Making wheels...

Wed, Sep 10, 2003, 10:24am snipped-for-privacy@users.sourceforge.net (Silvan) says: No, I haven't been. The last time I sacrificed anything to the gods, my crops withered and were absolutely miserable, so I decided I'm better off making my own luck.

Yup, yup, figgered it was something along those lines. Always happens that way, not goin' thru channels, tryin' to sacrifice on your own. It's people like you give heathans a bad name.

JOAT Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

- Benjamin Franklin

Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT Web Page Update 9 Sep 2003. Some tunes I like.

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Jack-of-all-trades - JOAT
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Ok, I've been wanting to build a toy truck for my daughter for some time now and wanted to make the wheels myself. With all this talk of making wheels, I thought I would give it a shot last night.

I have a lathe, but didn't have the stock, so off to the drill press I went. I wanted a wheel 2-2.5" but the only hole saw I have is 4", so I got out the fly cutter. Now I am using some scrap poplar so it shouldn't be real hard to cut. 1st wheel took about 10 minutes with some burning if I held pressure too long. I took off the spur and brought it over to my scary sharp station and gave it a little hone (about 5 minutes worth). Off to create wheel #2. Not much better. I took the spur off again and this time honed the bottom (flat) and the bevel AND flattened the side that does the cutting, figuring that a sharp edge between the two sides would help. Still not much improvement. I ended up makeing 4 wheels (of the 10 that I need) and it took me over 1 hour.

Am I sharpening this thing wrong? I have the press on it's slowest setting. By looking at the way the fly cutter is designed I realized that it probably shouldn't be expected to "burn" through wood, but should it literally "BURN " through wood?

-Chris

Reply to
Chris

Hone it again. 600 grit diamond paddle works fastest on HSS.

Realize that the tool is prone to overheating if you bear down. Lower it into the workpiece and hold for 5-10 seconds. Raise, then lower again. Take about 1/16" per bite, and clear chips.

Is the burning happening on the sides of the kerf, or the bottom? You might need to grind a few thou of relief on the sides of the cutter to prevent binding.

Reply to
Dr. Rev. Chuck, M.D. P.A.

Dunno, I'm still in the reading about it instead of doing it stage of sharpening. I've never really managed to sharpen anything particularly well, and I wouldn't presume to tell you the correct way to sharpen this cutter thingie.

I can say that mine is probably incredibly dull, and it does indeed take for blasted ever to cut through anything, but it only burns if I try to force it. It's not too bad cutting through 1/8" thick plywood, but I wouldn't want to cut through 1" maple with the thing. It would take all night to do one cut.

Reply to
Silvan

Could work if I replaced my work bench with it maybe. Here's a crappy ASCII drawing of my shop:

+----------------------------------------+ +@@@ |||||||||||||||| oooooooooooo + +@ A |||||||| D ||||| ooooo E oooo + +@@@ oooooooooooo +
  • %%%%%%% =============== +
  • %%%%% B ============= F +
+XXXXXXXXX ||||||||| + +XXXXXXXXX ||||||||| + +XXXXXXXXX ||||||| G + +XXXXXXXXX ||||||||| + +XXXXXXXXX ||||||||| + +XXXXXXX C @@@@@@@ + +XXXXXXXXX @@@@@ H + +XXXXXXXXX OOOOO + +XXXXXXXXX OOO I + +XXXXXXXXX OOOOO /-\ +
  • \-/J +
+----------------------------------------+

A - DRILL PRESS JIGS/BENCH GRINDER B - DRILL PRESS C - WORKBENCH D - MULTIPURPOSE TOOL CABINET/SHELVES E - WOOD STORAGE F - METAL-CUTTING BANDSAW G - TABLE SAW H - BELT SANDER/JIG STORAGE I - ROUTER TABLE J - SHOP VAC

There's about 1' of dead space just inside the door to the left, and there's another 1' of dead space in the back left corner. The wood storage E uses space that is pretty impractical to utilize for any other purpose due to having to trip over the two saws to get to it, and it's basically a 25" TV box full of cutoffs. I have some pegs with extension chords, spare bandsaw blades and other crap hanging over the box.

