Build lightweight
custom wire wheels
for your park flyer
or FF model
IT MAY SEEM intimidating, but building
wire wheels for your model can have your
flying buddies turning their heads and
saying “Where did you buy those little
gems?” They’ll look at you as if you just
took on the status of a watchmaker when
you say “I made them myself.”
My wire-wheel saga grew from an
interest in rubber-powered pre-World War I
Pioneer aircraft. A quick glance at the
requirements of the “Magnificent Men”-era
machines made me realize that I needed to
learn how to make light wire wheels and
radial engines, or the game was over before
I started. There’s no use in building a
lightweight Blériot and not having the
wheels or engine to make it look right.
The 17/8-inch-diameter wheels shown in
this article are for a 1911 Bristol Prier
monoplane that Otto Khuni designed. (Plans
are available from Peck-Polymers.)
However, the wheel design works on any
aircraft through World War I.
The method I’ll describe produces a
semiscale wheel that is well suited to
rubber-powered models or even RC park
flyers. It uses tires made from foam meat
trays, and they are mounted on poster-board
rims. In this instance the rims are from a
discarded bakery cake box. Aluminum hubs
and fishing-line spokes complete the project.
These wheels are easy on the wallet,
even if you do have to purchase your own
poster board instead of a cake. They are also
extremely light; the 17/8-inch wheels
weighed .6 gram each; a pair’s weight is
roughly half that of a copper penny. With
changes in materials they can be adapted for
use on small electrics and CO2-powered
models.
Before we get started I’ll share a couple
tips I’ve learned the hard way. They are to:
• Make the tires and then create the rims to
fit the tires. How do I know to do things in
this order? I’ve tried it both ways. It’s
much easier fitting rims to foam tires than
modifying foam tires to fit rims.
• Cut more parts than you need to create a
pair of wheels. If your learning curve is
like mine, you will butcher some parts
learning the process and you will be glad
for the spare components.
The major steps in the wire-wheel
building process are:
1) Creating working drawings
2) Making the fly cutter and cutting the
tires
3) Making the wheel disk and rim
4) Fabricating the hubs
5) Lacing the wheels
6) Painting the parts
7) Final assembly
Create Working Drawings: Make an
accurate drawing of the wheels you intend
to build, as in Figure 1. A planview is
noncritical but a section view, as shown,
is a must; you need it to lay out the fly
cutter. See the sidebar for dimensional
details about the wheel drawing.
Make the Fly Cutter and Cut the Tires: To
make each tire you will need to cut its
halves from meat trays. To do this you
need to make a fly cutter.
I learned about fly-cut wheels in a Bill
January 2008 51
by Jon Putnam
AUTHENTIC SPOKED WHEELS
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:25 PM Page 51
52 MODEL AVIATION
Photos by the author
Cutting tire halves from foam on a drill press is easy but requires good lighting,
careful technique, and proper safety procedures. See the safety sidebar.
A simple wood fixture aligns and holds the fly cutter
blade and shaft for soldering. A caliper is used to
center the blade.
The tire-thickness sanding fixture has a hole that is the same size as
the outside diameter of the finished tire and as deep as one tire half.
The four steps in creating a foam tire are fly-cutting tire halves on a
drill press, trimming the outside tire edge, sanding the tire thickness,
and trimming the inside tire edge.
The wheel-rim assembly consists of a posterboard
wheel disk and a poster-board wheelrim
strip. Also shown is a foam spacer.
High-quality, accurate, easy-to-use circle
cutters from Olfa and Hobbico make many
rounded modeling projects a snap.
To sand the tire half, drop in the foam tire
face down and sand from multiple directions
using medium sandpaper and light pressure.
Left: Cutting a tapered lap
joint in the rim requires a
sharp blade and some trial
and error to get a good fit.
Cut long and then trim to
fit.
Right: Glue wheel rims and
wheel disks on a simple
cardboard fixture with
temporary plugs in the
center to hold the rim
against the disk.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:27 PM Page 52
January 2008 53
Upper Tire Half
Lower Tire Half
F - Inner Hub E - Outer Hub
G - Hub Flange
B
A
D C
Wheel Disk
Wheel Rim
Foam Filler
For the 17/8-inch-diameter wheel,
the tire width is 5/32 inch and the hub is
1/2 inch long. This produces a wheel
with a moderate amount of “dish.” The
1-inch wheel uses a 1/8-inch tire and a
3/8-inch-long hub. The hub can be
centered symmetrically, as it is in
Figure 1, or offset to one side, as it is
on many World War I aircraft. MA
—Jon Putnam
The 1- and 2-inch (17/8-inch) wheels
shown in this article are semiscale. They
fit a wide variety of models, from Peanut
Scale to airplanes spanning approximately
24 inches. If you are creating scale wheels
to match a prototype aircraft, do your
research beforehand. Take photos and
make detailed measurements and
drawings of the spoke pattern and tire
tread.
Warner “Free Flight Scale/Sport” Create Working Drawings of Your Wheels
column (February 1982 MA, pages 54-
55) that described the late Emanuel
Fillon’s wheel-making method. (You
can access this column using the MA
Digital Archives.) Make a pattern based
on the section view from your drawing.
Transfer it to .025-.030 brass sheet,
steel, or hack saw blades. I used brass
because it is easier to work with and
solder.
For the tires, drill holes in your
cutting-blade blank using the sizes in
Table 1 and then remove the extra
material to half the depth of the drilled
circle. Sharpen the cutting edge in the
direction of rotation using a file or
wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a
dowel.
A simple scrap-wood soldering
fixture with a 1/8-inch hole drilled in the
center makes aligning and soldering the
fly cutter a snap. The small blocks have
slots cut into them to hold the blade in
place. Notice the scribed lines in the
center of the cutter, to help alignment
for soldering.
Center the blade on the shaft using a
small plastic caliper to measure side-toside
blade offset. Clean the brass parts
with steel wool or sandpaper, and then
use flux and 60/40 rosin core solder to
assemble the cutter.
To cut the tire halves you will need a
drill press. Do not try cutting them with
a portable drill; it is simply unsafe.
Insert the cutter into a drill press, set the
depth so the top of the cutter barely
clears some scrap plywood under the
foam meat tray, and set the drill to a
medium-high speed.
Now is the big moment. Turn on the
drill and lower the fly cutter slowly into
the foam. A slow-feed speed of the
cutter into the foam gives you better and
safer control of the process. With luck
you will soon have a gorgeous tire half.
If you are on a roll, cut a dozen to have
spare parts.
When you are finished on the drill
press, you will have half a foam tire
with a fine layer of foam in the middle.
Cut around the outer edge of the tire
with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade. It should
now look like step 2, shown in one of
the photos.
Build a tire-thickness sanding fixture,
as in step 3, using a circle cutter and
scrap illustration board. Sand the tire
from the backside until it is half the
finished tire size. Step 4 shows the
finished tire halves. Another photo
shows in more detail how to build the
thickness sanding fixture.
