I need some help here Please.

[DAdams]

I'm making my grandkids some toys and i want to make the wheels to put on them so they can roll. I want to make the wheels 1 & 1/4 in. around solid sides then i would drill a 1/4 in. hole in the wheel side for the dowel i want to use for the axle. what can i use to make good round wheels? Would a hole saw work for making the wheels or is there something else out there tool wise i could use? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you for your Time.

[Travis]

I personally just use pre-made wheels. I pick them up at any hobby store for a few cents each. But if you wanted to make your own, I would use a holesaw on a drill press. I'd also go through the extra step of clamping the wood to the drillpress table. When using a hole saw, the wood can easily get away from you. Also have a backer board so you get a clean cut on the backend. Here's a little trick to add a little dimention to the wheels. Use a smaller radias hole saw and just go down a little bit. Then switch to your larger hole saw to cut out the actual wheel. The smaller hole saw adds a nice dimention and makes it look like a wheel hub. You can use a router bit to round over the edge of the wheel, or just leave it squared. Both look nice.

 

You can make a jig for a sanding disk. Basically you rough cut out the wheel, then use the jig to sand to the line and make it perfectly round. Other jigs can be made for bandsaws too.

 

I'd just try the holesaw and see how that works for you. I've had decent luck with it. I noticed the quality of the holesaw does make a difference. My harbor freight saws didn't do as nice of a job as my dewalt hole saws. Hope this helps!

[blame]

personally i've cut them out on the lathe , scroll saw and used a hole saw and found that its easier to cut them out using the hole saw after i cut them out i used a bolt to chuck them in my drill and turned them on my disk sander just make sure you cut slowly otherwise it takes out big chunks when cutting

 

blame

[Christina]

Good question Deb............I went through this same thing at Christmas! I ended up just buying premade wheels.........tried scrolling them lololol.......looked more like flat tires!

 

Great info Travis and Blame............thanks!!!

Christina

[Fran]

I almost always use premade bought wheels, but one time I wanted some wide wheels to go on a dragster. I used a hole saw then like Blame, ran a bolt threw it, but chucked in my drill press. Used a rasp or very course sand paper or even better use emory cloth to smooth down. I even put treads on some of them, but won't go into that as if could be hurtful if not careful. lol

Fran

[KtownScroller]

I almost always use premade bought wheels, but one time I wanted some wide wheels to go on a dragster. I used a hole saw then like Blame, ran a bolt threw it, but chucked in my drill press. Used a rasp or very course sand paper or even better use emory cloth to smooth down. I even put treads on some of them, but won't go into that as if could be hurtful if not careful. lol

Fran

 

Send those wheels to Christina. She can burn some wheel covers and treads into your wheel blanks.

[Christina]

LOL Rick.............yes I probably could!

Christina

[greasemonkeyredneck]

This is an old topic, but I thought someone may can find what I done useful. We have no hobby stores here local that sell that sort of thing and the shipping from getting them online put them out of the price range I was willing to put in my project. So, on a lathe, after roughing my stock down to the size wheel I needed. I took my parting tool and cut tiny grooves down the length of the stock about 1/16" apart. Then, after making sure my miter saw was square and had a very sharp blade, I chopped off wheels about 3/8" thick. Then using a compass, I found the center and drilled my axle holes on the drill press. This produced some very nice wheels that had a tread look to them.

[Travis]

Along those same lines, you can use a closet rod or large dowel and slice them up with a miter saw. That would be a pretty easy way to make wheels.