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.
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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.
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