Parts for the 2-inch tire-thickness
sanding fixture include a base layer and
two layers with holes cut the same OD
(outside diameter) as the tire. The trick
in building the sanding fixture is using a
stack of cardboard that is the same
thickness as the tire half. For the 2-inch
wheel the tire diameter was 5/32, or
Dimension Description 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inches)
A Outer Wheel Diameter 1-0 inch 17/8 inches
B Inner Wheel Diameter 3/4 inch 19/16 inches
C & E Outer Hub Length 3/8 inch 1/2 inch
D & F Inner Hub Length 1/4 inch 3/8 inch
G Hub Flange 5/32 inch 3/16 inch
- Tire Diameter 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Dimensions for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Figure 2. Fly Cutter Drawing
Figure 1. Wheel Section
Trim off this area beyond these lines
Scribe these lines to line up shaft
Fly Cutter
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 53
54 MODEL AVIATION
Materials List
Part 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inch)
Fly Cutter .025-.030 brass sheet and 1/8-inch-outside-diameter brass tubing
Tire Drill Size 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Tire Material Foam meat tray that is 1/8 inch or thicker
Wheel Disk .015-.020 poster board .025-.030 poster board
Rim 1/8-inch-wide x .015 thick 9/64-inch (1/8-inch+)-wide x .020
poster board. Length to fit thick poster board. Length
inside diameter of tire. to fit inside diameter of tire.
Spokes 4-pound nylon fishing line, 6-pound nylon fishing line
transparent nylon thread,
invisible thread, silk thread
Hub All material is aluminum tubing
Inner: 1/4 x 1/16 inch OD Inner: 3/8 x 3/32 OD
Outer: 3/8 x 3/32 OD Outer: 1/2 x 1/8 OD
Flange Roughly .015-inch sheet styrene or plastic
Table 2. Materials List for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types and thicknesses of
materials. Many drug stores and art-supply stores carry different weights of
poster board. I like a material with a hard, fairly shiny surface. The heavy
poster board is .020-.025, while the lighter-weight material is .015. Many
bakery boxes are a good source for this kind of cardboard.
Foam meat trays and foam takehome
boxes come in various colors
and thicknesses. Black meat trays
seem to make better wheels than
white ones, but this may only be my
imagination.
Choosing spoke material is almost
an art form. Avoid cotton thread. Use
silk thread only as a last resort. When
painted, thread absorbs too much
paint and can quickly take on the
“barbed wire” look.
The hubs are made from aluminum tubing, but plastic tubing may work well.
The heavier clear plastic used as vacuum packaging is excellent for the flanges.
The white styrene sheet I used is common in model-railroad construction and
is sold in hobby stores. MA
—Jon Putnam
.15625. Half of that is approximately
.075, or one layer of .050 plus a layer of
.025 cardboard.
Drop the wheel face down into the tirethickness
fixture and sand from multiple
directions on the backside using medium
paper and light pressure. As you begin to
come in contact with the cardboard, you
are finished.
Breathe deep. And you can because
you’re finished making, and breathing,
foam dust. You are finished with the tires
except for painting them.
Circle Cutters: The key to success in
making these wire wheels is using a
circle cutter. You can purchase good
ones from Hobbico (item HCAR0230)
and Olfa (item CMP-1). Both are
available online and in many hobby and
art-supply stores. Following are tips for
using these tools.
• Buy extra blades and use them. This is
especially important if the cut is critical,
such as for the wheel disk or if the
material is thick or dense.
• Use light pressure and make several
thin cuts rather than one heavy cut.
• Make test cuts for parts on thin card
stock or paper to save your blades. Once
you get the circle-cutter setting correct,
move to the final material. This saves
blades and materials.
• Rotate the material—not the circle
cutter. This works well on small parts
such as the inside cuts of 1-inch wheels.
Make the Wheel Disk and Rim: The rim
assembly includes the wheel disk and the
wheel rim. Wheel disks are cut from
poster board (see Table 2 for sizes) using
the circle cutter. Make the outside cuts
first. The disk’s finished size should be
slightly smaller than the wheel’s finished
size. If you are making two wheels, make
extra disks in case some are damaged.
Without changing the setting, cut
several thin foam spacers from the
bottom of a foam take-home box, as
shown. These will fill the gap in the tire
between the halves when you assemble
it. If the wheel disk is .025-inch thick,
sand the foam to the same thickness
before cutting the holes.
Cut the inside diameter of the wheel
disk. Again, without changing the cutter
setting for the inside cut, make a fixture,
as shown, using .055-inch-thick mat
board (a common material for framing
photos). Glue it to another piece of mat
board with the same dimensions.
Keep the plug you cut from the circle
in the upper mat board and mark it as
something easy to remember, such as
“Plug.” You will need it later to force the
rim against the fixture. Making two
fixtures like this will speed up the
building process. You will need to cut
the plug down slightly to allow space for
the rim in this fixture.
Lay out the rim parts. (See Table 1 for
sizes.) Make the rim strips longer than
needed, and then cut the strips to length
later when you fit the rim in the wheelrim
fixture.
I lightly scribe the rim strips with a
sharp X-Acto knife on the side that will
be glued to the wheel disk before I cut
them into strips. You can see these scribe
marks if you look closely at the photos.
Mark two thin pencil lines in the
middle of the strip, and then scribe a line
on each side of that. These marks help
the wheel rim bend to its final curved
cross-section. The pencil lines will tell
you if it is centered on the wheel disk
when it is glued. Cut the rim parts.
It is time to assemble the rim. Fit the
rim strip in the fixture with the marks
facing out, and cut a tapered lap joint
into it with a sharp single-edge blade.
Glue the lap joint with a small amount of
white glue before assembly.
If cut down to the correct diameter,
the plug should hold the rim firmly
against the fixture. At this time I cut a
second plug the same size and fit it on
top of the first plug in the fixture.
Slip the wheel disk over the rim and
Foam meat trays and take-home boxes,
which come in various colors and
thicknesses, are the material used in this
how-to.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 54
January 2008 55
The aluminum hub is centered vertically on the wheel rim using a piece
of scrap tubing and a small disk (red) to lift the hub to the correct level.
A cardboard disk on the lacing fixture
centers the wheel disk and rim before the
lacing operation. Notice the spoke-position
numbers.
The wheel disk and rim mounted on the lacing fixture are
held in place with pins. The cardboard disk is removed
once the rim is centered.
Use the marking gauge to indicate where spoke-hole positions are on the
wheel disk. Two versions are shown.
Cut inner and outer hub tubing to length in a slotted
cardboard fixture. Make flanges from sheet plastic with a
modified punch.
The curve in the rim that “clinches” the
tire edge is formed by burnishing the rim
on a hardwood fixture with a piece of
shaped dowel.
Slip the rim over a dowel covered with
rubber tubing to absorb the needle or drill
impact. Use care not to separate the parts.
A 1-inch wheel is ready for final assembly.
L-R: foam filler, painted tire half, painted
rim, second tire half.
How success looks. The 2-inch wheel rim on
the fixture with all spokes in place. Krylon
paint is recommended.
Sandwich and weight glued parts between
two layers of cardboard with holes cut in
them. Trim off excess foam filler when dry.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:43 PM Page 55
2-Inch, 40-Spoke Wheel 1-Inch, 24-Spoke Wheel
Hole Start Hole Finish Go to Hole Start Hole Finish Go to
1 on top to 27 around to 28 1 on top to 23 around to 24
28 on bottom to 2 around to 3 24 on bottom to 2 around to 3
3 on top to 17 around to 18 3 on top to 13 around to 14
18 on bottom to 4 around to 5 14 on bottom to 4 around to 5
5 on top to 31 around to 32 5 on top to 21 around to 22
32 on bottom to 6 around to 7 32 on bottom to 6 around to 7
7 on top to 21 around to 22 7 on top to 21 around to 22
22 on bottom to 8 around to 9 22 on bottom to 6 around to 7
9 on top to 35 around to 36 7 on top to 15 around to 16
36 on bottom to 10 around to 11 16 on bottom to 8 around to 9
11 on top to 25 around to 26 9 on top to 19 around to 20
26 on bottom to 12 around to 13 20 on bottom to 10 around to 11
13 on top to 39 around to 40 11 on top to 17 around to 18
40 on bottom to 14 around to 15 18 on bottom to 12—You’re finished!
