english wheel

theveryman · Jul 27, 2011

HI
anyone built an english wheel

Joe

Hitch · Jul 27, 2011

Wyn made one...... do a search for "English Wheel" Its sure to come up.

wyn · Jul 27, 2011

As Hitch says, i had a bash at making one a while back.
It was pretty straight forward, my plan was to machine the wheels but it seemed to be too much grief so i bought them from a firm in this country called "justin Baker"
There is plenty of info on "metalmeet" about english wheels.
The trickiest bit was deciding which mechanism to use to adjust the pressure on the wheel.

Paul G · Jul 27, 2011

This was my effort. "Crude but effective" best describes it I think.

As you can see, space is limited in my workshop. :laughing:

I paint things bright colours so I can find them.

Cheers,
Paul G

theveryman · Jul 27, 2011

HI
your project looks real nice ,I started 1 last year made from H beam but the flexing was terrible so have started again using 4x4x1/2inch section mitered and welded into traditional C frame shape (will post pics later) just looking for
advice before I take it too far and it ends up useless

Paul G · Jul 27, 2011

Mine is made from 120 x 60 x 6mm box.
A certain amount of flex is good IMHO. When taking out the lumps & bumps it
rides over them better. If the frame had no movement at all the sheet would stop dead when you hit a bump.
Think of driving a car over a ploughed field if it had no suspension.

Even the proper cast ones have some movement, and the bearings are usually mounted in lead.

I made my wheel to make the bodywork for my scratch built "Seven".
Pic of the nose at the panel triming stage (prior to welding) below.

Cheers,
Paul G

Shox Dr · Jul 27, 2011

Nice work there Paul

beetlejac · Jul 27, 2011

http://www.roddingroundtable.com/tech/articles/12ewheel1.html

cumbriasteve · Jul 27, 2011

Lovely front end, the sort of thing that makes you want to 'have a go'..too many other projects on though or I would get something for a winter project.

theveryman · Jul 27, 2011

wheel

very nice like to see more of this build any how this is as far as I have got

Paul G · Jul 27, 2011

That looks a very large "C" in relation to the size of the material.

Mine has a vertical gap of 840mm. 7 times the size of the box section.

I built mine for use on ally. I note a car in your pic that I assume is steel.

If yours ends up with a tad too much flex then all is not lost. Another "c"
inside the big "C" would stiffen it no end, effectively making the frame 8" x 4" box.

Nothing ventured nothing gained. Go for it.

Cheers,
Paul G

world wide viking · Jul 27, 2011

hello there, looks nice that wheel of yours. If I can be so bald to suggest one thing, cause I see that this will flex.
I would suggest that you set a flat steel bar maybe 100 mm on the inside of the frame to stiffen it. This can be either waltzed in to a roughly shape or cute in sections from a slate. Point is that it is not the with of the steel but the depth that makes the strength. I had a plan earlier to build one but that was of to half moon's if you want and flatten steel bars between. so that the moon (es) makes the strength to the wheel and the flatten bar makes it ridgid to the steel plate movement.

hotrodder · Jul 28, 2011

Torsional stiffness is the bigger issue. Fabricated wheels (or at least the few i've played with) are typically less stiff (and a LOT lighter) than the big cast iron Edwards jobby at the workshop but in of itself not that big a deal i.e. the pressure adjuster may need to be turned a touch further for a given pressure. If the frame is springy enough to twist in use then you can get problems as the relationship between the wheels moves more i.e. as you push and pull the sheet through the machine the pressure fluctuates and you get erratic results. If it's not too bad (within reason) you can wheel for longer at lighter pressure settings...

theveryman · Jul 28, 2011

wheel

Hi
thanks for all the advice food for thought,the car is a classic mini with a 3inch roof chop and is going to become a hatchback as it is along term project i intend
to make as much of tooling as possible and this is to shape the rear hatch

joe

Shox Dr · Jul 28, 2011

Sounds like loads of fun. I make as much tooling as possible, can't beat it (well some of the things you can) :laughing:

tigler · Jul 28, 2011

This is an amazing device, I've seen, tried it and it works amazingly well. Comes as a self build kit at £389 !!

http://www.justinbaker.co.uk/pdf/RAPTOR.pdf

Check out his whole website as he has other varieties of English wheels.

Shox Dr · Jul 28, 2011

Yup, I've had that on my wish list for some time now

Paul G · Jul 28, 2011

If you make your own wheels Joe then you may well find that the shape of the bottom anvil is the key.
I have seen several DIY wheels on websites that suggest grinding a flat on a spherical bearing.
I tried this and didn't have much success.
I have since found that the shape should not be a single rad with a flat, but a twin rad with a flat in the middle,
if that makes sence.

Cheers,
Paul G

theveryman · Jul 28, 2011

read about adding flats on the metalmeet forum ,tried it, was badly witness marked put it down to having large bottom anvils, but kind of get what you mean i have limited access to a cnc lathe so will try what you suggest

Cheers
Joe

english wheel

theveryman

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