Project started October 2023,

Making a rear hub. We are using a hydraulic drumbrake from around 1963, to mount the drum to the left hub we modified an old drill to match the angle of the stock bolts.

 
 
 

Now then, to the wheel itself... We started with a solid 15" wheel from a tractor or something and it needed quite a bit of work! The welds were pretty terrible, lots of slag in them. Aad started with removing the slag with a Dremel but that would have taken ages so we decided to put the whole wheel in the lathe and remove the old weld completely. While it was in the lathe we removed some of the worst dents in the edges by pushing them with a bar of steel in the toolholder. That went easier than expected!

 
 
 

Aad rewelded the side where the old weld was removed, then repeated the whole procedure for the other side. The 5 holes for the old hub were also filled up as that bolt pattern would not have worked with the hubs I designed. There was some distortion in the wheel due to the heat from welding so with the hydraulic press that was corrected and then back in the lathe for final straightening.

 
 
 
 

We machined the center hole slightly bigger so it was perfectly concentric with the wheel again, and then machined a flat area for the leftside hub. The plan was to put the leftside hub in the lathe, clock it to run perfectly true, mount the wheel on the hub without taking the hub out of the lathe and then machine the other side of the wheel.