Thread: Toy Wheel cutting with profile cutter timber suggestions please....

Cyprus Pine is quite soft, compared to the other timber I have. Have you tried it Peter?

How about beech? It's a hardwood but not anywhere near as hard as Aussie timber and is often used for wooden toys in Europe. Pretty straight grained and forgiving, though boring to look at.

I have some 25mm thich benchtop offcuts made from butt-jointed 45mm wide strips. Presumably that cutter makes 50mm diameter wheels; if they were cut along the joint of two pieces it wouldn't look odd.

Are you buying a new cutter?

Originally Posted by cava

Cyprus Pine is quite soft, compared to the other timber I have. Have you tried it Peter?

G’day George, I not used Cyprus Pine for wheels, other toy parts as it does machine well, thank you. Cheers Peter

Originally Posted by Chief Tiff

How about beech? It's a hardwood but not anywhere near as hard as Aussie timber and is often used for wooden toys in Europe. Pretty straight grained and forgiving, though boring to look at.

I have some 25mm thich benchtop offcuts made from butt-jointed 45mm wide strips. Presumably that cutter makes 50mm diameter wheels; if they were cut along the joint of two pieces it wouldn't look odd.

Are you buying a new cutter?

G’day Ian, Yes buying a new cutter is on the list of “to do list”.
Yes, beech is often mentioned in both Europe & USA toys and yes, plain but clean profiled wheels is what’s important.
The 25mm is perfect thickness and need a good 60mm in the width to run the cutter through safely.
Sounds as that could be a workable possibility thank you.
Cheers Peter

i no longer use those wheel cutters .. i do mine on the bandsaw (roughing) and then disc sander (refining) .. you can fancy them up a bit on the drill press (do it before you cut them out) by drilling four or five holes around a circle on the blank and rounding over the edge on the router table

with truck or tractor wheels you can further fancy them (again before cutting them out) by using a forstner bit and drilling a half deep hole and using a cove bit on the router table to soften that edge

those tools let you use whatever timber you want ... for toys i still just use pine and paint it ...

for models i make them a lot more fancy and often mount them on the lathe as well

regards david

PS i have found a 1/4inch 8 tpi band for the bandsaw suits me best ... 1/4 inch gives an easy curve cutting ability and 8tpi doesn't clog .. most of my wheels (for toys) are either half or three quarters thick

d

I have made hundreds of Cypress Pine wheels with the Carbitool wheel cutters in 40mm and 50mm. Merbau also is O.K, but certainly stay away from Radiata, Pacific Maple, Oregon and Tassie Oak.
The trick with the Carbitool cutter is to accurately thickness the timber, 14mm for the 40mm wheels and 15mm for the 50mm wheels, and to watch carefully as the hub is formed on the first side. Stop driling as soon as the flat area appears, then turn over and repeat the process. If all goes well, the wheel will spin free just as the flat on the hub appears, and you will need minimal sanding of the tread section.

I think the McJing version has a different or no hub, but the process is much the same.

Having a sharp cutter is the key to a good finish. It would be worthwhile spending a bit of time touching up your cutter, done properly it will make a huge difference.

Trains like these certainly go through a pile of wheels, especially when you make them in batches of 10 or so.

Have fun,

Alan...

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crowie, if you wan't to be a lazy... (censored) and use the profile cutter may I suggest getting the cutter professionally sharpened. If you can land a good engineer, you'll find that for a lot less shekels than a new one will make it perform just as well. I have one that does my saw blades and my TCT forstner bits, but to drop them off at Traralgon (VIC) may cost you a tad too much.