Making a "wheel of fortune " prize wheel

Guys

I have a pretty good idea of how to build a 24 inch diameter prize wheel for a party event but to save me cobbling together and some trial and error.

Does anyone have any free links to sites where they have given you a cutting guide and or assembly instructions?

The wheel would be mounted on a stand in the vertical position i.e not horizontal like a roulette wheel

Thanks

Ged

I assume you are going to play it straight with an un gaffed wheel and just rely on not paying off the bet at the true odds?

In which case you have to make sure the wheel is an almost perfect circle, or it will bias and that can be noticed and taken advantage of by a sharp eyed punter.

Don't have plans to build one, but I can probably help on the gambling side of things.

Dave

No, but have you considered using a bicycle wheel?

Light wheels might take a l-o-n-g time waiting for it to stop unless you gumm up the bearing somehow (without introducing bias in a particular direction). Need something with some inertia.

Magnet near the rim. Eddy currents in the moving aluminium will slow it down but don't attract it when stationary.

Then a ticker on the spokes so that the wheel always clear stops _on_ a number, not bouncing around between them.

Bicycle wheels are biased though (there's a bit of weight missing for the valve stem). You need to counterbalance this or it really will stop at the same place every time.

Not easy to fix the pegs, I'd have thought.

Unimpeded, a massive wheel will take longer to stop (assuming that all the mass is not near the hub), because it stores more kinetic energy at the same speed. However the rate at which it slows may be varied by adjusting the spring tension applied to the pointer.

And possibly a bit added where it's welded/dowelled together.

Tradditional carny wheels have pegs or nails around the edge and a 'clicker' to slow down the wheel & make sure it stops dead on a space.

Dave

I completely forgot about the clicker.. :-)