Wooden Wheels

55.5

55.5

Is Personal
Anyone got any thoughts on this???

A pal of mine who is downsizing wants rid of a woodturning lathe which he is prepared to let me have "on approval" pending my ability to turn out wooden wagon wheels.

Anyone tried it? Any suggestions on technique/types of wood etc...................anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I use my wood lathe to turn wheels from plastic - the white stuff that cutting boards are made from, about 1/4 thick. I ground a 1" chisel to the wheel profile so they all turn out the same size. (I can dig out some pics if you're interested.)
 
Greg a short course with illustrations is called for; for which we will be eternally grateful...
A profiled cutter is obviously the way to go to get them all looking the same....
 
The wheels are turned on a wood lathe from 6mm thick ‘nylon’  (I don’t know what it is, but it’s the stuff kitchen cutting boards are made from) sheet. I ground a 25mm chisel into the (half) wheel profile. Five cm squares of nylon are hot-glued to the lathe faceplate, drilled and the axle fitted. The chisel is then held against the axle and moved onto the nylon, so that it takes one simple operation to turn a wheel, takes only a few minutes, and they`re all the same!  I standardised on 30mm diameter wheels with a 2.5mm flange.

Sorry about the quality of the sketch. 
chisel.gif

scroll across to see whole pic - I didn`t want to make too small to read.
chisel2.jpg
 
Thanks for that Greg, it looks so simple! Must be time SWMBO had a new cutting board!!!!!
 
What a nifti trick, what do they say - simplicity is beauty.....
 
What you will need is close grained well seasoned wood, lignum vitae [ iron wood ] comes to mind another wood Ipe
for further woods go to

www.exotichardwoodsukltd.com

They will have what you need

Shaun.
 
Be careful now, next you'll be talking about making wooden whistles. ::) ::)

You heard about Willie's wooden whistle I suppose? Well, Willie's wooden whistle, wouldn' whistle. ???
 
bobg said:
Be careful now, next you'll be talking about making wooden whistles. ::) ::)

You heard about Willie's wooden whistle I suppose? Well, Willie's wooden whistle, wouldn' whistle. ???
Click to expand...
So they made a steel whistle and it steel wouldnt whistle
 
I would of thought the biggest problems with wooden wheels would be the movement of the wood, even if they were are the same shape and size to start with they would probably expand, contract or split after a while. Unless the grain was very close you would probably find that the expansion and contraction would not be uniform and the wheels would be oval shape after a while.
 
funandtrains said:
I would of thought the biggest problems with wooden wheels would be the movement of the wood, even if they were are the same shape and size to start with they would probably expand, contract or split after a while. Unless the grain was very close you would probably find that the expansion and contraction would not be uniform and the wheels would be oval shape after a while.
Click to expand...
Agreed!!! unless they were display wheels on a static model. The timber would only have to get a spot of water on it and it would be all over especially as the flange is so delicate. Plastic (of some type) is the way to go. I seem to recall seeing some charcoal grey plastic chopping boards in a $2 shop, maybe start there. Mind you in a specialist kitchen shoppe they sell all manner of "designer" boards probably even black ones.
When I first saw this thread I assumed we were going to have a discussion about wooden wagon wheels.
 
I think you will find that if all the wheels are made of the same material ie cut from the same piece of wood and then sealed it will make no difference, it didn't stop Harrison [ of longtitude fame ] making clocks from wood 200 hundred years ago, I think one is still working somewhere in Cambridgeshire.

Shaun.
 
TLR said:
I think you will find that if all the wheels are made of the same material ie cut from the same piece of wood and then sealed it will make no difference, it didn't stop Harrison [ of longtitude fame ] making clocks from wood 200 hundred years ago, I think one is still working somewhere in Cambridgeshire.

Shaun.
Click to expand...
However as soon as the wheels were used the sealed surface would wear letting moisture in and unless you run during a hot dry day in this country tracks tend to have some condensation or rain on.
 
I agree with you Steve a surface sealed wheel would wear but a wheel soaked in an oil based preservative and allowed to dry may well work. The wood used would also have to be taken into account. That is why I suggested Lignum Vitae [ LV ] be used. A few years ago I made some pulley wheels from LV on my lathe, they worked well as part of a drive system in a model boat.
I think it's probably best to make some and try them out.

Shaun
 
...........................and finally I've actually made some plastic wheels and got a test "bogie" running!

First week with the lathe went predictably making toadstools, ashtray and tea light holders. There's also potential for making realistic lumber loads and even smoke stacks if I can figure a way to get the flange to sit on a boiler.............anyway, wheels I did try some wooden ones but had some probs with flange edges so I then pinched the cutting board, cut it up into 50mm squares. Couldn't hack the suggested method as I couldn't get the chisel sharp enough so I cut a circle of plastic 35mm dia to use as a template for the total wheel diameter and one of 30mm as a template for the wheel and plunged in with the parting chisel. Its a bit of a faff on so I'll probably try again with the chisel method.
Looking at the cost of a cutting board and stainless steel rod on ebay I reckon one wheel set (2 wheels and 1 axle) would cost £0.66 to make. Shopping for the cutting board in the likes of poundland etc would probably cut costs further.

Anyway thanks to all for the help and advice.
 
Sounds like a sucess!
Have you got a drill chuck to put in the tailstock to drill the axle holes? If you have a drill press you can drill holes and create pseudo spoked wheels al la LGB. A "template" that has a pin that's a snug fit in the axle hole and has other pins that can scribe outer dia and tyre dia could make it easy to get consistently sized wheels. I did try and make wheels from resin but I found it distorted during curing so turning them from plastic looks the better way to go. I dont know why purchased mass produced wheels are so expensive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top