Paul Douglass
Member
- Messages
- 4,984
- Location
- S E Washington State
Another Progress Report
Progressing on the wheels and learning a lot. The picture shows my progression on the wheels so far. Each attempt is improving (IMHO). Surprisingly I am now using knowledge I learned in my pen making days. I found that just drilling a 1/4" hole in the middle of the wheel blank was not working out. I loss the integrity of the hole because I have to run a drill bit through it too many times and mount it on mandrils and jigs, so it become out of round. Then I thought of my old pen turning day where you insert a brass tube into the middle if the blank. I gave it a try and what an improvement. This also meant I had to do something different for the hole saw. I didn't want to run a hole saw bit through my brass tube. So I polished up a piece of 1/4 " steel rod and use it in my hole saw instead of a bit. I worked great. I can also use a pen mill to true up the center of the blank, to the brass tube before I put it on the lathe to turn the blank to size. This may only make sense to pen turners.
Another thing I learned it to drill the holes for the spokes a hair over size to I can adjust them a little once I get them inserted. The first two attempt I didn't do that, had to force the dowel in and there was no adjustment possible.
Not going to do it on this car, but next car I want to learn how to make spoke wheels with 2 rows of spokes that cross towards the hub, like rel spoke wheels do. That will be a whole bunch of new challenges.
Progressing on the wheels and learning a lot. The picture shows my progression on the wheels so far. Each attempt is improving (IMHO). Surprisingly I am now using knowledge I learned in my pen making days. I found that just drilling a 1/4" hole in the middle of the wheel blank was not working out. I loss the integrity of the hole because I have to run a drill bit through it too many times and mount it on mandrils and jigs, so it become out of round. Then I thought of my old pen turning day where you insert a brass tube into the middle if the blank. I gave it a try and what an improvement. This also meant I had to do something different for the hole saw. I didn't want to run a hole saw bit through my brass tube. So I polished up a piece of 1/4 " steel rod and use it in my hole saw instead of a bit. I worked great. I can also use a pen mill to true up the center of the blank, to the brass tube before I put it on the lathe to turn the blank to size. This may only make sense to pen turners.
Another thing I learned it to drill the holes for the spokes a hair over size to I can adjust them a little once I get them inserted. The first two attempt I didn't do that, had to force the dowel in and there was no adjustment possible.
Not going to do it on this car, but next car I want to learn how to make spoke wheels with 2 rows of spokes that cross towards the hub, like rel spoke wheels do. That will be a whole bunch of new challenges.
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