Cutting Drive Shaft

starlet · Postby **starlet** » April 25th, 2009, 1:34 pm

Where can I go to get a drive shaft cut to be shortened? and how much does it usually cost?

rx80 · Postby **rx80** » April 25th, 2009, 9:09 pm

most machine shops can do it costs about $250 to cut and weld

D_bodyguard · Postby **D_bodyguard** » April 25th, 2009, 11:35 pm

yup but make sure welding is done properly eh otherwise is trouble!!!

brams112 · Postby **brams112** » April 25th, 2009, 11:57 pm

same thing body say, plus go by a known guy,plenty people cud do it but it can cost more in the long run,watch and see they do it also,some guys let you see them actually doing the work from starting the measurement to completion of the job,make shure your measurement is correct or you will have problems :wink:

starlet · Postby **starlet** » April 26th, 2009, 10:54 am

ok thanks

bushwakka · Postby **bushwakka** » April 26th, 2009, 11:37 am

instead of the welding....is it possible to fit some sort of coupling? or would that need vibration balancing and hence cost more?

cacasplat3 · Postby **cacasplat3** » April 26th, 2009, 10:17 pm

^^^cutting and welding needs vibration balancing, but you dont see people doing that......the day one of those cut and welds breaks and jack-knifes a car, or tears the cabin apart.....they will wish they had done it properly........

Mr. Cheese · Postby **Mr. Cheese** » April 26th, 2009, 10:21 pm

If welding is done, you could have a dye penetration test done on the the welded section to see if there are any visible cracks...this is just a precautionary measure.

cacasplat3 · Postby **cacasplat3** » April 27th, 2009, 12:15 am

^^^^while that helps, its not the only thing that should be done.......no matter how good the welds, if the shaft is not balanced, it will vibrate and eventually wear out the cross joints or weaken the shaft itself over time......vibration can setup resonant frequencies which may lead to self destruction of the shaft.....which wont end well

starlet · Postby **starlet** » April 27th, 2009, 2:11 pm

Yeah but with the amount off ppl cross breading cars these days it must be very common to cut drive shafts so where do they go to do this??

web_phantom · Postby **web_phantom** » April 27th, 2009, 4:16 pm

What is your location, if in south yuh could check , meh

web_phantom · Postby **web_phantom** » April 27th, 2009, 4:17 pm

What is your location, if in south yuh could check , meh

starlet · Postby **starlet** » April 27th, 2009, 5:37 pm

nah I in de west

bushwakka · Postby **bushwakka** » April 28th, 2009, 6:55 pm

cacasplat3 wrote:^^^^while that helps, its not the only thing that should be done.......no matter how good the welds, if the shaft is not balanced, it will vibrate and eventually wear out the cross joints or weaken the shaft itself over time......vibration can setup resonant frequencies which may lead to self destruction of the shaft.....which wont end well

an yuh doh wanna see that happen on a biga$$ industrial turbine :lol:

D_bodyguard · Postby **D_bodyguard** » April 28th, 2009, 7:28 pm

was talking to meh ppl and one of them say there is techniques in cutting and joining driveshafts......see if you can find a person who can jaw and stud the shaft for extra strength rather than cut flush and join back .....hardly any shop does want to do it like this cause it take time and half ah them lazy !!!

rx80 · Postby **rx80** » April 28th, 2009, 10:10 pm

Where ever you carry it make sure and have a look at what kind of work the machinist has done already. cutting a drive shaft is pretty much straight foward. You secure the flange on the lathe and cut the outer diameter the same size as the shaft inner diameter. Place the flange in the shaft and weld. After that just speed balance and you good to go. The hardest part in the process is in aligning the cross properly if it is a sealed cross.

cacasplat3 · Postby **cacasplat3** » April 28th, 2009, 10:31 pm

bushwakka wrote:
cacasplat3 wrote:^^^^while that helps, its not the only thing that should be done.......no matter how good the welds, if the shaft is not balanced, it will vibrate and eventually wear out the cross joints or weaken the shaft itself over time......vibration can setup resonant frequencies which may lead to self destruction of the shaft.....which wont end well

an yuh doh wanna see that happen on a biga$$ industrial turbine

i actually heard of a turbine self destructing.....luckily no one was injured.....but they were finding parts of the turbine in some parts of the machinery space a good 4 years after :shock:

Maserati · Postby **Maserati** » April 28th, 2009, 10:38 pm

cacasplat3 wrote:
bushwakka wrote:
cacasplat3 wrote:^^^^while that helps, its not the only thing that should be done.......no matter how good the welds, if the shaft is not balanced, it will vibrate and eventually wear out the cross joints or weaken the shaft itself over time......vibration can setup resonant frequencies which may lead to self destruction of the shaft.....which wont end well

an yuh doh wanna see that happen on a biga$$ industrial turbine

i actually heard of a turbine self destructing.....luckily no one was injured.....but they were finding parts of the turbine in some parts of the machinery space a good 4 years after

that would have cut a man down like shrapnel from a bomb

cacasplat3 · Postby **cacasplat3** » April 28th, 2009, 11:25 pm

from what i heard the turbine (steam driven) was at full speed (around 25,000rpm) when one blade broke, and in less than a minute after it was completely destroyed........the engineer said one of the blades actually went through a 1" thick steel plate........the blade is maybe 3 or 4 millimeters thick......imagine that going through solid steel :shock:

bushwakka · Postby **bushwakka** » May 5th, 2009, 5:22 pm

there was a turbine that was being brought up on one of the ole hydroagri plants and they forgot to mount the top side of the support bearings.....when they brought the machine to critical speed, blades pierced the casing due to off centre rotation and killed and maimed a couple ppl