Thread: Turning wheels for a toy car

Have you considered a toy wheel cutter like below that works in your drill press?

This one (from carbitool) comes in 40 and 60mm diameters. Others are probably available.

A bit expensive is this is a once off project perhaps but maybe give you an option.

Cheers,
Glenn

Thought about buying a lathe?

How about hole saws (for a drill).

Use one to cut the wheel, one to score a rim, then simply clean up the cut with your Dremel.

I hope that this makes sense (and works).

Cam

Damn! Beaten to it, but I was suggesting normal hole cutters plus a bit more shaping. The hole cutters wouldn't work quite so well, but would be useable for other projects too.

Originally Posted by jmk89

I have built a toy car for my son - it needs 65mm (2.5") wheels to complete it.

I would like to make them myself, but I do not have a lathe.

I do have a drill press and could put a rightangle chuck on it so that a 2.5" disc of 1/2" wood can be spun vertically to turn a wheel (but a bit too fast). I can make the outside of the "tyre" part (ie the rounded circumference) quite easily using a combination of rasps, surforms and sandpaper as the disc rotates. But I would like to undercut the inner elements to round the inner part of the tyre and create the wheel centre (hub cap). Should I use a knife, a chisel, sandpaper, something else?

The best cutting speed for 2" diameter is between 1000-2000RPM, and increases as the dia. get smaller (up to about 3500-4000RPM for 1/3") so if your drill-press will drop that low and you want to give it a try as a lathe...

...you'd be best served by making a scraper. A bit of old carbon steel (maybe an old 1/2" chisel?) reground so the bevel is around 70-80° (nearly square! :eek: ) but don't bother honing it or removing the burr off the edge: it's the burr that does the cutting.

It's used with the bevel side facing away from the wood, at somewhere between 60-80°... it'll remove thin shavings when you get it right. Also, cut the wood that's moving away from you; it's a scraper now, not a chisel. No need for a toolrest if you have steady hands. The best thing about scraping is that, if it catches, at worst it'll pull out of your hands... if you try cutting the wood as it moves towards you the chisel is far more likely to dig in, ruining the wood and possibly your entire week. Not good.

Hmmmm

So I have 3 choices:
1 Buy new tool - a bit exe for one set of four wheels, but who knows how many cars I will make?
2 Use existing tools (hole cutters and Dremel) - will I be good enough to do it right
3 Re-grind a dud chisel to 70 deg and try to turn the buggers

Maybe I should start a poll.

Now I really am confused. But thanks for the food for thought.I need a drink to work this one out.

A drill-press is just a lathe on it's end - believe me! - that's what got me into turning in the first place. It's a little awkward but do-able. A bolt through your wheel blank mounted in the Jacobs chuck and a biggish bolt fixed into your table as a toolrest, up the speed and away you go. The only hassle is play in the rack/pinion - I used to rig another bolt in the table to keep pressure against the work like a tailstock.

I only wanted to make a couple of knobs for some drawers - and now I can't walk past a lathe without throwing something on the chuck!

Could you drill out the centre hub area with a suitably modified spade bit (using a grinder and file), then cut the wheel out with a holesaw? That's the process I'd follow, not the spade bit second, as the circle would be hard to hold, and spade bits don't like staying put in a predrilled centre.
The outside rim could be done by hand, or a round-over router bit, although I'd find that too fiddly/dangerous.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Andy Mac

Could you drill out the centre hub area with a suitably modified spade bit (using a grinder and file), then cut the wheel out with a holesaw? That's the process I'd follow, not the spade bit second, as the circle would be hard to hold, and spade bits don't like staying put in a predrilled centre.

That would work - just file the last 3/8 inch at each end of a 1 7/8 inch spade bit into a quadrant and resharpen....

The outside rim could be done by hand, or a round-over router bit, although I'd find that too fiddly/dangerous.

or then drill through and put a bolt through, chuck it up and scrape of the outside....

I like Andy's advice.

Cam

Do as the Skew says... here is a jig made for using the drill press as a lathe. Not recommending to buy the thing just to give you an idea of how you can make your wheels using your drill press. Rig up some sort of tool rest and make your knives from old chisels (as Skew suggested) or old files. (In fact, sense you are only making 4, it won't take too good of quality steel to make the tools as you can spend time sharpening and such.)

I first got into woodworking making craft and toys and heres a pic of some of the wheels i used to make. They are easier than they look. I first cut the wheel blank with hole saw in drill press to the size of the outer rim and then drilled the holes around for the spokes right through to the center. Then with double sided tape used different diameter hole saws to cut the outer rim first then the inner hub. Then the same process to cut the tyre (used MDF for the tyre. Then it was a simple matter of slipping the brass spokes in and pressing the tyre over the rim They look great on a little car

Originally Posted by Glenn_M

Have you considered a toy wheel cutter like below that works in your drill press?

This one (from carbitool) comes in 40 and 60mm diameters. Others are probably available.

A bit expensive is this is a once off project perhaps but maybe give you an option.

Cheers,
Glenn

I use these fairly regularly.. they're fine on a good solid drill press, but if your out a degree the whole thing looks ugly.. I find I can knock out a pile of soft wood wheels quite quicly but anything harder than pine requires lots of patience and a little lubricant to save the cutter heating up, especialy with the larger 60ml cutter.
Carbitool make them in 40, 50 and 60ml. no complaints with their service here.

the wheels need to be sanded after cutting as the rim has a thin lip of scrap that needs to be remoevd and the second side of the wheel cut rarely has a nice finish.

but if you're just doing a one off.. I'd go with Lignum's advice and make something special of it

Today was the day for the wheels. I decided to combine several pieces of the advice in this thread (so each of you should consider yourself thanked). As you can see, I think we came up with a fairish result.
I had already cut out the discs with the hole saw for the outside diameter, before starting the thread (that'll teach me, maybe - ask first). If I did this again I would do this after other steps, so the method I would use, based on today's exercise is:

1. Using a big spade bit (1.5" is my largest) in the drill press, make the hub section - go about 3/16ths into both surfaces.
2. Using the centres created from making the hubs to guide the centre drill, use a suitable hole saw in the drill press to cut out the discs.
3. Set a 1/4" bolt through the centre hole (axle).
4. Put the bolt in the chuck of the drill press and using rasps, files and sandpaper, turn a rounded tyre shape.
5. Sleeve the axle hole with suitable OD brass tube held with epoxy ( just looks good and does make the wheel run better)

Next time I will also make up some kind of tool rest when turning - the profiles are not quite regular.

I would have put up a picture (not that I reckon the wheels are works of art, but they are functional), but the young fella decided to drop the camera today and I need to work out why it isn't working and whether I can fix it....(a father's work - "Fix it, Dad - pleeease" - is never done).

Once again - thanks everyone.