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
15 on top to 29 around to 30
30 on bottom to 16 around to 19
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
19 on top to 33 around to 34
34 on bottom to 20—You’re finished!
Table 3. Wheel-Lacing Procedure
glue it with white glue. Don’t use
cyanoacrylate; it makes the poster board
too hard to work. When the structure
dries, turn it over and glue the other side.
As shown, I have two fixtures. I
marked them “A0” and “A1” and marked
the four plugs to go with the fixture they
mate with.
Fabricate the Hub: This part is built from
telescoping aluminum tubing with plastic
flanges. See Table 2 for tubing sizes.
Make a mat-board cutting fixture for
the tubing, as shown. Cut and trim it with
a single-edge razor blade, and then finish
with a file and sandpaper. Remove burrs
on the inside with a #11 blade. Center the
outer hub on the inner hub, and glue them
delicately with cyanoacrylate.
A hub flange is one of the trickiest
things to make. If there is a source of
ready-made plastic washers such as this, I
do not know about it.
Unless you find those elusive washers,
begin making your flanges by drilling
holes the size of your inner hub in the
plastic sheet. I do a whole strip at once.
Under them is a piece of scrap cardboard
to absorb the punch’s impact. It too has
holes drilled in it.
Modify a punch (see Table 1 for
flange sizes) by making some small
pieces of telescoping tubing that will fit
inside the punch, as shown. In a small
block of wood, glue a piece of tubing
(3/32 in this case) the same diameter as
the inner hub. Slide the tubing adapter
inside the punch over the tubing sticking
out of the wood. Strike it once firmly,
and with luck you should have a small
plastic washer or flange.
Lace the Wheel: You have reached the
“fun” part of the project. The 2-inch wheel
uses a 40-spoke pattern. The 1-inch wheel
uses a 24-spoke pattern. See Table 3 for
the pattern and lacing order.
Other patterns are possible. The ones I
am showing are semiscale. If you want
true scale spoke patterns, do the research,
make many drawings, and take numerous
photos to document and understand the
spoke pattern.
To lace a wheel you need to mark the
rims/disks for the spoke locations, drill
holes for the spokes, cut small notches in
the outer edge to hold your lacing material
in place, and then number the spoke
locations.
To mark the wheel rims/disks for spoke
locations, make a marking gauge such as
the ones shown. Mark spoke lines in red
on one side and black on the opposite side.
The fixture on the left is easier to
make and is proving to be more flexible
to use; it can accommodate many sizes of
wheels on one fixture simply by
changing the size of the mat-board disk.
The disk thumbtacked to the gauge holds
the wheel in place while you mark it.
Once you are finished marking the rim,
write the number of every other spoke
position with a sharp pencil.
“Drill” rim holes with a sharp needle.
To do this, slip the rim assembly over a
dowel covered with rubber tubing or
wrapped in masking tape to absorb the
needlepoint. Put the inside of the rim
against the rubber and push into it with a
needle—ideally slightly down toward the
center of the rim.
You should get a nice hole. If not, you
can follow up with a tiny drill bit, such as
a #73. I use a small pin vise to grasp the
needle.
Forming the rim clincher on the
burnishing fixture is magic, and it forms
the curve in the rim that “clinches” the
edge of the tire. It’s also the main thing
that makes this multipart wheel look so
realistic when compared to wheels carved
from laminated balsa.
Make a fixture, as shown, using hard,
dense wood as the base. The space
between the two angled pieces needs to
equal the wheel disk’s thickness. The
notched dowel slides along the inside of
the rim and burnishes the curved edge
into the rim as you rotate the rim through
56 MODEL AVIATION
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 56
Sources:
DMC
(33) 01 49 28 10 00
www.dmc.com
Hobbico
(217) 398-3630
www.hobbico.com
Olfa
(760) 739-5778
www.olfaproducts.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
any other means. How do I know? My
first attempt was with a spray can of
silver paint on cotton thread. This
instantly produced a barbed-wire effect
worthy of All Quiet on the Western Front.
Since then I have avoided the spray and
used the brush.
I’ve tried several types of paints. My
choices are generally acrylics such as
Tamiya Color or enamels such as Krylon
Short Cuts or Testors. Acrylics smell
better and are easy to clean up with water,
but I recommend the Krylon; it has less
paint buildup. The finished 2-inch wheel
shown was painted with acrylic, and the
1-inch wheel was painted with Krylon.
The golden rule for painting these
wheels is to test the paint on something
first. You have way too much time
invested in the project at this point.
If you are trying new spoke material,
make a simple test fixture with a few strands
of the material and make sure the paint sticks
to it before you spoke the whole wheel and
can’t get paint to adhere to it. If you find
some new wonder paint, test it first.
A simple fixture holds the rim while you
paint it. Avoid painting the actual wheel
disk; you will be gluing to it. I painted the
foam tires and foam spacer with black india
ink. Other black inks may or may not work.
Higgins india ink does work. Test whatever
you use on scrap foam before painting.
I’ve also used black watercolor markers,
such as the Mr. Watercolor brand, but
beware and test first. Anything called a
“permanent” marker will usually dissolve
foam, and many dry-erase markers will not
color the foam.
When you are finished painting parts you
should have a stack for each wheel that
includes a painted rim, the tire halves, and a
foam filler.
Final Assembly: Sandwich the glued
parts between two layers of corrugated
cardboard sheets with holes cut in them.
Be sparing with the adhesive. I used
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue, which is
stickier than white glue and reminds me
of canopy adhesive. Test whatever glue
you choose before using it.
Place weights on top of the wheel
stack to hold the assembly under
compression until the glue dries. When it
is dry, trim off the remainder of the foam
filler and lightly sand the outer edge of
the tire. Imperfections can be filled with
Red Devil Lightweight Spackling and
then sanded and touched up with india
ink.
If you are thinking about building
stouter wheels for heavier models,
consider cutting the wheel-disk parts from
sheet styrene. I’ve only started
experimenting with sheet styrene and the
preformed strip shapes for the wheel rims.
With this technique it’s possible to build a
wheel that is capable of being used on small
electric- or gas-powered models. MA
Jon Putnam
[email protected]
the fixture. In the photo you can also see
the small notches cut for each spoke
position in the outer part of the rim. You
can see how the curved edge of the 2-
inch rim clinches the tire.
It’s finally beginning to look like a
wheel. Now all you need to do is lace and
paint it.
The lacing fixture is simple. Mount a
piece of wire, that is the same size as the
inside diameter of your inner hub, on a
piece of 1/4 plywood. Three small blocks
support the wheel. The smaller the wheel,
the taller the blocks should be to give you
room to lace the wheel. For the 2-inch
wheel they are 3/4 inch high; for the 1-
inch wheel I would go 1 inch or higher.
Temporarily mount a mat-board disk
on the fixture to center the rim. Use
insect pins to hold the rim in place. Then
remove the cardboard disk, leaving the
rim centered.
The hub can be centered vertically on
the rim or offset to one side for a more
“dished” wheel. The hub shown is
centered vertically on the wheel rim. To
accomplish that, cut a piece of tubing and
a small disk (both are painted red in the
photo) to lift the hub to the correct level.
You can adjust this with a small spacer
placed under the red section if you cut the
spacer too short.
I’ve experimented with many spoke
materials. For the 2-inch wheels I now
use 6-pound fishing line. For 1-inch
wheels I use invisible thread or
transparent nylon thread. Avoid cotton or
silk thread unless you have nothing better
to use.
