wire spoke wheels

Modeling Subjects Autos
1

Does anyone have any information as to scratch building
wire spoke wheels? I am wondering if anyone knows of a
set of plans as to building a jig for constructing these wheels?
Thank You.

2

Some of the FSM techno Gurus or web guys should be able to help you out here.
I recall an article on this topic a while back in FSM. . .looks highly technical and more than a little ulcer inducing.

Don

3

I’ve been thinking about this too, and this is what I’ve come up with so far (it’s hard to put my visual thoughts to words, so hopefully I can get across the general perspective…)

  • you’d need a rim, and a hub. I guess you use some from another kit, or build them from various rods
  • I’d build a ‘jig’ with various nails or pins arranged in a circle about 6" in diameter. You’d need to space the pins out along the edge of the circle so they were equal distance and so that there was one pin for every ‘spoke’ you wanted. You’d also need a pin or nail directly in the center of the circle.
  • then, I’d cut the ‘rim’ in half so there was a back half and a front half. I’d put the 'back half over the center of the circle jig and somehow fasten it in place.
  • then I’d start wrapping the wire from the center pin out to the outside circumfrence (spelling?) pins in a pattern that would look like spokes (make sense?)
  • after that, I’d take the ‘front half’ of the rim and attach/glue it to the back half (which should now be ‘under’ the wires) so it traps the wires between the two pieces of rim. You could put some glue or epoxy around the rim to hold everything in place.
  • when the glue dries, just cut the excess wire and attach the ‘hub’ to the center of the wheel

I can foresee a couple of problems that I don’t know how I would address:

  • there likely would be alot of ‘wire’ accumulating at the center of the wheel. I’m not sure how you could limit this so it didn’t build up too much
  • I’ve never tried it, so I really have no idea whether or not it would work…

Maybe this will give you a few ‘idea’ and you can perfect a technique and write an article yourself for FSM…

M.

4

I have never done it but here is the easiest way to do it. First off, your spokes dont go the whole way through. Because yea, it would all build up. All you need is your wheel, razor, drill and spokes. I am going to try to describe this the best that I can. I am going to describe how to do this with simple strait spokes. None crossing.

  1. cut out one spoke. 2) drill a hole where the spoke was. Drill from the outside of the rim, and into the hub. Dont drill through the hub. 3) the spoke needs to be long enough so that you put it through the hole on the outer rim, through where you cut out the spoke, and then into the hole in the hub. Apply glue to where you think it needs it most. Then you repeat that for each spoke.
    For crossing spokes, you just drill through the rim and into the hub at an angle, just make sure that you leave room for the other spoke to cross the previous spoke.
    I hope that makes some sence. If it doesnt let me know ill think of something to show you better.
5

Thank you guy’s for your promt reply:
I plan on machining the rims of aluminum, and the hubs of stainless, and the
spokes of stainless, as the hub and spokes can be silver soldered together,
I hope! the spokes can be formed on one end like a rivet, so it won’t pull through
the rim. thanks again guys i’ll let you know how they came out TED

6

Hi i know this thread is a little old But I’m a Proffessional Model Automotive Artisian and I build metal wire wheels all the time both for large scale Motorcycles and cars I can’t post pics on this site so have left a link of some pics of some Aluminium wheels I machined and Laced for a client build Monogram E type Jaguar take a look , If your still interested I’m only to happy to explain the construction method involved Please email me for more pics of scratch built models I have built showing hand made wire wheels in metal.

here is the link:

http://www.scalemotorcars.com/forum/showthread.php?t=628

Sean

7

Gerald Wingrove devotes quite a lot of space to this subject in his book The Complete Car Modeler (New Cavendish Books ISBN 0 904568 13 X) - should be available from Amazon and I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone (even if you’re not making wheels). For the wheels he even describes the turning operations for the rims and hub which is all double dutch to me but should make sense to someone familiar with lathe working.

Hope this helps a little.

Martin
http://www.freewebs.com/martsmodels/

8

Thats a great Idea Martin but If they email me I can give the Information for free includes images !!

In Australia Wingroves books don’t sell under $80.00 to $100.00 dollars and thats alot of money unless you can strike it lucky and find one at a yard sale or the like !

Sean

9

That’s very generous of you Sean - and very good they look too! The book is available on Amazon at under £10 at present (they ship worldwide). In checking that out I’ve just ordered Vol.2 for £13 so you did me a favour (!)

If there is a problem with Wingrove it’s probably that he is such a master craftsman that his methods can be above the abilities of some of us mere mortals. The jig for his wires alone is a work of art and as he uses continuous wire spokes even drilling the hubs can call for some pretty sophisticated tooling (and some of his are 1/24 !!!)

I’ve just acquired a lathe about a month ago and have only tried some basic stuff on it up to now but I would suggest that it is a luxury and that comparatively realistic results can be obtained from converting the wheels in the kit. Different kits require different approaches of course (the 1/8 Jag looks as if it would be an easy conversion).

These on the Gakken Hispano only need a razor saw and a drill and are individual spokes…

whilst these on the Revell SS100 are arranged so that one wire completes two spokes…

I’ll be doing the Bentley and the Monogram Duesenbergs soon but the spoke pattern for the SS100 is on my website and the Hispano will soon follow.

Cheers - Martin
http://www.freewebs.com/martsmodels/

10

modelmaker;

I continue to be astonished by the efforts of the kit buiders that post here, let alone someone with your skills. Thanks for posting so we can see your professional results. They are quite encouraging and inspire me to go over and pick up the “magazine” for my 1980’s Gunze Sangyo Dorvack “powered armor’s” weapon, finish sanding the paint off from a failed paint coat, and try again!

Thanks again for your inspiration. At age 49, I am beginning to get some time to build some of the 200+ kits I have collected while raising 4 wonderful children, and doing all the things that go along with it!

11

Hi Lonski,

Thanks for the kind words It is a pleasure to be able to inspire you and many others ,

Here is another link to more pictures of my work alot more will be added in time for anyone who may be interested, when visiting please feel free to leave comments either negative or positive also please feel free to sign my guest book.

here is the link: http://public.fotki.com/modelmaker/

regards

Sean

12

Don is right, there was an article in FSM years ago about making your own wire wheeels. Ask FSM, they should be able to find it.

13

Scratch what did you end up doing about you wire wheels?