wheels rounding

[boanagers]

Hello to all,

I was wondering if any of you have used a drill press to true up your wheels? What speed do you suggest to run it at? What do you use to cut it down? Did you sand to get a polish? What did you use to polish the wheels? All suggestions will be helpful.

Jim<><

[parrish]

Hey Jim,
I have not personally done it but have seen it done with a mandrel, a square block of wood, and some wet sand paper.

I watched Barga's work some wheels like a pro at out last Pinewood Wars. You can turn out some pretty good wheels that way!

[boanagers]

Thanks Parrish,

How long should I work this process? What type of results do they normally get with this process. Also is sand paper better than a fine file?

[Barga Racing]

Jim,
Before I got my lathe and mostly because son's scout pack don't allow lathed wheels but do allow sanding to remove imperfections we found a way to do wheels on my drill press. First you need a square block and a piece of precision ground drill rod. Place rod in chuck and make sure table on press is square to chuck by moving the block against drill rod and looking for light at the contact point. Light should pretty much disappear evenly across contact surface. If not readjust table if possible. Also may want to check runout on chuck. Mine is only about .0015 which is very good for a drill press but still a far cry from the .0003 I measured on my lathe. Most drill presses are in neighborhood of .003 - .0035 runout. If you determine your press is square and runout is acceptable I start by chucking a pro wheel mandrel in drill press. Measure all wheels and start with smallest OD wheel. Start with 220 sandpaper or even 180. Use wet/dry paper and keep it wet. Place piece of wet paper flat against block and then move that into wheel. Move wheel up and down and even move paper back and forth or it kinda gets plugged up if you try sanding in same spot with out moving anything. Do this 15 to 20 seconds to begin with and readjust time if necessary. When doing first grit you will be able to see progress as wheel turns same shade of color across entire tread surface. Then we go to 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 2000, 8000 micromesh, and 12000 micromesh. Hang a clock with a second hand on the wall behind your drill press. After first heavy grit measure OD of wheel and make a note. Then do all other grits trying to keep all cycles approxiamate same length of time. I have found as grits get finer may need to increase times to remove deeper scratchs left from previously heavier grit. After first wheel is done measure OD a couple places across tread. Should be within .001 - .0015 to verify block is truly square with chuck. Almost forgot use pro hub tool to square inner hub first. If wheel appears to wobble while spinning on mandrel then hub is not square with bore centerline or lateral runout is terrible and wheel should probably be pitched. Now back to doing your wheels. After the first wheel is done and you measured the OD, this is what you want the other wheels to end up as since you were supposed to start with the smallest wheel. If you have patience and take measurements at various intervals and compare to measurements from previous wheels and adjust sanding times accordingly you can end up with a decent set of wheels that will be within .001 - .002 of each other. And less than .003 runout, which is not great but a lot better than most wheels measure when new. And you will have a nice flat tread surface. Also most scout packs I am familiar with do not allow latheing but do allow sanding to remove imperfections. Is this crossing that line? Depends on who you ask. I f you are allowed a lathe is the way to go or even a pro wheel shaver. But if you are not allowed or don't have them then the drill press method can do a decent job. Good Luck.

[Barga Racing]

Almost forgot, 390 rpm is the setting we used. Never experimented much with different rpm's as 390 was first setting we tried and it seemed to do a nice job.

[boanagers]

Barga,

Thank you very much for the very indepth process on how to work wheels on the drill press. I hope others will use that info. as well. I am printing the info. out you gave and will apply it later this week. I will let you know how they turn out!

Jim<><