Speedster Build

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.

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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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Smart on the insert. If you used hard enough wood you could probably get away without it but the time/material cost is low and it should help keep things solid for years to come on the model as well.

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.

I think "all" you have to do is angle the drilling jig a smidge. I suspect that the most reliable way would be to get a fixed angle setup and then drill half the holes, flip the wheel and drill the other half.
 
Well, my first completed prototype wheel with tire. May need to be a little bigger. This is all made out of pine. The real ones will be, rim, spokes and hub, with a hub cap, out of the same white Guyania (sp) wood that the bumpers, headlight, taillights, etc., are made of, the tire out of a dark wood. I may venture into making white wall tires, using a lighter wood for the whitewall. Not sure yet.

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Even put some tread on it:

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I do think it looks better than what I could buy:

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Speedster Build, This is Tedious

First, I did a prototype white side wall tire, so I know I can do it.

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I have turned the rims and hubs out of White Gayana wood so now I am in the tedious process of turning 48 1/8" diameter spokes. I'm thinking this is going to get boring real quick, but must be done. I cut 50" blanks, 1/4" x 1 1/2". Marked the centers on both ends of each, now I am turning one end down on each so I can mount them in a collet chuck. Then it is carefully turn and sand, sand ,sand.

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Sheesh Paul that's dedication to detail :eek:

It might be worth trying a quick homemade dowel plate to see if that looks close enough. I made mine out of just a piece of mild steel from the big box store and just drilled successive holes.
 
Wheels

I finally finished the wheels yesterday. Toke me several days to turn 48 little spokes! Towards the end I was getting pretty fast at it though.

My little glue up jig, worked very well:

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All glued:

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Trimmed and ready to start on the tires with white walls:

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Starting on the white walls. I only have 3/4" stock and wanted to give some rounded shape to the tires (my rims are 3/4" wide) so I re-sawed the 3/4" and sandwiched a piece of 1/4" plywood between the halves. That give me 1" to start out with. On the black part of the tires, I will use oak and just glue two pieces together to get over the 3/4" width. I have lots of oak. I have also made up some ebonizing solution to ebonize the oak with.

White wall blank being glued. Wanted to have whiter wood but maple is all I have. Looked for holly but to get a piece big enough to make blanks from would be almost like buying a bar of gold!

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Okay, this is what I been trying for. The first completed wheel! The black part of the tire is Mahogany that I ebonized with a solution of vinegar and steelwool. The other three wheels are almost there.

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Okay, this is what I been trying for. The first completed wheel! The black part of the tire is Mahogany that I ebonized with a solution of vinegar and steelwool. The other three wheels are almost there.

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WOW indeed! Paul that is simply too nice! Beautiful workmanship! Hard to imagine this level of perfection. :thumb: Are you intending to rotate all the wheels to orient the grain with the grain of the fender? The wheel is a perfect fit! :thumb:
 
WOW indeed! Paul that is simply too nice! Beautiful workmanship! Hard to imagine this level of perfection. :thumb: Are you intending to rotate all the wheels to orient the grain with the grain of the fender? The wheel is a perfect fit! :thumb:

Well I hadn't really thought of that. It would look better, but how do I get the wheels to stop in the same location after each drive? Wish I would have had a big enough piece of holly to make the white walls out of. I think it would have really looked nicer.

I'm working on the windshield now and it is giving me fits!
 
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