verteramofurniture Posted March 10, 2012 Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 Hello all I tried making some maple 1/2" thick by 2inch wheels for some toys I am trying to make. I was using the general heavy duty circle cutter on the drill press. It just kept burning and bogging down the drill. I am looking for a fast and easy way to make a bunch of these toy tires. I do not have a lathe or a bandsaw. Do you think that using a holesaw will give me a smooth cut? I would probably have to make a jig for sanding the tires? Thanks Marcus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tdale51@yahoo.com Posted March 10, 2012 Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 Marcus, the hole saws I have do not make a very smooth cut. I'm sure you could buy higher quality and be ok but when I need to do somehting similar a while back I used them. Then I put a 1/4" bolt through my "wheel" then ran a nut down snug. Then I chucked the assembly in my drill press and turned it on at a fairly low speed. Then I just sanded by hand. I ended up with a respectable circle. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcustoms Posted March 10, 2012 Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 Marcus, the hole saws I have do not make a very smooth cut. I'm sure you could buy higher quality and be ok but when I need to do somehting similar a while back I used them. Then I put a 1/4" bolt through my "wheel" then ran a nut down snug. Then I chucked the assembly in my drill press and turned it on at a fairly low speed. Then I just sanded by hand. I ended up with a respectable circle. Hope this helps. That's what I would do given limited tools. Just use a 2 1/8 hole saw to give you enough room to smooth everything out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verteramofurniture Posted March 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2012 Thanks for the info. I also have a osculating spindle sander that has a belt sander attachment. I saw on the forums you can make a jig for it to sand wheels. I will have to try both options. I have also heard people say that a lathe is a good way to go. How do you get consistent diameter wheels from a lathe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave H Posted March 11, 2012 Report Share Posted March 11, 2012 I made a simple jig for the same osculating sander useing the belt sanding atachment, I'm assumeing there will be an axle in these wheels so make a slot the same width as the diamiter of the axle, in a chunk of wood or plywood about an inch long the end of the slot needs to be half the diamiter of your wheel from the end of your piece of wood. Clamp the wood to your spindle sander against the flat edge of your belt sander attachment. Rough cut your wheel useing an oversized hole saw or jig saw it doesent even need to be round just bigger than th final diamiter. Make the axle hole in the piece put a short piece of dowel in the axle hole set the stub in the slotted jig on the sander turn it on and start spinning as you are advanceing in the slot until it bottoms out, and no more material is comeing off the wheel , and presto a perfect circle every time, smooth, and repeatable. Hope this makes sense. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmac Posted March 11, 2012 Report Share Posted March 11, 2012 How do you get consistent diameter wheels from a lathe I did it once like this:Cut out all your wheel blanks and drill the holes in the middle for where the axles will go.Stack them all onto a piece of threaded rod that fits the axle holes.Clamp them all together by putting a nut and a washer on each end of the stack of wheels and tightening the nuts.Put one end of the threaded rod into a chuck in the headstock of your lathe, and support the other end at the tailstock.Turn all the wheels at once, just as if they were a big long cylinder. If you do a good job at this step, all the wheels will be the same size.Remove the wheels from the threaded rod and remount them one at a time to add any details that you may desire. My result: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/31065 -- Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted March 11, 2012 Report Share Posted March 11, 2012 if you dont need hundreds you could just go buy them.....i know not as much fun but it would be acurate. if not then make a jig that would allow you to keep your wood a even distance from you machine and then just turn the wood i built one for the band saw you can probably make them for sander, scroll saw, to cut a circle that is the same. look up the plans there are lots of them out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 12, 2012 Report Share Posted March 12, 2012 http://www.cincinnatidowel.com/ has a large selection of toy parts in several different woods They also make tenons for use with Festool's Domino. I just got my first order from them. They fit the slots just as well as Festool's. I haven't glued up any projects with them yet but they seem quite accurate in size. Cost was less than half the price, orders over $40 free shipping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
verteramofurniture Posted March 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2012 i made a jig today for my sander and it seems to work pretty well. now my problem is my little bench top drill press doesnt have enough power to cut throu the material that quick. I am only making the wheels 3/8 thick but im using maple. And I end up pulling off the holesaw everytime to take it apart and get the wheel blank out. It takes a while to cut the wheels but doesnt look like the store bought ones. wdwerker thanks for the link. i was just about to go look for some sites to find cheap dowels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.