The photo above presents the first four Proto:87 tyres to be found among the chips around my lathe. These are the 30″ pilot wheels, and their brass centres need to have spokes cut in before getting soldered into the tyres. They’re not perfect, but every wheel is better than the last, and I think these will be good enough. At least, if 622’s engine truck … Continue reading First four tyres
Parts for the first wheel rolled off the lathe this week. The engine truck wheels are only 8 mm in diameter, and have eight spokes. The spokes themselves are only a couple of millimetres long, and so, I have elected to make these wheels in two parts – a tyre and a centre. I actually formed six centres (a couple of extra never hurts), but … Continue reading Wheel Progress
Tonight I cut some spokes in one of my test wheels. I was most interested to see if the wheel gets floppy if you take away most of the material in the centre to replace it with plastic. It doesn’t. But I tell you what: fretting out the spokes is hard work! On this small wheel, it’s nearly impossible to get anything into the holes … Continue reading Dave Booth is a demon with a jewellers’ saw
My puttering with the form tool is starting to result in things that could be mistaken for wheels. These ones approximate the 30″ wheels for 622’s pilot truck, but with the gross flange of my homemade form tool. I faced them down to the correct 1.63 mm wide, and cut the spoke recess in the front to see how they will behave on an (admittedly … Continue reading Quite wheelish
A rather large box of air arrived from Shapeways today. Safely suspended inside were the masters for 622’s wheels. Seriously, the box is over 4000 cubic centimetres of air, and contained perhaps 2 cubic centimetres of plastic! The castings were well protected! No box from Shapeways has ever lasted more than a few minutes after I arrive home, and this was no exception: I couldn’t … Continue reading Wheel masters
I may have been a trifle optimistic about finishing the learning phase before 20 hours are out. I’m still discovering how to hit a given diameter with a form tool. It seems to be equal parts art and science. My approach is pretty much to make each tyre individually. Sure I take note of where the flange was cut completely on the first tyre and … Continue reading Sneaking up on tyres
I’m a little over ten hours of practice into learning to use my lathe. To tell the truth, I don’t think I will need the full twenty hours I’d planned. Already I can do most of what I need to be able to do to cut wheels. Wrecking my only Proto:87 form tool would make for a bad day, and so, I ground a tool … Continue reading Vaguely like wheels
