Quote:
Originally Posted by Lil Giants
I think I see how you did the two piece wheel, quite ingenius. 
The center needs to be welded in yet? Did the center start out as a piece of flat bar?
The stock tires, do you have a vertical bandsaw? Cross cut the face of the tire using the hashmarks on the sidewalls for spacing... that improves their traction immensely.  |
I started out with a piece of pipe for the rim. It was nice that the pipe was the right size for a change. For the 850 I had to use schedule 80 and turn it down. A much longer process...
I used my rotary table mounted horizontal to machine the grooves in the rims. I have never done this before as I have always used the lathe with a parting tool. Using the rotary table was WAY faster!...lesson learned!
Yes the centers started out as 1/2 flat bar that I cut into rough circles. I then put them in the lathe and center drilled them to install a bolt. Once bolted together I held the bolt in the chuck and turned them to size. Press fit...
Then back to the mill and rotary table to machine the oval holes using a ball mill.
Once that was done I pressed and glued them together. Then it was back to the lathe to machine out the backside of the assembled wheel.
After finishing that, I gave them a pretty aggressive bead blast to remove the burrs that were left behind after machining.
Last but not least I flipped up the rotary table and drilled the bolt circle.
Next process will be making the hubs for mounting the rims to the axles. Then onto the rears!
Wow, what a process...no wonder that took a few hours!
I will have to try the tire trick some day. I have ordered new ones for this project because I wanted the increase in height as well as a more off road looking tread.
Reg