There's dead space behind the TS, but only because I have to allow enough room to rip the usual 24" boards. To rip anything longer, I have to pull it out more. Sometimes I have to carry it out into the yard. Crosscuts are similarly limited by the saw and sander on either side. It's not a shop for building dressers, that's for sure.

To use the horizontal bandsaw, I have to shove the TS against the wall, and if I want to cut off more than 24" I have to drag the heavy damn thing out into the yard.

The router table can be used where it stands for small stuff, but again, if I'm working on anything large it has to go to the middle, or out into the yard.

The Shop Vac has enough hose that it can pretty much reach everywhere in the shop without having to be dragged out of its corner. I have it there because the door leaks sometimes during driving rain, and it's less likely to be damaged by a little rain than anything else in there.

There just ain't room for any kind of lathe unless it sits on my workbench, but even then I have the problem of figuring out where to put the thing when I need to use the workbench for something. The shelf under the workbench is already at capacity, with storage for miscellaneous metal scrap, and all my portable power tools.

Methinks I really should build a bigger shop before I even contemplate a wood-cutting bandsaw, planer, jointer, or any other largeish tools, but I might just squeeze a benchtop mini lathe into this mess somehow.

(I could do the vertilathe thing, or build one, but my drill press is my favorite tool, and it's the only machine I own that doesn't lack for something. I want to keep it happy, and I think it will be happier if I don't try to force it to double as a lathe.)

Reply to
Silvan

Thu, Sep 11, 2003, 1:57am snipped-for-privacy@users.sourceforge.net (Silvan) says: No, it's usually the Christians who give heathens a bad name. At least, they're the ones who are most vocal about it in this corner of the world.

Really? Hmm, I had figured you were a heathen, and by not being devout, was making the devout heathens look bad. Hmm, do I need to rethink all this?

Hmm, nope. My original conclusion is correct. You've ticked the Woodworking Gods off. Damn Christian.

ROTFLMAO

JOAT Some is good, more is better, too much is just enough.

Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT Web Page Update 9 Sep 2003. Some tunes I like.

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Reply to
Jack-of-all-trades - JOAT

Thu, Sep 11, 2003, 2:29am snipped-for-privacy@users.sourceforge.net (Silvan) says: Could work if I replaced my work bench with it maybe. I wouldn't recomment that.

Here's a crappy ASCII drawing

Correct.

There's about 1' of dead space

Close, but the footprint of the lathe stand (shop-made) is a bit more than one foot I would say, didn't measure it.

The router table can be used where it stands for small stuff,

Hmm, mine is mounted on the senond shelf down, right where I can sit on a chair and use it. I've had no problem putting thru things up to about 4'. 'Course I don't use a fence, and use a flush trim pattern bit, with would probably make that possible.

The Shop Vac

Shop Vac? Shop Vac? Something like a broom with a power cord, is it? LOL

There just ain't room for any kind of lathe unless it sits on my workbench, but even then I have the problem of figuring out where to put the thing when I need to use the workbench for something.

I have seen something somewhere, about a lathe that goes down into a bench, sorta like a sewmachine table does. Shop-made, not commercial. Seems I also saw one that swings down from the ceiling too. And, of course, can't remember where I saw either. Probably google could help.

Methinks I really should build a bigger shop

Tell me about it.

(I could do the vertilathe thing,

Personally, I don't see it. You can always make a small lathe, and clamp it down when you want to use it. I have posted plans for at least a couple of small lathes. One of them has each end separate, so you can put them close or far apart. Not indusrial strength, but good for small projects. And, of course, a bowl lathe wouldn't be difficult to make, and takes up a lot less space than a regular lathe. But, if you make your own, you can make it any size you want.

I have my lathe shoved against a shelf, and have to pull it out when I use it. But, with my table top thing, that makes up for the room it takes, so nothing is actually lost. I don't use it a lot, but definitely wouldn't want to have to give it up. A lathe is loads of fun, whether you actually make something, or just put a chunk of wood in, and just start turning.

You might want to check with the guys over in news:rec.crafts.woodturning too. In fact, one of them had this in a post. Just what you need.

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is good, more is better, too much is just enough.

Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT Web Page Update 9 Sep 2003. Some tunes I like.

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Reply to
Jack-of-all-trades - JOAT

Hey, I never said I was an artist. :)

I'd imagine it is.