Do the lacing with a needle and your
choice of spoke material. The big secret
is the needle; it needs to be long and
extraordinarily thin. Fortunately such a
thing exists; it is called a beading needle
(10-13 from DMC) and is available in
many yardage and craft stores.
The 6-pound fishing line will need to be
cyanoacrylate-glued to the eye of the
needle. The small thread fits through the
eye, but glue it with cyanoacrylate as well.
To lace a 2-inch wheel, start on the top
of the rim at hole 1. Pull the thread all the
way through and cyanoacrylate-glue the
end into the slot you cut in the edge of the
rim at hole 1. Go around and over the hub,
hook the line on the edge of the hub, and
then go through hole 27. Lock the line into
the slot at 27 and then go under and out
hole 28. Go around the hub and up to hole
2.
Repeat this pattern as shown in Table 3.
The pattern for the 24-spoke hub is also
shown in the table.
When you are at the final hole,
cyanoacrylate-glue the end of the spoke
material in the final slot. Lightly apply
cyanoacrylate to the area on the top and
bottom of the hubs. Add the flanges. Now
you are finished with the rim.
Paint the Parts: You can destroy your
work of art faster by painting it than by
January 2008 57
AMA’s Take:
Spotlight on Safety
When using any kind of highspeed
tool, such as a drill press, in
the vicinity of your fingers and
eyes, practice “safety first” so you
can continue to use your fingers
and eyes for future projects. Here
are some precautions to follow.
• Maintain a firm grip on the
material being cut into. Be
prepared to shut off the tool
if the cutter grabs the wood
underneath.
• Keep your fingers out of the
cutter’s way.
• Don’t let loose-fitting shirt
cuffs near the drill press.
• Have a good light source, even
if you need to rig up a small,
portable floodlight.
• Wear goggles or a face shield.
There are numerous flying
foam particles and the
potential for a broken fly
cutter blade.
• Wear a face mask over your
mouth to keep from inhaling
foam dust particles. MA
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 57
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/01
Page Numbers: 51,52,53,54,55,56,57
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/01
Page Numbers: 51,52,53,54,55,56,57
Build lightweight
custom wire wheels
for your park flyer
or FF model
IT MAY SEEM intimidating, but building
wire wheels for your model can have your
flying buddies turning their heads and
saying “Where did you buy those little
gems?” They’ll look at you as if you just
took on the status of a watchmaker when
you say “I made them myself.”
My wire-wheel saga grew from an
interest in rubber-powered pre-World War I
Pioneer aircraft. A quick glance at the
requirements of the “Magnificent Men”-era
machines made me realize that I needed to
learn how to make light wire wheels and
radial engines, or the game was over before
I started. There’s no use in building a
lightweight Blériot and not having the
wheels or engine to make it look right.
The 17/8-inch-diameter wheels shown in
this article are for a 1911 Bristol Prier
monoplane that Otto Khuni designed. (Plans
are available from Peck-Polymers.)
However, the wheel design works on any
aircraft through World War I.
The method I’ll describe produces a
semiscale wheel that is well suited to
rubber-powered models or even RC park
flyers. It uses tires made from foam meat
trays, and they are mounted on poster-board
rims. In this instance the rims are from a
discarded bakery cake box. Aluminum hubs
and fishing-line spokes complete the project.
These wheels are easy on the wallet,
even if you do have to purchase your own
poster board instead of a cake. They are also
extremely light; the 17/8-inch wheels
weighed .6 gram each; a pair’s weight is
roughly half that of a copper penny. With
changes in materials they can be adapted for
use on small electrics and CO2-powered
models.
Before we get started I’ll share a couple
tips I’ve learned the hard way. They are to:
• Make the tires and then create the rims to
fit the tires. How do I know to do things in
this order? I’ve tried it both ways. It’s
much easier fitting rims to foam tires than
modifying foam tires to fit rims.
• Cut more parts than you need to create a
pair of wheels. If your learning curve is
like mine, you will butcher some parts
learning the process and you will be glad
for the spare components.
The major steps in the wire-wheel
building process are:
1) Creating working drawings
2) Making the fly cutter and cutting the
tires
3) Making the wheel disk and rim
4) Fabricating the hubs
5) Lacing the wheels
6) Painting the parts
7) Final assembly
Create Working Drawings: Make an
accurate drawing of the wheels you intend
to build, as in Figure 1. A planview is
noncritical but a section view, as shown,
is a must; you need it to lay out the fly
cutter. See the sidebar for dimensional
details about the wheel drawing.
Make the Fly Cutter and Cut the Tires: To
make each tire you will need to cut its
halves from meat trays. To do this you
need to make a fly cutter.
I learned about fly-cut wheels in a Bill
January 2008 51
by Jon Putnam
AUTHENTIC SPOKED WHEELS
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:25 PM Page 51
52 MODEL AVIATION
Photos by the author
Cutting tire halves from foam on a drill press is easy but requires good lighting,
careful technique, and proper safety procedures. See the safety sidebar.
A simple wood fixture aligns and holds the fly cutter
blade and shaft for soldering. A caliper is used to
center the blade.
The tire-thickness sanding fixture has a hole that is the same size as
the outside diameter of the finished tire and as deep as one tire half.
The four steps in creating a foam tire are fly-cutting tire halves on a
drill press, trimming the outside tire edge, sanding the tire thickness,
and trimming the inside tire edge.
The wheel-rim assembly consists of a posterboard
wheel disk and a poster-board wheelrim
strip. Also shown is a foam spacer.
High-quality, accurate, easy-to-use circle
cutters from Olfa and Hobbico make many
rounded modeling projects a snap.
To sand the tire half, drop in the foam tire
face down and sand from multiple directions
using medium sandpaper and light pressure.
Left: Cutting a tapered lap
joint in the rim requires a
sharp blade and some trial
and error to get a good fit.
Cut long and then trim to
fit.
Right: Glue wheel rims and
wheel disks on a simple
cardboard fixture with
temporary plugs in the
center to hold the rim
against the disk.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:27 PM Page 52
January 2008 53
Upper Tire Half
Lower Tire Half
F - Inner Hub E - Outer Hub
G - Hub Flange
B
A
D C
Wheel Disk
Wheel Rim
Foam Filler
For the 17/8-inch-diameter wheel,
the tire width is 5/32 inch and the hub is
1/2 inch long. This produces a wheel
with a moderate amount of “dish.” The
1-inch wheel uses a 1/8-inch tire and a
3/8-inch-long hub. The hub can be
centered symmetrically, as it is in
Figure 1, or offset to one side, as it is
on many World War I aircraft. MA
—Jon Putnam
The 1- and 2-inch (17/8-inch) wheels
shown in this article are semiscale. They
fit a wide variety of models, from Peanut
Scale to airplanes spanning approximately
24 inches. If you are creating scale wheels
to match a prototype aircraft, do your
research beforehand. Take photos and
make detailed measurements and
drawings of the spoke pattern and tire
tread.
Warner “Free Flight Scale/Sport” Create Working Drawings of Your Wheels
column (February 1982 MA, pages 54-
55) that described the late Emanuel
Fillon’s wheel-making method. (You
can access this column using the MA
Digital Archives.) Make a pattern based
on the section view from your drawing.
Transfer it to .025-.030 brass sheet,
steel, or hack saw blades. I used brass
because it is easier to work with and
solder.
For the tires, drill holes in your
cutting-blade blank using the sizes in
Table 1 and then remove the extra
material to half the depth of the drilled
circle. Sharpen the cutting edge in the
direction of rotation using a file or
wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a
dowel.
