The question is; how do abrasive stones work as brake pads?

As a ex poor guy i did this many time but using a grinder with 40 grit sand paper discs. Starting by removing the heavu scale with a hammer, then grinding them one side at the time. It work very well, even on slightly warped disc by taking a little more time and les pressure. The only time a disc is no more useable is when they are too tin or the center fins are gone

When I was much younger I resurfaced hundreds of rotors. But, I used a brake lathe with a diamond cutter. We also made sure the finished rotor met the minimum thickness requirement.

perfect opportunity to do brake tests on bedded-in versus non-bedded in

I used to have a tool called the Grizzly Grinder, which did the same thing but in a more controlled fashion. It worked well for making them smooth as long as they weren't deeply grooved, but it was of limited value taking out the high spots. Note that while a lathe can remove the high spots that doesn't "unwarp" the crystalline structure of the metal. Also note that grooves don't stop the brakes from working, as long as they're not so deep as to weaken the rotor just put the new pads on and let them wear in. Or, just buy new rotors, most are dirt cheap.

I have to admit this will work if you have no other way to resurface a rotor. interesting experiment you guys are good at coming up with ideas that are workable in a pinch, good job keep the vids coming.

These guys are so good that I subscribed to their Russian channel and consequentially learned Russian just so I could see their videos a week earlier than the English version😆

Works better with an angle grinder with a grinding stone, it removes warps as well, you just need the disc spinning quite fast.

Forget about those silly stones. Use an angle grinder in the same way instead. You will be done in about 30 minutes. No messy water to deal with either. Stand a concrete block next to the spinning rotors to steady and rest the grinder on so the warp can be removed too. Rock the spinning grinder back and forth against the spinning rotor to make an even surface. I have done it this way on several of my cars, it works like a champ! ;-)

You should try polishing the rotor brake pad surface to a mirror like finish and do some stopping distant checks.

Not too surprised. Stones are used to resurface flywheels. Good trick to know when you don't have a shop open to turn your rotors (I wish I had a brake lathe) I appreciate your comments on the thinness of the rotor after grinding. You started with a very bad rotor to prove the point. Well done :)

I once used a sanding block with 90 grit to remove heavy rust scale on a rotor on a beater mazda truck. The brakes were pulsating badly before, but the sanding actually worked! Drove the truck for a few years with no brake issues at all! Only got rid of it, because it was a mosquito fogger!

keep up the videos i appreciate the work that goes into it

it's been ages since last time youtube showed me any of your videos, happy to see you again in my frontpage

Always learning something good from you guys!

My front brake pad worn out and the metal back plate carved the rotor surface with shallow grooves. I simply replaced with new brake pads and drove normally. At first, there were rubbing noise and pulsating feel when I applied the brake. After a few days, the rubbing noise and pulsating feel were gone. The brake pads eventually "grinded" the damaged rotor surface into a shinny (not flat though) surface.

Glad to see this channel is alive and free of any politics. Nice experiment fellows.

The "warping" can also be from a crook hub bearing or the faces of the disc and hub are not clean. Most cars I work on I see that other mechanics don't clean the hub face prior to fitment of rotors.

Brazilian disc resurfacing in that thumb video 😂

Not used this method for decades. Todays rotors seem to wear out quicker than the pads : If you get your car serviced at ford agents. Can't remember the last time I had disks resurfaced.

This is one of the best auto workshop channels on KZfaq

Full respect! Top work👍👏!

I’ve always thought about using a angle grinder to try and fix a rotor they even make sandpaper discs for more detailed part after you get the grooves gone, get the Rotor spinning on the car and just lightly run the angle grinder up and down on it

Ah, the Flintstones on car brake lathe system . lol hahaha, Nice high performance brake machining method there Vlad . lol :)

Nice experiment, might be useful for removing light wear, but probably not the most effective for heavy wear. Probably not a good idea to take too much metal off the thickness either. I guess this is kinda a hack for someone to resurface a rotor at home without access to a lathe to avoid having to pay a shop to turn them or buying new ones. This seems like something I would do, but would definitely measure the thickness afterward to ensure it's even and not to thin. Give them a 2nd like without having to pay a shop to turn them. I would definitely always turn them myself if I had my own lathe, unfortunately I don't, and I can't take my own stuff to use the lathe I work on at the machine shop.

Those little blocks are for sharpening knives. They are not really meant for heavy grinding. cool that they work after the heavy duty blocks you guys made to polish up the final product though. would be great in a pinch for sure.

