Fitting a decorative ship's wheel

[bradsalmon]

Hi all,

Another one of those, wish I hadn't of said that moments.

SWMBO has bought a decorative ship's wheel for our little ones new bedroom and I stupidly said that I could fit it to the end of his cabin bed so that it spins for him. It's something similar to this -

$(KGrHqQH-D4Evqy1919eBL7soOMr5g~~_12.JP=G I was thinking it would be as simple as drill a hole in the wall of the cabin bed (at mattress level to hide away the fixing) and then put a bolt through both the wheel and the bed maybe with a washer or two to stop rubbing, and fasten with a nut.

Unfortunately everything I've looked at so far has been up at around =A360 whereas I was thinking a few quid.

Am I missing something here or should it be as simple as I'm thinking? Apparently they are normally fitted by means of a standard keyway, but googling this doesn't shed any light on the matter.

Any helpful advice would be appreciated.

Brad

[Jim K]

mmm what have you seen for =A360? to give us ideas how to do it for =A36 ;>)

would urge you to set it so it will only just move by kid power - otherwise they'll be spinning it as fast as they can for as long as they can---- at 6am ;>) bless em :>(

cheers Jim K

[bradsalmon]

p://i.ebayimg.com/12/!Bt(ZUwg!mk~$(KGrHqQH-D4Evqy1919eBL7soOMr5g~~...

Good point Jim :0)

I meant to put in the original post that the diameter of the hole is 1 inch or 25mm. I haven't yet measured the thickness of the wheel or the bed frame but I'm guess at around an inch a piece and so the shaft of any bolt would have to be at least 2 inches long and 1 inch thick.

I started looking at brass nuts and bolts and the couple of websites I found with bolts matching the above measurements were showing prices of =A360.

Admittedly, they may have been for some specialist application, but it was enough to give me a shock.

Thanks

Brad

[Jules Richardson]

How heavy is the wheel? If it's not too bad, can you screw a metal plate to the back with a hole in the middle to take a smaller bolt?

Square plate (cut from some junk with an angle grinder, neaten edges with a file), drill a screw-hole in each corner, and a 1/2" hole in the middle for the mounting bolt (1/2" threaded rod is dirt cheap around here, at least).

cheers

Jules

[bradsalmon]

Thanks Jules

If I've understood you correctly then the wheel wouldn't spin - is that right?

Primarily we'd like the wheel to sp>

[Jim K]

er no think Jules' 1/2 inch central hole was for the wheel to spin on

- as per your plan except the "adaptor plate" he describes would mean you are only looling at using a normal cheap 1/2" bolt or studding (with washers etc as required) to mount it to spin.....

Cheers Jim K

[Jules Richardson]

Yep, exactly :-)

[Owain]

Maybe have it spin about 180 degrees?

Although I suppose the whee-whee-whee noises will be replaced by whee- clunk-whee-clunk-whee-clunk as it hits the end stops.

Owain

[Jim K]

defo fibre friction washers needed on this job.... ;>)

Jim K

[bradsalmon]

Thanks all - especially Jules

Your ideas definately got me thinking and I reckon I should be able to find a couple of bearings to fit in the hole and then as you suggest a smaller diameter piece of threaded rod (possibly even just a nut and bolt) should be much cheaper.

Bit of locktite on the nut, little bit of spray to try and match the brass colour and job done I reckon.

Cheers,

Brad

[Steve Walker]

a stub of broomhandle with an 8mm hole drilled through it....