A simple scrap-wood soldering
fixture with a 1/8-inch hole drilled in the
center makes aligning and soldering the
fly cutter a snap. The small blocks have
slots cut into them to hold the blade in
place. Notice the scribed lines in the
center of the cutter, to help alignment
for soldering.
Center the blade on the shaft using a
small plastic caliper to measure side-toside
blade offset. Clean the brass parts
with steel wool or sandpaper, and then
use flux and 60/40 rosin core solder to
assemble the cutter.
To cut the tire halves you will need a
drill press. Do not try cutting them with
a portable drill; it is simply unsafe.
Insert the cutter into a drill press, set the
depth so the top of the cutter barely
clears some scrap plywood under the
foam meat tray, and set the drill to a
medium-high speed.
Now is the big moment. Turn on the
drill and lower the fly cutter slowly into
the foam. A slow-feed speed of the
cutter into the foam gives you better and
safer control of the process. With luck
you will soon have a gorgeous tire half.
If you are on a roll, cut a dozen to have
spare parts.
When you are finished on the drill
press, you will have half a foam tire
with a fine layer of foam in the middle.
Cut around the outer edge of the tire
with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade. It should
now look like step 2, shown in one of
the photos.
Build a tire-thickness sanding fixture,
as in step 3, using a circle cutter and
scrap illustration board. Sand the tire
from the backside until it is half the
finished tire size. Step 4 shows the
finished tire halves. Another photo
shows in more detail how to build the
thickness sanding fixture.
Parts for the 2-inch tire-thickness
sanding fixture include a base layer and
two layers with holes cut the same OD
(outside diameter) as the tire. The trick
in building the sanding fixture is using a
stack of cardboard that is the same
thickness as the tire half. For the 2-inch
wheel the tire diameter was 5/32, or
Dimension Description 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inches)
A Outer Wheel Diameter 1-0 inch 17/8 inches
B Inner Wheel Diameter 3/4 inch 19/16 inches
C & E Outer Hub Length 3/8 inch 1/2 inch
D & F Inner Hub Length 1/4 inch 3/8 inch
G Hub Flange 5/32 inch 3/16 inch
- Tire Diameter 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Dimensions for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Figure 2. Fly Cutter Drawing
Figure 1. Wheel Section
Trim off this area beyond these lines
Scribe these lines to line up shaft
Fly Cutter
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 53
54 MODEL AVIATION
Materials List
Part 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inch)
Fly Cutter .025-.030 brass sheet and 1/8-inch-outside-diameter brass tubing
Tire Drill Size 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Tire Material Foam meat tray that is 1/8 inch or thicker
Wheel Disk .015-.020 poster board .025-.030 poster board
Rim 1/8-inch-wide x .015 thick 9/64-inch (1/8-inch+)-wide x .020
poster board. Length to fit thick poster board. Length
inside diameter of tire. to fit inside diameter of tire.
Spokes 4-pound nylon fishing line, 6-pound nylon fishing line
transparent nylon thread,
invisible thread, silk thread
Hub All material is aluminum tubing
Inner: 1/4 x 1/16 inch OD Inner: 3/8 x 3/32 OD
Outer: 3/8 x 3/32 OD Outer: 1/2 x 1/8 OD
Flange Roughly .015-inch sheet styrene or plastic
Table 2. Materials List for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types and thicknesses of
materials. Many drug stores and art-supply stores carry different weights of
poster board. I like a material with a hard, fairly shiny surface. The heavy
poster board is .020-.025, while the lighter-weight material is .015. Many
bakery boxes are a good source for this kind of cardboard.
Foam meat trays and foam takehome
boxes come in various colors
and thicknesses. Black meat trays
seem to make better wheels than
white ones, but this may only be my
imagination.
Choosing spoke material is almost
an art form. Avoid cotton thread. Use
silk thread only as a last resort. When
painted, thread absorbs too much
paint and can quickly take on the
“barbed wire” look.
The hubs are made from aluminum tubing, but plastic tubing may work well.
The heavier clear plastic used as vacuum packaging is excellent for the flanges.
The white styrene sheet I used is common in model-railroad construction and
is sold in hobby stores. MA
—Jon Putnam
.15625. Half of that is approximately
.075, or one layer of .050 plus a layer of
.025 cardboard.
Drop the wheel face down into the tirethickness
fixture and sand from multiple
directions on the backside using medium
paper and light pressure. As you begin to
come in contact with the cardboard, you
are finished.
Breathe deep. And you can because
you’re finished making, and breathing,
foam dust. You are finished with the tires
except for painting them.
Circle Cutters: The key to success in
making these wire wheels is using a
circle cutter. You can purchase good
ones from Hobbico (item HCAR0230)
and Olfa (item CMP-1). Both are
available online and in many hobby and
art-supply stores. Following are tips for
using these tools.
• Buy extra blades and use them. This is
especially important if the cut is critical,
such as for the wheel disk or if the
material is thick or dense.
• Use light pressure and make several
thin cuts rather than one heavy cut.
• Make test cuts for parts on thin card
stock or paper to save your blades. Once
you get the circle-cutter setting correct,
move to the final material. This saves
blades and materials.
• Rotate the material—not the circle
cutter. This works well on small parts
such as the inside cuts of 1-inch wheels.
Make the Wheel Disk and Rim: The rim
assembly includes the wheel disk and the
wheel rim. Wheel disks are cut from
poster board (see Table 2 for sizes) using
the circle cutter. Make the outside cuts
first. The disk’s finished size should be
slightly smaller than the wheel’s finished
size. If you are making two wheels, make
extra disks in case some are damaged.
Without changing the setting, cut
several thin foam spacers from the
bottom of a foam take-home box, as
shown. These will fill the gap in the tire
between the halves when you assemble
it. If the wheel disk is .025-inch thick,
sand the foam to the same thickness
before cutting the holes.
Cut the inside diameter of the wheel
disk. Again, without changing the cutter
setting for the inside cut, make a fixture,
as shown, using .055-inch-thick mat
board (a common material for framing
photos). Glue it to another piece of mat
board with the same dimensions.
Keep the plug you cut from the circle
in the upper mat board and mark it as
something easy to remember, such as
“Plug.” You will need it later to force the
rim against the fixture. Making two
fixtures like this will speed up the
building process. You will need to cut
the plug down slightly to allow space for
the rim in this fixture.
Lay out the rim parts. (See Table 1 for
sizes.) Make the rim strips longer than
needed, and then cut the strips to length
later when you fit the rim in the wheelrim
fixture.
I lightly scribe the rim strips with a
sharp X-Acto knife on the side that will
be glued to the wheel disk before I cut
them into strips. You can see these scribe
marks if you look closely at the photos.
Mark two thin pencil lines in the
middle of the strip, and then scribe a line
on each side of that. These marks help
the wheel rim bend to its final curved
cross-section. The pencil lines will tell
you if it is centered on the wheel disk
when it is glued. Cut the rim parts.
It is time to assemble the rim. Fit the
rim strip in the fixture with the marks
facing out, and cut a tapered lap joint
into it with a sharp single-edge blade.
Glue the lap joint with a small amount of
white glue before assembly.
If cut down to the correct diameter,
the plug should hold the rim firmly
against the fixture. At this time I cut a
second plug the same size and fit it on
top of the first plug in the fixture.
Slip the wheel disk over the rim and
Foam meat trays and take-home boxes,
which come in various colors and
thicknesses, are the material used in this
how-to.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 54
January 2008 55
The aluminum hub is centered vertically on the wheel rim using a piece
of scrap tubing and a small disk (red) to lift the hub to the correct level.
A cardboard disk on the lacing fixture
centers the wheel disk and rim before the
lacing operation. Notice the spoke-position
numbers.