After wasting 50.000 liters it's finally ready to throw it in the trash 😂

Ahahaha Tião is commonly used here in Brazil when a mechanic does a bad job lol

Problem is pretty clear in the Timelapse, the stone is bedding in the same as pads. The blocks need to be rotating at a different speed to average out the contours

That the narrator almost calls it "tictac" is the best part of this entire video 0:58

I e used an angle grinder to resurface. It makes a pretty rough surface so I put the pads from the other side which usually have a little life left in them and drive with them on for a while to smooth out the surface before installing the new pads.

It looked like it worked well for a while! Now how about using grinding stones as brake pad’s?

Use a anglegrinder instead. Done that many times , but it only takes about 5 min. You do it the same way , start the engine and slowly start grinding. Its easy to get it smoth.

Resurfacing a rotor is so oddly satisfying. When done in the normal way.

A+ for the effort!!

ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!🤯

I would like to see this done again but using a flat File , it’s amazing how good a file is at fixing rotors

One cause of a warped rotor/disk is having a very hot rotor/disk and then stopping the car and leaving it, the caliper acts like a heat sink creating uneaven cooling, if you've been driving/breaking hard cool your brakes before shutting your car down and they are way less likely to warp.....👍👌👍

It's wild people would do all this work when it's dirt cheap to get them turned - and it's typically even cheaper in poorer areas because it's more common. Cheaper than the stones in most cases. FYI if you had put a chunk of cupped steel between pad and stone, you could have kept more consistent pressure with less babysitting involved.

Never thought about doing this, I’ve used a flap wheel to clean up atv brake rotors though. On my list of things to buy if I ever get rich is a brake lathe.

Solid! Top KEK! Peace be with you.

thanks for your review 😊

In the 80s Honda used a bolt on lathe that would resurface the rotors. Bolted though anchor mount on the knuckle

Using this method to grind rollers insitu in mills, been used since the 1920,s. U can buy a kit to do it even, very accurate if used correctly

I did the exact same thing with a wide flat file and it worked perfectly👍

I used this method a few years ago and worked very well

Honda had a tool with round stones that would rotate as the disc rotated. Dud a bang up job and didn't need a slide hammer or axle seals.

Happy you make the correct statement in the end. If they are warped they stay warped.

Just glad i have a lathe and can skim them . With a stone it will smoth them but you must put more pressure to the innercof the disc to remove taper

If you took 2 whole grinding stones. With the hole in the middle. And figured out a way to allow the grinding stones to spin while the brake rotor rotated.

Remember there’s a minimum thickness recommended, if they’re too thin they’ll overheat and warp. 🚙

One important point is flatness. It is good to have a shiny disc. However; we have to see if it is also flat. Brake pads work with friction and friction needs full contact between the disc and the pads.

Years ago, if the discs are in in spec, garage used to skim (lathe) .Thats the proper way if you couldn’t Buy/afford discs. But they are not mega expensive. Eurocarparts about £140 for a pair, for my Astra 1.4 2007, but haven't needed to change since new, done 147 thousand miles

That is very impressive nonetheless though. I guess if you need a quick fix in a pinch and you are not near a brake shop or anything and you have some grinding stones. You could do a quick fix to get You to a brake shop it would work somewhat. But change the rotors as soon as you can.

The question is the rotor still in specification. A very thin rotor will warp quicky with lots of heat applied. That rotor may last about 10 hard stops before is it unusable due to the massive jitter when applying the brakes.

If I have rotors that aren't grooved or warped, just needing new pads, I just run the car/truck and hold a D/A sander with 80 grit on it for a bit. Cleans them up and helps the pads seat. Never had a shake or shimmy or any issue after and saved me money taking them to be turned and getting back rotors that the idiot at the place destroyed and then I end up buying new ones anyway.

Ford uk did this as a recall about 50yrs ago, we fitted abrasive pads for a couple of weeks to cure brake judder then fitted new pads when car returned

Garage 54 ... helping to reign in the mayhem one finds on the internet.

That poem is going on my Christmas list.

Yeah that would be a very interesting idea to try the grinding pads as break pads.

using stones is a two-way street... if you don't resurface the stone, eventually the grooves cut into it by the rotor will then be cut back into the rotor... there are resurfacing stones you can but that you can use to re-surface the stone itself so you do not get stuck in the endless loop of grinding, cutting and returning the imperfections.