Hmmm... Shelf is an interesting idea. Using space vertically.

Mine has had the same roundover bit in it forever. I don't use a fence either, because the fence is all but impossible to set accurately. I should make myself a new fence for that thing some day.

It's like a broom that puts everything you sweep straight into a dustpan. They're really amazing inventions, JOAT.

Hmmm... That's a thought. That or easier would be to build a second shelf under the workbench. Same result. Better use of vertical space under there.

Ceiling's not an option. I'm 5'9", and I have 6' ceilings out there. I don't hit my head on the shop lights, but just about everyone who has ever toured my shop has done so. I guess there's something to be said for being vertically challenged. Means I get to use the space overhead for lumber storage.

Hmmm... Actually, the overhead thing is two sheets of 3/4" plywood. Most of my stuff stays on the front sheet, and the space at the very back of the overhead rack is usually wasted, since I can't get up there to get anything out of it without a lot of painful contortions. I could do your sewing machine deal backwards. Have it pull up into the ceiling. Maybe come down with flip down legs that can be locked out.

Except for the shop lights... That would be a problem.

Damn. Well, back to the workbench idea.

I have most of a treadmill and my neighbor's old TV antenna pole. I'm thinking I could mount two ends on the pole and do it so that it comes apart quickly. Problem is threading the pipe. Might be simpler just to buy a pre-threaded length somewhere. I don't want to use the workbench surface as an integral part of the lathe because it isn't flat. It's one of those kits from Lowe's. Yeah, I know, I know.

I can well imagine. I got my first taste of turning trying to make a smoke stack for a small wooden train by chucking a dowel into my DP and shaping it with a rasp. I used up the whole dowel by the time I was done. Now I have to make a _lot_ of little wooden locomotives in order to use them all. :)

one out of this junk.

Almost. It would be better to spend the $40, at such time as I have it, toward buying one of those Veritas honing angle guide thingies though. Plus it's probably $40 + at least $11 to ship it, plus whatever I have to pay to buy a money order. Then there's the whole matter of waiting for that arduous process to complete itself. Life sure was easier when I could just chaaaaaaarge it. But I did. A lot. And so now I'm broke.

Reply to
Silvan

What kind of fly cutter do you have?

Mine has a simple thing like this:

|| || |/

It can also go in like this:

|| || \|

Which way depends on whether I want to cut something that looks like this:

|||\ ||||| /|||

or this:

|||| /|||\ ||||

It seems to make no difference in speed. It's just a question of which piece is the waste.

Reply to
Silvan

OK, I wasn't very clear.

/| || || || \|

Change orientations by inverting it, not turning it around.

I think. Actually, I'd have to look at it to be sure, but I'm 90% positive that it can be used as I described without ever running it "backwards" through the wood.

BTW, the dowel idea is a wash. I built a jig to slice them and a jig to drill holes into the precise center of them, and they came out OK, but were just too brittle.

Pre-fab wheels that are available locally are too big to fit the slots in the track, and look stupid besides, so that's a wash too.

Nobody sells hole saws the correct size for the small wheels, so that didn't pan out either.

I might get a 1" hole saw and settle on having stuff that only has one size of wheel, but for now it's looking like I'm back to the fly cutter, after I pick up some more thin birch plywood. The stuff at Lowe's is three-layer crap with veneer layers that are only three microns thick, so I guess I'm stuck paying astronomical prices for tiny sheets of the stuff at Michael's, and throwing away half of it to sawdust, or else trying to resaw some of the 3/4" thick salvage scrap stuff I have on my table saw and filling the room with burnt sawdust smoke again.

No matter how you slice it, making functional toy wheels to run on these things is a bit of a PITA. For the time being, I've taken to knocking apart his stock toy trains and stealing the plastic wheels and nifty two-part axles. That way we get to play with the new stuff NOW, which is never quite soon enough for a nine year old.

Reply to
Silvan

Michael,

I got a whole lotta 1/2" Baltic Birch scraps I could send you for your wheel stock. Email me your address and I'll throw some in a box and drop 'em off at UPS. Couldn't cost more than a few bucks to send them from NJ to VA.

-Chris

Reply to
Chris

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