The wheel disk and rim mounted on the lacing fixture are
held in place with pins. The cardboard disk is removed
once the rim is centered.
Use the marking gauge to indicate where spoke-hole positions are on the
wheel disk. Two versions are shown.
Cut inner and outer hub tubing to length in a slotted
cardboard fixture. Make flanges from sheet plastic with a
modified punch.
The curve in the rim that “clinches” the
tire edge is formed by burnishing the rim
on a hardwood fixture with a piece of
shaped dowel.
Slip the rim over a dowel covered with
rubber tubing to absorb the needle or drill
impact. Use care not to separate the parts.
A 1-inch wheel is ready for final assembly.
L-R: foam filler, painted tire half, painted
rim, second tire half.
How success looks. The 2-inch wheel rim on
the fixture with all spokes in place. Krylon
paint is recommended.
Sandwich and weight glued parts between
two layers of cardboard with holes cut in
them. Trim off excess foam filler when dry.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:43 PM Page 55
2-Inch, 40-Spoke Wheel 1-Inch, 24-Spoke Wheel
Hole Start Hole Finish Go to Hole Start Hole Finish Go to
1 on top to 27 around to 28 1 on top to 23 around to 24
28 on bottom to 2 around to 3 24 on bottom to 2 around to 3
3 on top to 17 around to 18 3 on top to 13 around to 14
18 on bottom to 4 around to 5 14 on bottom to 4 around to 5
5 on top to 31 around to 32 5 on top to 21 around to 22
32 on bottom to 6 around to 7 32 on bottom to 6 around to 7
7 on top to 21 around to 22 7 on top to 21 around to 22
22 on bottom to 8 around to 9 22 on bottom to 6 around to 7
9 on top to 35 around to 36 7 on top to 15 around to 16
36 on bottom to 10 around to 11 16 on bottom to 8 around to 9
11 on top to 25 around to 26 9 on top to 19 around to 20
26 on bottom to 12 around to 13 20 on bottom to 10 around to 11
13 on top to 39 around to 40 11 on top to 17 around to 18
40 on bottom to 14 around to 15 18 on bottom to 12—You’re finished!
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
15 on top to 29 around to 30
30 on bottom to 16 around to 19
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
19 on top to 33 around to 34
34 on bottom to 20—You’re finished!
Table 3. Wheel-Lacing Procedure
glue it with white glue. Don’t use
cyanoacrylate; it makes the poster board
too hard to work. When the structure
dries, turn it over and glue the other side.
As shown, I have two fixtures. I
marked them “A0” and “A1” and marked
the four plugs to go with the fixture they
mate with.
Fabricate the Hub: This part is built from
telescoping aluminum tubing with plastic
flanges. See Table 2 for tubing sizes.
Make a mat-board cutting fixture for
the tubing, as shown. Cut and trim it with
a single-edge razor blade, and then finish
with a file and sandpaper. Remove burrs
on the inside with a #11 blade. Center the
outer hub on the inner hub, and glue them
delicately with cyanoacrylate.
A hub flange is one of the trickiest
things to make. If there is a source of
ready-made plastic washers such as this, I
do not know about it.
Unless you find those elusive washers,
begin making your flanges by drilling
holes the size of your inner hub in the
plastic sheet. I do a whole strip at once.
Under them is a piece of scrap cardboard
to absorb the punch’s impact. It too has
holes drilled in it.
Modify a punch (see Table 1 for
flange sizes) by making some small
pieces of telescoping tubing that will fit
inside the punch, as shown. In a small
block of wood, glue a piece of tubing
(3/32 in this case) the same diameter as
the inner hub. Slide the tubing adapter
inside the punch over the tubing sticking
out of the wood. Strike it once firmly,
and with luck you should have a small
plastic washer or flange.
Lace the Wheel: You have reached the
“fun” part of the project. The 2-inch wheel
uses a 40-spoke pattern. The 1-inch wheel
uses a 24-spoke pattern. See Table 3 for
the pattern and lacing order.
Other patterns are possible. The ones I
am showing are semiscale. If you want
true scale spoke patterns, do the research,
make many drawings, and take numerous
photos to document and understand the
spoke pattern.
To lace a wheel you need to mark the
rims/disks for the spoke locations, drill
holes for the spokes, cut small notches in
the outer edge to hold your lacing material
in place, and then number the spoke
locations.
To mark the wheel rims/disks for spoke
locations, make a marking gauge such as
the ones shown. Mark spoke lines in red
on one side and black on the opposite side.
The fixture on the left is easier to
make and is proving to be more flexible
to use; it can accommodate many sizes of
wheels on one fixture simply by
changing the size of the mat-board disk.
The disk thumbtacked to the gauge holds
the wheel in place while you mark it.
Once you are finished marking the rim,
write the number of every other spoke
position with a sharp pencil.
“Drill” rim holes with a sharp needle.
To do this, slip the rim assembly over a
dowel covered with rubber tubing or
wrapped in masking tape to absorb the
needlepoint. Put the inside of the rim
against the rubber and push into it with a
needle—ideally slightly down toward the
center of the rim.
You should get a nice hole. If not, you
can follow up with a tiny drill bit, such as
a #73. I use a small pin vise to grasp the
needle.
Forming the rim clincher on the
burnishing fixture is magic, and it forms
the curve in the rim that “clinches” the
edge of the tire. It’s also the main thing
that makes this multipart wheel look so
realistic when compared to wheels carved
from laminated balsa.
Make a fixture, as shown, using hard,
dense wood as the base. The space
between the two angled pieces needs to
equal the wheel disk’s thickness. The
notched dowel slides along the inside of
the rim and burnishes the curved edge
into the rim as you rotate the rim through
56 MODEL AVIATION
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 56
Sources:
DMC
(33) 01 49 28 10 00
www.dmc.com
Hobbico
(217) 398-3630
www.hobbico.com
Olfa
(760) 739-5778
www.olfaproducts.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
any other means. How do I know? My
first attempt was with a spray can of
silver paint on cotton thread. This
instantly produced a barbed-wire effect
worthy of All Quiet on the Western Front.
Since then I have avoided the spray and
used the brush.
I’ve tried several types of paints. My
choices are generally acrylics such as
Tamiya Color or enamels such as Krylon
Short Cuts or Testors. Acrylics smell
better and are easy to clean up with water,
but I recommend the Krylon; it has less
paint buildup. The finished 2-inch wheel
shown was painted with acrylic, and the
1-inch wheel was painted with Krylon.
The golden rule for painting these
wheels is to test the paint on something
first. You have way too much time
invested in the project at this point.
If you are trying new spoke material,
make a simple test fixture with a few strands
of the material and make sure the paint sticks
to it before you spoke the whole wheel and
can’t get paint to adhere to it. If you find
some new wonder paint, test it first.
A simple fixture holds the rim while you
paint it. Avoid painting the actual wheel
disk; you will be gluing to it. I painted the
foam tires and foam spacer with black india
ink. Other black inks may or may not work.
Higgins india ink does work. Test whatever
you use on scrap foam before painting.
I’ve also used black watercolor markers,
such as the Mr. Watercolor brand, but
beware and test first. Anything called a
“permanent” marker will usually dissolve
foam, and many dry-erase markers will not
color the foam.
When you are finished painting parts you
should have a stack for each wheel that
includes a painted rim, the tire halves, and a
foam filler.
Final Assembly: Sandwich the glued
parts between two layers of corrugated
cardboard sheets with holes cut in them.
Be sparing with the adhesive. I used
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue, which is
stickier than white glue and reminds me
of canopy adhesive. Test whatever glue
you choose before using it.
