In a message dated 2/5/05 4:56:29 PM, mpteleski@YAHOO.COM writes:

<< Can i be a cheap-ass and keep the old shoes or do i need to replace them
at the same time? i was concerned that the old shoes will be a different fit on
the new drums. >>

Matthew,

The newer shoes might even fit the replacement drums better than the old
drums.  It seems to be a vanishing concern to radius shoes to fit drums.  I'm not
certain if this is caused by the problems with asbestos dust or if drums have
gotten so cheap that they are routinely changed along with shoes.  If you
inspect replacement shoes, once they have been scuffed in, which have not been
radiused, you will find that as little as a third of the friction face is making
contact.  At that rate, the shoe will be worn out before it fully seats.

A few years ago, I went in search of a shop in my burg to radius some shoes
for me.  I realized that I was in deep doo-doo whenever City Brake said that
they no longer had the equipment to do the job.  City Brake does only brake work
and they have been around since automobile brakes were nothing more than a
leather belt wrapped around a flat pulley.  I took it on myself to radius the
shoes by fabricating a radius fixture to use on a 12" stationary disc sander.  I
dragged the sander outside to do the work and I still wore a dust mask with
filters rated for asbestos.  Although my fixture had no micrometer dials, I
bumped it gradually to a tight fitting radius.  The shoes came out pretty damn
good, but, after all of that, it didn't seem to make a difference in the
seat-of-the-pants.

George