Posted:
15 years ago
How to build a wheel!
By jozenbo at 2008-05-17
Purchase a two boards that is either 3 feet by 3 feet or 1 meter by 1 meter. Draw a circle one them as large as possible. Cut these circles out, making sure not to damage the four corners leftover of the square, as they will be used as footing.
Next, check the radius of the skate board wheel and then draw a smaller circle with a smaller radius in the center of the large circle board. It should be larger enough to fit a socket wrench into, so that the skate board wheel can be taken off the tread and placed back on it and fastened.
By jozenbo at 2008-05-17
Buy two more boards, both roughly the same size as the first. Leave these as squares. In the picture above from left to right is a row of 3 pictures. Starting at the left, purchase a 4x4 or a wooden post that is roughly 4 feet or 130 centimeters long. Trim the edge of one of the square boards so that it is slightly smaller then the other, 280 centimeters should work. Then draw in a square the same dimensions as the 4x4's width and height, which should be 4 inches by 4 inches, or in the case of centimeters, roughly 12 by 12.
Moving to the middle row of the picture, place the smaller square board on top of the larger one and bolt or nail them together. It may be a good idea to place some kind of padding under the larger board, so it doesn't scrape the floor later. Next, insert the 4x4 into the hole in the middle of the smaller board, so that the 4x4 stands its length vertical.
Next, in row to the right of the picture, take those four corners from the board that the circle was cut out of and place them so they stand against the wooden 4x4 in the pattern shown in the top view. The red shows where the bolts or nails are placed, so that each footing reinforces the next. Each footing should be nailed or bolted 3 times into the 4x4, as show in the side angle view.
By jozenbo at 2008-05-17
In step 3 the skate board wheel (magenta) tread is bolted directly to the 4x4 at the top. Make sure that the bolts are long and fastened well, as this is a place where a lot of torque gathers. Metal wire or a metal plating around this area can give additional reinforcement. After bolting on the skate board wheel tread and securing it, use a socket wrench to take of the wheels.
Now comes time to prepare the wheel. Take one of the of those large donut circle board and center the skate board wheel over it and draw out the skateboard wheel's circle size. Purchase 12 feet of 2x4" long boards and cut them into 1 foot lengths. Position these into the pattern shown around that hole that is the size of the skate board wheel, making them only a tiny bit smaller then the hole, so the the skate board wheel will need to be banged into the hole they make later.
Next, bolt each one 3 to 6 times (as the red points show in the picture) to the big wooden donut. Make sure they don't go so deep they show on the other side of the board, which is where the calendar will go. After doing this place the wheel over the smaller hole and bang it in with a hammer, it should fit tightly in, held fast by the bolts boards around it. Next pour in glue around the cracks of the skateboard wheel, filling them entirely. This will dry and harden, making the wheel held even more fast to the board.
After this, purchasing two small metal plates for each wheel, place the two over the wheel and the 6 wooden boards so that the hole in the center of the skate board wheel will still fit back on the skateboard wheel tread. This is shown as the two purple lines indicate in the lower right part of the picture above. MAKE SURE YOU CAN STILL FIT THE WHEEL ON THE BACK ON THE TREAD AND THAT YOU CAN STILL REACH THE BOLTS FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SKATEBOARD WHEEL.
After doing this for one wheel, prepare the next in the same way. Let both dry for a few days before putting them on the post prepared, otherwise the wheel may slip a little and not stand straight later. A crooked spin burns out much faster then a well balanced one.
To increase the wheel's spinning value, add more weight to the outer perimeter of the donut on the inside part, as this will increase centrifugal forces that maintain spin. Metal or wooden weights should work fine. If the board is heavy enough itself, (which it should be), then this isn't needed and it will add torque to the system, making it less stable. If everything is secured with heavy bolting systems, (industrial steel type) these additional weights added to the perimeter will prove a good boost.
By jozenbo at 2008-05-17
In step 4, after waiting a few days to let the glue dry, take the two wheels prepared and slide them back on the skateboard tread. Using a socket wrench that fits through the smaller hole of the large donut boards, fasten the wheels back on to the treads. The lower right picture shows what this will look like when it is done from a front view. The better balanced the wheels are, the longer they will spin. The more weight they have, the longer they will spin. The better the pivot system, the longer they will spin. The pivot system is critical, a good set of wheels makes a huge difference in the overall final spin quality.
My prototype began spinning for as many as 7-8 minutes. Now they spin as many as 15-20. If I tweak it by adding weight, I could get more spin out of it. A more balanced system could be prepared that kicks out over 1 hour of spin time, I simply used the cheapest materials I could get. My own prototype is a tweaked version of these plans, which should be better. The skateboard wheel I had wasn't held fast to the skateboard in the regular way, so I had to add a metal bar in the center of the standing post.
Last, I prepared a video of the prototype wheel I built myself. It should help to make these pictures easier to understand. It will help. Study this video and these pictures until you understand them well. Then, if you have a better idea outline it and execute it if you can, otherwise these provide sound plans for how to develop a good sturdy wheel that should last many years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBqLRswkg7E
(copy and paste this into your browser, this should take you to the right page)
If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer.
Peace,
Jozen-Bo