Place weights on top of the wheel
stack to hold the assembly under
compression until the glue dries. When it
is dry, trim off the remainder of the foam
filler and lightly sand the outer edge of
the tire. Imperfections can be filled with
Red Devil Lightweight Spackling and
then sanded and touched up with india
ink.
If you are thinking about building
stouter wheels for heavier models,
consider cutting the wheel-disk parts from
sheet styrene. I’ve only started
experimenting with sheet styrene and the
preformed strip shapes for the wheel rims.
With this technique it’s possible to build a
wheel that is capable of being used on small
electric- or gas-powered models. MA
Jon Putnam
[email protected]
the fixture. In the photo you can also see
the small notches cut for each spoke
position in the outer part of the rim. You
can see how the curved edge of the 2-
inch rim clinches the tire.
It’s finally beginning to look like a
wheel. Now all you need to do is lace and
paint it.
The lacing fixture is simple. Mount a
piece of wire, that is the same size as the
inside diameter of your inner hub, on a
piece of 1/4 plywood. Three small blocks
support the wheel. The smaller the wheel,
the taller the blocks should be to give you
room to lace the wheel. For the 2-inch
wheel they are 3/4 inch high; for the 1-
inch wheel I would go 1 inch or higher.
Temporarily mount a mat-board disk
on the fixture to center the rim. Use
insect pins to hold the rim in place. Then
remove the cardboard disk, leaving the
rim centered.
The hub can be centered vertically on
the rim or offset to one side for a more
“dished” wheel. The hub shown is
centered vertically on the wheel rim. To
accomplish that, cut a piece of tubing and
a small disk (both are painted red in the
photo) to lift the hub to the correct level.
You can adjust this with a small spacer
placed under the red section if you cut the
spacer too short.
I’ve experimented with many spoke
materials. For the 2-inch wheels I now
use 6-pound fishing line. For 1-inch
wheels I use invisible thread or
transparent nylon thread. Avoid cotton or
silk thread unless you have nothing better
to use.
Do the lacing with a needle and your
choice of spoke material. The big secret
is the needle; it needs to be long and
extraordinarily thin. Fortunately such a
thing exists; it is called a beading needle
(10-13 from DMC) and is available in
many yardage and craft stores.
The 6-pound fishing line will need to be
cyanoacrylate-glued to the eye of the
needle. The small thread fits through the
eye, but glue it with cyanoacrylate as well.
To lace a 2-inch wheel, start on the top
of the rim at hole 1. Pull the thread all the
way through and cyanoacrylate-glue the
end into the slot you cut in the edge of the
rim at hole 1. Go around and over the hub,
hook the line on the edge of the hub, and
then go through hole 27. Lock the line into
the slot at 27 and then go under and out
hole 28. Go around the hub and up to hole
2.
Repeat this pattern as shown in Table 3.
The pattern for the 24-spoke hub is also
shown in the table.
When you are at the final hole,
cyanoacrylate-glue the end of the spoke
material in the final slot. Lightly apply
cyanoacrylate to the area on the top and
bottom of the hubs. Add the flanges. Now
you are finished with the rim.
Paint the Parts: You can destroy your
work of art faster by painting it than by
January 2008 57
AMA’s Take:
Spotlight on Safety
When using any kind of highspeed
tool, such as a drill press, in
the vicinity of your fingers and
eyes, practice “safety first” so you
can continue to use your fingers
and eyes for future projects. Here
are some precautions to follow.
• Maintain a firm grip on the
material being cut into. Be
prepared to shut off the tool
if the cutter grabs the wood
underneath.
• Keep your fingers out of the
cutter’s way.
• Don’t let loose-fitting shirt
cuffs near the drill press.
• Have a good light source, even
if you need to rig up a small,
portable floodlight.
• Wear goggles or a face shield.
There are numerous flying
foam particles and the
potential for a broken fly
cutter blade.
• Wear a face mask over your
mouth to keep from inhaling
foam dust particles. MA
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 57
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/01
Page Numbers: 51,52,53,54,55,56,57
Build lightweight
custom wire wheels
for your park flyer
or FF model
IT MAY SEEM intimidating, but building
wire wheels for your model can have your
flying buddies turning their heads and
saying “Where did you buy those little
gems?” They’ll look at you as if you just
took on the status of a watchmaker when
you say “I made them myself.”
My wire-wheel saga grew from an
interest in rubber-powered pre-World War I
Pioneer aircraft. A quick glance at the
requirements of the “Magnificent Men”-era
machines made me realize that I needed to
learn how to make light wire wheels and
radial engines, or the game was over before
I started. There’s no use in building a
lightweight Blériot and not having the
wheels or engine to make it look right.
The 17/8-inch-diameter wheels shown in
this article are for a 1911 Bristol Prier
monoplane that Otto Khuni designed. (Plans
are available from Peck-Polymers.)
However, the wheel design works on any
aircraft through World War I.
The method I’ll describe produces a
semiscale wheel that is well suited to
rubber-powered models or even RC park
flyers. It uses tires made from foam meat
trays, and they are mounted on poster-board
rims. In this instance the rims are from a
discarded bakery cake box. Aluminum hubs
and fishing-line spokes complete the project.
These wheels are easy on the wallet,
even if you do have to purchase your own
poster board instead of a cake. They are also
extremely light; the 17/8-inch wheels
weighed .6 gram each; a pair’s weight is
roughly half that of a copper penny. With
changes in materials they can be adapted for
use on small electrics and CO2-powered
models.
Before we get started I’ll share a couple
tips I’ve learned the hard way. They are to:
• Make the tires and then create the rims to
fit the tires. How do I know to do things in
this order? I’ve tried it both ways. It’s
much easier fitting rims to foam tires than
modifying foam tires to fit rims.
• Cut more parts than you need to create a
pair of wheels. If your learning curve is
like mine, you will butcher some parts
learning the process and you will be glad
for the spare components.
The major steps in the wire-wheel
building process are:
1) Creating working drawings
2) Making the fly cutter and cutting the
tires
3) Making the wheel disk and rim
4) Fabricating the hubs
5) Lacing the wheels
6) Painting the parts
7) Final assembly
Create Working Drawings: Make an
accurate drawing of the wheels you intend
to build, as in Figure 1. A planview is
noncritical but a section view, as shown,
is a must; you need it to lay out the fly
cutter. See the sidebar for dimensional
details about the wheel drawing.
Make the Fly Cutter and Cut the Tires: To
make each tire you will need to cut its
halves from meat trays. To do this you
need to make a fly cutter.
I learned about fly-cut wheels in a Bill
January 2008 51
by Jon Putnam
AUTHENTIC SPOKED WHEELS
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:25 PM Page 51
52 MODEL AVIATION
Photos by the author
Cutting tire halves from foam on a drill press is easy but requires good lighting,
careful technique, and proper safety procedures. See the safety sidebar.
A simple wood fixture aligns and holds the fly cutter
blade and shaft for soldering. A caliper is used to
center the blade.
The tire-thickness sanding fixture has a hole that is the same size as
the outside diameter of the finished tire and as deep as one tire half.
The four steps in creating a foam tire are fly-cutting tire halves on a
drill press, trimming the outside tire edge, sanding the tire thickness,
and trimming the inside tire edge.
The wheel-rim assembly consists of a posterboard
wheel disk and a poster-board wheelrim
strip. Also shown is a foam spacer.
High-quality, accurate, easy-to-use circle
cutters from Olfa and Hobbico make many
rounded modeling projects a snap.
