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Re: Making rubber road wheel tyres

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 1:56 am
by Herr Dr. Professor
"If anyone wants to see how it goes I will start a build thread." You just did so right here. :thumbup: And sure, it seems a lot of us are watching.

If you find that the shrinkage doesn't hold, maybe this will help. I have no experience with the kind of pressure your sized beastie might put on such tires, but I do know that two of my old favorites can stand up to quite a bit. One is called "Barge Cement" and it is used to hold together Birkenstock shoes. I have experience with this, walking my 195 lbs. on the glued-on parts. The other is the E6000 I use a great deal in 1/16 modeling. It is much stronger in all directions than any cyanoacrylite (Super Glue, Crazy Glue), but remains somewhat flexible.

Re: Making rubber road wheel tyres

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 2:18 am
by jee
as far as I know there are 2 ways (besides Mike's), printing it in TPU directly on a 3D printer, or make if from silicon mixed with baking powder.
for both ways you need a CAD design to print the tires or the moulds.

video on making the tires: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDM77cIHsqg

there are by the way also plenty of videos on how to design the wheels and make the mould for the different CAD programs

As I see, the use of a mould with silicon gives a better result with more details

Re: Making rubber road wheel tyres

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 6:28 pm
by MikeN
I seem to have answered my own question on this thread.
Today I constructed a machine powered by a 12v motor to cut the tread into my tyres.
I think it worked quite well. To begin with, the motor spun the circular saw rather alarmingly fast but then I had the idea of plugging it in to the speed controler of the Renault tank and I was able to slow it down somewhat.
The wheel is mounted on a little carriage that runs on linear bearings and is pushed against a stop where the saw cuts a small notch.
Index it round 40 times. Turn it over and repeat.

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Re: Making rubber road wheel tyres

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 6:43 pm
by Ecam
Those look spectacular! Love the effort into a tool that will get used on one project. I have tried to come up with equal spacing on a turret ring and gave up after several attempts. Some people just figure this stuff out!

Re: Making rubber road wheel tyres

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 6:56 pm
by Herr Dr. Professor
Today I constructed a machine powered by a 12v motor to cut the tread into my tyres [...] Index it round 40 times. Turn it over and repeat. " I admire such ingenuity with machine tools.