Thanks Rich.
Thanks Kim.
It is good but does not need much voltage. I need to put a voltage regulator to take my 5v down to about 3v otherwise it can burn the surface of the metal to be plated. Best slow and gentle.
Not had a chance to get into the workshop as much as I would have liked. My 86 year old mother tripped at home and ended up in hospital on thursday evening. She has broken her hip so had to have an opp on friday. In hspital on her own as no visitors allowed for at least the next week or two. My Dad has Parkinsons so cannot be left on his own. We are sharing the duties between my wife and my sister. I am doing some repairs at our shop while it is closed hence workshop time may be limited for a while.
Got four hours outside this afternoon so made the jig for turning the wheels.
Turned a short length of mild steel in the collet holder. It is a short bit of the axle material 19mm diameter. Turned it down to fit the bored hole in the wheels. The reduced bit is enough to go through the jig blank hole of about 14mm and enough to thread for a holding nut.
Allowed a shoulder big enough to almost go through the jig blank but short by a couple of mills. The rest of the stub was reduced to 10mm and tapped M10
Cut off the bar with enough to go most of the way through the wheel.
Next in the three jaw chuck started with a circular steel blank smaller than the wheels but thick enough to project beyond the jaws of the chuck. Faced both sides just to clean it and square the faces.
Next I marked the face with all the holes needed. A small centre drill in the centre. Fron this hole I used a compass to draw two circles at 1" and 1.25" from the centre. One hole is made on the 1" mark and then at 90 degrees two holes 180 degrees apart are made on the 1.25" circle
The holes on the 1.25" circle are drilled 5mm and tapped M6. The 1" circle hole will be fully drilled later when it is needed. For now it is a 5mm hole 2mm deep ready for centring later in the four jaw and drilling to size. Next the centre hole was drilled and then bored for the shoulder on the previus part to be fitted in with a tight fit.
Next a nut and washer were used on the back to secure it in place. The front of this stub was then turned down until the wheels will fit on with a decent fit that will stop movement but allow the wheel to be removed. The final cut was brought out across the face of the disk to square it with the stub. From now on the jig CANNOT be moved in the chuck until ALL four wheels have been machined. This ensures they are all identical.
You will see that the wheel castings have two holes cast into them. These were drilled out to 10mm. A wheel was mounted on the jig with two M6 bolts through these holes screwed into the two holes tapped in the jig.
The wheel is now ready for machining to size. To give a nice surface I used a small round insert tool. First the face was turned down to the required thickness of 3/4"
You may notice this picture has a triangular insert but the surface was improved with a round one so all further machining was done with this tool.
Next the tread was turned down to the design diameter of 4.25". Luckily the insert used matched the curve needed at the base of the flange. The flange had a very small shave to ensure it was uniformly 4 5/8".
Last job was to shape the top of the flange to a nice curve without altering its size too much.
Once completed the wheel was removed and tried on its axle. I can see the axles will need shortening to fit the machined wheels before they are fixed and quartered. Repeated this procedure with another wheel today. Next chance I get I will complete the other two then we can get on with the crank pins using the same jig in a four jaw.
Cheers
Julian