Refitting Rods- Sunnen Hone

[CA Victoria]

Slowly chipping away at buying hones for my sunnen hone machine.
Looking for recommendations on stone grit and shoes for babbit finishing.
Is a different oil used?

[Mark in MT]

I have been using SL-7 for many years, general purpose grade, make take a while if the bushings are .010 undersized as some are. I also have a KL mandrel, using a KL7 stone. About the same finish as the SL, but easier to come by. I am using honing oil that I got from McMaster Carr in the pin hone and the cylinder hone, works great. Don't try to cheap out and use ATF, you will just get frustrated. ( Don't ask me how I know.)

[johnneilson]

I think I would call Sunnen and discuss this with their tech folks.
I am not aware of any stone set that would work on Babbitt.

John

[CA Victoria]

Thank you Will check in with my Sunnen rep, but reading off site seems to not be an appropriate use of the hone process for Babbitt.

Thanks Mark-.

[johnneilson]

Tim,
It sounds like Mark has some experience with honing babbitt, talk to him definitely.

I only mention contacting Sunnen directly because for longer than I care to think about it they have had the proper advice and stone sets to perform the jobs at hand.
From Nitronic 60 SS to Nikasil and the Cosworth silicon-aluminum.

Best of luck, John

PS, I do agree with you on the process, honing was not necessary for babbitt.

[Mark in MT]

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Oops, I did not read the original post correctly, I assumed that he was finishing the small end of the rod, not the babbitt. I have tried to hone the babbitt end, only succeeded in loading the stones with babbitt and getting a nasty finish in the rod.

[BRENT in 10-uh-C]

Tim, use Sunnen if you like but while their machines are still an industry standard, -their stones are not IMO. Instead, I suggest you contact Kenny at Tennessee Abrasive and purchase their two-stone set-up and do away with Sunnen mandrels, wedges, shoes, truing stones, etc. The TN Abrasive stones are cheaper and they last WAY longer than the Sunnen stones do. Also, Kenny makes the honing oil for engine suppliers such as Goodson in both synthetic and mineral based, -and he can also supply other stones for cylinder honing and your other machines.

As for sizing the big end, you will need a specific babbitt-cutting Rod Boring machine (-not a Rod Boring machine used to bore wrist pins). Below is a picture of my Storm Vulcan #24 cutter and a PDF file that shows how it operates. It uses 3 separate cutters on one boring bar that are set in incremental heights to do 2 rough-bore ops and 1 finish bore size in one pass. I hope this helps...

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[CA Victoria]

Thank you Brent, excellent info.
& a great tip on Tennessee Abrasive. Pretty nice, but the Rod Machine is out of my league.
I made a fixture to index & hold an engine rod in my BP. I will experiment with feed, speeds, cutter profile to resize the babbitt end and see if I can get a good finish.
Albeit a home shop it is fun to experiment.

[Kevin in NJ]

A little aside.....

South bend made a rod holder for the smaller lathes to bore the babbitt end.

You can see it in this brochure:
http://www.wswells.com/data/catalog/...letin_33-J.pdf

At one time I asked around to some South Bend guys and lathe forums. I was not able to locate the tools nor anyone that was aware of them.

[briphaeton]

I have one but never tried using it.