Would you suggest it?
I have an acquaintance of mine who turns his own rotors using an electric sander and 80 grit sandpaper.

 

You could clean them up that way I suppose, but to actually turn them (which typically means you'll be removing a few thou of metal to clean them up and reduce the run-out, I think you'd be there for a while with sandpaper...not to mention you wouldn't be able to control whether or not you're helping or hurting runout without using a lathe.

 

A lot of shops around here use the 3m roloc red disc to prep new rotors or take the glaze off the old rotors if they aren't going to turn them, but it's not the same as turning them which uses a brake lathe and cutting bits. Even if you could get the same amount of material off I think uniformity would be sorely lacking.

 

actually it can be done quite easily with a disc sander, just leave the rotor on the hub, take the wheel off...use open lug nuts to keep the rotor tight, disconnect the rear driveshaft, put in 4wd and spin the rotor as you sand. You'd be surprised just how flat you can sand those things.......

 

if you chuck them in a nice 14" lathe its easy to turn them...

 

or you can take them to a machine shop and get them turned pretty cheap im sure.

 

I wouldn't recommend it. You're better off taking them off and just going to a shop and asking them to cut the rotors for you. That way you know it's done right. It's not expensive nor does it take long. I've had customers come into my work and do that many times.

 

The only other correct way to do it without a brake lathe is to use a real metal lathe and have someone who has machinsit expierance (and alot of it) do the job. My grandfather did this a few times to different cars, but he has the stuff and was a machinist for 30 years.

 

I don't think it's worth the trouble. Around here, if you take 'em off and bring them to kragen or pep boys, they'll turn them for less than 10 bucks each.

 

x 2

 

i only charge $20 to turn them at the shop (if they are off the truck) check around i'm sure some shop will do it by you

 

oriellies (sp) turns them for 6 bux a piece.....

 

it has been my experience that every time you take them to get them turned..the shop says..they are to thin..but we can sell you new ones : )

 

Make 'em show you the mic'ed rotor/drum and the min specs.

 

I just brought mine in to be turned last night right before the shop closed, and the guy said: "doesn't look to be much meat left on them... do you want me to price up new ones for you?", to which I responded: "New ones are 0.866" thick. Mine are 0.840" thick with 0.0045" of runout (max spec is 0.0028" of runout). Minimum thickness is 0.787" thick. Try to keep your cut to about 0.010" on each side of the rotor if you can (and still get the runout to within spec). If you can do that, my rotors will still be around 0.820" thick, which should still be fine for a couple of years as long as I keep my rear brakes well adjusted... considering the rotors have been on there for 70,000 miles and have only gone down by 0.026 inches."

He stared for a few seconds, blinked a couple of times then said: "They'll be ready tomorrow by noon."

As I turned around to leave, I know he was saying to himself: "What the heck does runout mean?"

But anyways, I just picked them up a half hour ago, and I'll mic them when I get home. He said they had to take a bit more off the inside of one of them but that it was still 0.020" above spec. We'll see when I measure it I guess...

Moral of the story is the more prepared you are when you bring something in to be fixed, the less chance you'll get reamed for extra money. That's enough rambling by me!

 

Autozone sells new rotors for $26. It's not even worth the time to get them turned at that price.

 

To be completely honest with you guys I was more curious at the types of risks of said activity. I've got a set of used Brembos I'll be getting turned - thanks for the suggestions.

 

Peter,
Make sure you don't do anything yourself. Don't try new things and above all don't learn anything in the process. You should know by now that the 16 year old moron working at Schmucks knows better than any of us.
In other words, what I got out of the above suggestions is that you could try it, screw it up, and still get new rotors pretty cheap. Or try it, find out it works just fine, and feel really good about doing something yourself.
I will never again buy something from, or have something "fixed" by Schucks/Kragen/Autozone. My 2 cents.

 

Pep Boys charged $16 + change for the work.
I normally would want to do the work myself but I want to get my brakes done ASAP and don't want to add the resurfacing on top of the brake and rotor change. Still, I appreciate the encouragement

 

Encouragement? Is that what I was doing?

Glad you got it taken care of, and thanks for letting me vent.