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Making Wooden Toy Wheels
Do you use wooden toy wheels in your projects? For anyone that does, you may be interested in a simple shop made jig that I use. I still
buy some toy wheels but this jig gives me a lot more options when I'm building the toys required by my grandkids.
The dimensions that I made my wheel jig may not fit your particular machines but with the basic idea you can adjust it the fit. Some of the
specifics that works good for me:
- Overall Size - I used a 8"x 8"x 3/4" wood base only because that's what fit the table on my sander.
- Miter Slide - Using the miter slot in the table to hold the jig in position works great. I can slide the jig to another part of the sanding paper
when I need to. It also helps me locate the jig the same distance from the sanding paper to make it easy to duplicate the diameter of a set
of wheels.
- Center Slide - The center slide is reversable to accomodate two different axle sizes. I used a 1/4" pin on one end and a 3/8" pin
on the other. The center locking screw should be hand snug while using the jig so the slide has a snug fit. It should slide in and out smooth
but not too loose.
- Making Duplicate Wheels - When you get the diameter you want with the first wheel just mark the position of the slide. I put masking tape
along the edge of the slide and just mark the tape. You can get more elaborate and attach a permanent scale but I would have trouble remembering
the measurement where I stopped.
- Getting the Wheel Ready - I like to blank the wheel out with a hole saw in a drill press. It's about the fastest way I've found.
- Sanding the Wheel - I use a 60 to 80 grit sanding wheel depending on the type of wood. The harder the wood your using to make these wooden
toy wheels the heavier the grit. The next step is sanding them smooth. I normally use a arbor and chuck them in a wood lathe for this step but you
can use a drill press or hand drill.
Overall it's a pretty simple process to make these wooden toy wheels, as you can see. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on a free pdf download that gets a lot more in depth
in making wheels and profiling them into tires and rims instead of just a smooth sidewall. It will also show you how to make several tread designs. To
find out when it's ready you can sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Twitter.
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