Rebarreling and Home-Shop Machining

Monday, November 6, 2006 I needed to make a prototype sway bar for a Radio Control car. It needed to be springy, 1/8 inch on the ends, 5 inches long, and .060 inch in the center to have the right stiffness. This is the setup that I used. I started with .125 inch piano wire which comes slightly oversized. I sanded the ends in the small drill press until they measured .125 and fit in the sway bar mounts that I had purchased. I used the Dewalt Tool Post Grinder that is described elsewhere in this Journal. I took .002 inch cuts at about .5 inch per minute. If the material changes color you are grinding too deep. I used the spherical end of a cylindrical stone to make a nice taper on each end. The tailstock end is supported in an Aluminum bushing that I precision drilled and then reamed 1/8 inch. I oiled it severla times during the job. The part came out nice. I'll put up a picture of the part installed in a couple of days.

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