It works really well on alum. They usually give you extra bits when you order one. The one I have is a .330 shank. It works with a spinning weight that flips the tool out by turning the spindle CW or CCW. I would recommend them, and have had no problems. The only thing is that they are expensive, so make sure you have a lot of holes to justify it.

I was curious as to what you guys do, when you have different machines that can run the same tool at different feeds and speeds? Do you have a separate library for each individual machine? Thanks, Shawn

We use the Varimill's on sst, and they perform well. We used them in titanium as well, and they performed ok. I just tried a cutter called whisper cut. I think its made by Duramill. Now thos e.m. lasted 3 times longer than the Veramill in titanium. I havn't tried them in sst yet, but I think they would do very well.

We thought the same way till the job went away.. Now 80% of our work needs full fourth. We didn't think we would ever need it! Well its 6 years later and we cant even use the Hori, we have to use a Haas with 4th. I guess plan for the future if you can spare the coin..

Dragracer- I thought Selway only offered Toyoda, Matsuura? Anyway we have an older hori. and it only goes in 1 deg incr. Over 80% of the jobs that would be good for the hori. need full fourth. We have to use a Haas with full fourth. It really sucks to have a machine that has all the power and rigidity, yet no full fourth to use.. The controls on the Mori may not be the best, but I think they make a very good machine for the price. We have a NL3000 YT lathe, and that thing is built like a brick house!!! It is an excellent machine. If you don’t want go the Mori. route, I would suggest either a Makino, or a Matsuura. From what I have researched they are very strong and well built machines. I have seen a Makino perform and they are very nice!!! As far as the Matsuura’s go, I have not seen one in action but they look like they are the strongest machines out of the three. Anyway good luck!! Shawn..