We use a hand grinder keeping the grinder disk perfectly flat against the rotor it works very good. When the grinder disk makes the good contact it will spin the rotor on it's own no power.

Using sharpening stones to prep a decent rotor for new pads would work good……but a warped or rough rotor would require resurfacing on a lathe first …then finish with stones to get a nice non directional finish.

Dial indicator would have been nice to check TIR

The brake pads thanked you for this.

Took way longer than just doing it the right way lol 😆

Not going to lie... This is something I'm going to remember and probably do! If for no other reason than to just refresh a rotor before new pads.

Good job

Is the disc of legal and safe thickness still . Have you put a micrometer on the disc to measure it ?

Ok I just started watching this and the first issue is the groves are just going to ware into the stones. You would need to keep the stones moving or true them often.

Fantastic very interesting!

Hey babe what did you do with the turkey carving kit we got off you're parents. I know you will never sharpen a knife anyways. Awesome video guy's you have the best car videos on KZfaq.

Garage 54 still taking the rest of KZfaq to school with the music choices

They sell a tool that make .your car a lathe.and cuts EXACTLY like the machine used too. Now the discs are thinner to save weight and many can only be surfaced 1-2 times tops.

Pretty awesome. In reality I think min rotor thickness is bs anyways unless they become very thin.

Thank you 🙂

You can use flat metal files, it will do the grind much faster.

I am very easy on brakes and never had a warped one sine I started keeping the hammer mechanics away from my car 50 years ago. Never had grooves either. When replacing pads, I scuffed surface with a 2x4 and 80 grit emory. Just place rotor on floor and go around evenly a few time. repeat back side.. This happens around 50 K miles.. When reinstalling wheels, I torque in pattern to 50, 65 85 foot in 3 steps. When sitting at a light if there was a heavy fast stop which rarely happens, let the car creep 1/4 wheel turn every 30 sec to get even cooling.

now i'm wondering can you design a tool that bolts onto caliper mounts, that you can use to fully cut back/straighten rotors while on the vehicle? :)

Did it stay with-in spec for material removal?

you ask for suggestion for future projects. I don't know if you have done this but there is some question about cams. I hear about lobe height, lift but nobody has answered questions on lobe separation. it seems that nobody has done anything comparative from stock separation and aftermarket grinds. perhaps you could shed some light on this subject.

Dont worry about the scratches, they add extra grab 😂

can you drill small holes in brake disk and see it works? Thanks

So, how long did it take? And how much material was removed?

good job

Notification SQUAD!! Have a nice weekend!🔥🔥🔥

I knew it you left that axle nut loose just to mess with me.😮

How thin can brake rotors go before they fail to stop the vehicle? I’m a technician and I’ve allways bean curious on what the effects of rotors that have bean over machined will be. How thin can you go before things aren’t safe anymore? If you test it, just do it carefully.

How long did it take to polish the rotor?

If your rotors are warped but not too bad you can heat them up and cool them off flat again. You need a good stretch of road where you can get them hot with light braking. And then brake very gently to a stop, light enough where you don't feel the steering wheel shake at all. If it shakes once you gotta start over. After that just sit there for 10 minutes or longer till the rotors have cooled down. I usually do it on an empty highway and pull over to wait it out. As a tech I'd do it just before I did a brake job on my own vehicle and was gonna turn the rotors on a brake lathe.

You'd save time with an angle grinder with a flap disc fitted, that's for sure... :P

Вы, ребята, потрясающие 😮 as long as not warped maybe okay

Like something that won’t bend or warp something at all apply even pressure with the blocks

The sharpening stone is worth more than the car haha

Retifica de disco especial Tião? Garantia de sucesso.. Kkkkkk

Why couldnt you bolt a lathe tool rest on the caliper bolts and use a truing tool to turn down the rotor while still on the car? Ive used a bench grinder before with the front end jacked up in firsy gear to grind the tires back to round when they were all warped out of round/ cupped. Worked great.. a bit sketchy but so are a lot of things.. tires need to still have good meat left on em..

I did this with a grinder on my kia Spectra, fitted new pads and the little kia became a braking monster.

I have a question. What does it matter if there are grooves worn in the disc? Once the pads wear into the grooves the surface area increases and braking power should actually improve.

You should’ve put something between the c clamp and those sandpaper brakes are using to lathe the rotor

How dose someone in the US get Garage 54 Merch? The link doesn't work.