3" and 4" Wheels

I am currently trying to make a sale model of a Ransomes Class A Thrasher.

The Model requires 2 x 3" wheels and 2 x 4" Wheels. The Plan shows the Wheel section to be Tee shaped with the spokes then attached to either side of the base line of the Tee.

Can any one give me a source to find these 3 and 4" Rings

Without the necesary rings it would seem I may have to turn them from a solid bar.

Any suggestions would be much apreciated

Thank you Malcolm Farrant

You can either get some thick wall tube from the likes of M-machine and turn that to a Tee section or make them up from slices of ERW steel tube with silver soldered in "washers" to give the tee section. have a read of this where I did some 5.5" ones

As Jason ! but braze tn the "washers" save a fortune ! Some of these machines had cast wheels with quite a thick rim. Thick wall tube There are countless combinations of dia and wall. Good luck. Noel

Another vote for thick wall steel tubing. Mine came from "Metals United Limited". Although I'm sure there are many other suppliers. Mine from MUL was available as a 300mm length.

Asalways thnks for your suggestions. \as always a BIG help

Best wishes

Malcolm Farrant

Jason, I prefer your method rather than that of a fellow club member. He did his by trepanning the discs, but did the rims differently. He obtained thickish steel sections, milled a central slot, rolled the up to spring over the remains of the discs and welded it all together. More than one way of skinning the cat as they say.

John

I found it easy to source thick walled steel tube (seamless) from M-machine. A quick check shows up a choice of the sizes you would require to produce turned 'T' rings.

I recently produced a pair with a diameter of 4 1/2", although mine had all the spokes riveted to the inner face of the 'T', but easy enough to alternate. Maybe a little fiddly on the 3" Diddy ones, but do-able.

I used a simple double edged (3/16ths) square HSS tool in a boring bar on my lowest speed (ML7) with no issues-

There are some images in my album which may assist you with building them this way, or help you decide.

Rgds