- Tue Jun 27, 2017 9:54 pm
#399336
10" pneumatic wheels from Northern Tool for $10 each (item 2252):
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... 8846_18846
Similar to the Finsterwalder ones (listed at $69 each on the Wills Wing site), but with diamond tread tires instead of radial ribbed:
https://shop.finsterwalder-charly.de/sh ... -piece?c=8
The Northern wheels have a 3/4" bore, so I popped out the bushings and bored them to a nice slip fit (as checked with the bushings back in the wheel - pushing them back into the wheel was enough to change the fit on the 1.127/1.128" plug gauge I made). The bushings had some minor voids that were exposed during machining, but nothing that's going to compromise their integrity or drastically reduce their bearing area.
Speaking of bearing area, that is the one downside to just boring out the stock bushings - each one is only about 1/2" wide in the axial direction. The wheel center is 2.840" axially, so the bushings are only covering about 35% of the possible bearing area. I'm planning to make some full-length bushings out of HDPE at some point. I have the mold for making the HPDE slugs almost done.
I also made some HDPE washers out of milk jug walls to go in between the wheels and the aluminum shaft collars that will keep the wheels in place laterally on the control bar. They're 0.015-0.020" thick and are pretty simple to make if they get worn to the point of needing replacement. Shaft collars are McMaster-Carr P/N 6157K26, which arrived as Stafford Manufacturing Model # 7A102. McMaster listed them as coming with stainless screws, but were actually black oxide. I ordered some stainless replacement screws.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/ ... 8846_18846
Similar to the Finsterwalder ones (listed at $69 each on the Wills Wing site), but with diamond tread tires instead of radial ribbed:
https://shop.finsterwalder-charly.de/sh ... -piece?c=8
The Northern wheels have a 3/4" bore, so I popped out the bushings and bored them to a nice slip fit (as checked with the bushings back in the wheel - pushing them back into the wheel was enough to change the fit on the 1.127/1.128" plug gauge I made). The bushings had some minor voids that were exposed during machining, but nothing that's going to compromise their integrity or drastically reduce their bearing area.
Speaking of bearing area, that is the one downside to just boring out the stock bushings - each one is only about 1/2" wide in the axial direction. The wheel center is 2.840" axially, so the bushings are only covering about 35% of the possible bearing area. I'm planning to make some full-length bushings out of HDPE at some point. I have the mold for making the HPDE slugs almost done.
I also made some HDPE washers out of milk jug walls to go in between the wheels and the aluminum shaft collars that will keep the wheels in place laterally on the control bar. They're 0.015-0.020" thick and are pretty simple to make if they get worn to the point of needing replacement. Shaft collars are McMaster-Carr P/N 6157K26, which arrived as Stafford Manufacturing Model # 7A102. McMaster listed them as coming with stainless screws, but were actually black oxide. I ordered some stainless replacement screws.