To sand the tire half, drop in the foam tire
face down and sand from multiple directions
using medium sandpaper and light pressure.
Left: Cutting a tapered lap
joint in the rim requires a
sharp blade and some trial
and error to get a good fit.
Cut long and then trim to
fit.
Right: Glue wheel rims and
wheel disks on a simple
cardboard fixture with
temporary plugs in the
center to hold the rim
against the disk.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:27 PM Page 52
January 2008 53
Upper Tire Half
Lower Tire Half
F - Inner Hub E - Outer Hub
G - Hub Flange
B
A
D C
Wheel Disk
Wheel Rim
Foam Filler
For the 17/8-inch-diameter wheel,
the tire width is 5/32 inch and the hub is
1/2 inch long. This produces a wheel
with a moderate amount of “dish.” The
1-inch wheel uses a 1/8-inch tire and a
3/8-inch-long hub. The hub can be
centered symmetrically, as it is in
Figure 1, or offset to one side, as it is
on many World War I aircraft. MA
—Jon Putnam
The 1- and 2-inch (17/8-inch) wheels
shown in this article are semiscale. They
fit a wide variety of models, from Peanut
Scale to airplanes spanning approximately
24 inches. If you are creating scale wheels
to match a prototype aircraft, do your
research beforehand. Take photos and
make detailed measurements and
drawings of the spoke pattern and tire
tread.
Warner “Free Flight Scale/Sport” Create Working Drawings of Your Wheels
column (February 1982 MA, pages 54-
55) that described the late Emanuel
Fillon’s wheel-making method. (You
can access this column using the MA
Digital Archives.) Make a pattern based
on the section view from your drawing.
Transfer it to .025-.030 brass sheet,
steel, or hack saw blades. I used brass
because it is easier to work with and
solder.
For the tires, drill holes in your
cutting-blade blank using the sizes in
Table 1 and then remove the extra
material to half the depth of the drilled
circle. Sharpen the cutting edge in the
direction of rotation using a file or
wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a
dowel.
A simple scrap-wood soldering
fixture with a 1/8-inch hole drilled in the
center makes aligning and soldering the
fly cutter a snap. The small blocks have
slots cut into them to hold the blade in
place. Notice the scribed lines in the
center of the cutter, to help alignment
for soldering.
Center the blade on the shaft using a
small plastic caliper to measure side-toside
blade offset. Clean the brass parts
with steel wool or sandpaper, and then
use flux and 60/40 rosin core solder to
assemble the cutter.
To cut the tire halves you will need a
drill press. Do not try cutting them with
a portable drill; it is simply unsafe.
Insert the cutter into a drill press, set the
depth so the top of the cutter barely
clears some scrap plywood under the
foam meat tray, and set the drill to a
medium-high speed.
Now is the big moment. Turn on the
drill and lower the fly cutter slowly into
the foam. A slow-feed speed of the
cutter into the foam gives you better and
safer control of the process. With luck
you will soon have a gorgeous tire half.
If you are on a roll, cut a dozen to have
spare parts.
When you are finished on the drill
press, you will have half a foam tire
with a fine layer of foam in the middle.
Cut around the outer edge of the tire
with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade. It should
now look like step 2, shown in one of
the photos.
Build a tire-thickness sanding fixture,
as in step 3, using a circle cutter and
scrap illustration board. Sand the tire
from the backside until it is half the
finished tire size. Step 4 shows the
finished tire halves. Another photo
shows in more detail how to build the
thickness sanding fixture.
Parts for the 2-inch tire-thickness
sanding fixture include a base layer and
two layers with holes cut the same OD
(outside diameter) as the tire. The trick
in building the sanding fixture is using a
stack of cardboard that is the same
thickness as the tire half. For the 2-inch
wheel the tire diameter was 5/32, or
Dimension Description 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inches)
A Outer Wheel Diameter 1-0 inch 17/8 inches
B Inner Wheel Diameter 3/4 inch 19/16 inches
C & E Outer Hub Length 3/8 inch 1/2 inch
D & F Inner Hub Length 1/4 inch 3/8 inch
G Hub Flange 5/32 inch 3/16 inch
- Tire Diameter 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Dimensions for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Figure 2. Fly Cutter Drawing
Figure 1. Wheel Section
Trim off this area beyond these lines
Scribe these lines to line up shaft
Fly Cutter
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 53
54 MODEL AVIATION
Materials List
Part 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inch)
Fly Cutter .025-.030 brass sheet and 1/8-inch-outside-diameter brass tubing
Tire Drill Size 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Tire Material Foam meat tray that is 1/8 inch or thicker
Wheel Disk .015-.020 poster board .025-.030 poster board
Rim 1/8-inch-wide x .015 thick 9/64-inch (1/8-inch+)-wide x .020
poster board. Length to fit thick poster board. Length
inside diameter of tire. to fit inside diameter of tire.
Spokes 4-pound nylon fishing line, 6-pound nylon fishing line
transparent nylon thread,
invisible thread, silk thread
Hub All material is aluminum tubing
Inner: 1/4 x 1/16 inch OD Inner: 3/8 x 3/32 OD
Outer: 3/8 x 3/32 OD Outer: 1/2 x 1/8 OD
Flange Roughly .015-inch sheet styrene or plastic
Table 2. Materials List for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types and thicknesses of
materials. Many drug stores and art-supply stores carry different weights of
poster board. I like a material with a hard, fairly shiny surface. The heavy
poster board is .020-.025, while the lighter-weight material is .015. Many
bakery boxes are a good source for this kind of cardboard.
Foam meat trays and foam takehome
boxes come in various colors
and thicknesses. Black meat trays
seem to make better wheels than
white ones, but this may only be my
imagination.
Choosing spoke material is almost
an art form. Avoid cotton thread. Use
silk thread only as a last resort. When
painted, thread absorbs too much
paint and can quickly take on the
“barbed wire” look.
The hubs are made from aluminum tubing, but plastic tubing may work well.
The heavier clear plastic used as vacuum packaging is excellent for the flanges.
The white styrene sheet I used is common in model-railroad construction and
is sold in hobby stores. MA
—Jon Putnam
.15625. Half of that is approximately
.075, or one layer of .050 plus a layer of
.025 cardboard.
Drop the wheel face down into the tirethickness
fixture and sand from multiple
directions on the backside using medium
paper and light pressure. As you begin to
come in contact with the cardboard, you
are finished.
Breathe deep. And you can because
you’re finished making, and breathing,
foam dust. You are finished with the tires
except for painting them.
Circle Cutters: The key to success in
making these wire wheels is using a
circle cutter. You can purchase good
ones from Hobbico (item HCAR0230)
and Olfa (item CMP-1). Both are
available online and in many hobby and
art-supply stores. Following are tips for
using these tools.
• Buy extra blades and use them. This is
especially important if the cut is critical,
such as for the wheel disk or if the
material is thick or dense.
• Use light pressure and make several
thin cuts rather than one heavy cut.
• Make test cuts for parts on thin card
stock or paper to save your blades. Once
you get the circle-cutter setting correct,
move to the final material. This saves
blades and materials.
• Rotate the material—not the circle
cutter. This works well on small parts
such as the inside cuts of 1-inch wheels.
Make the Wheel Disk and Rim: The rim
assembly includes the wheel disk and the
wheel rim. Wheel disks are cut from
poster board (see Table 2 for sizes) using
the circle cutter. Make the outside cuts
first. The disk’s finished size should be
slightly smaller than the wheel’s finished
size. If you are making two wheels, make
extra disks in case some are damaged.
Without changing the setting, cut
several thin foam spacers from the
bottom of a foam take-home box, as
shown. These will fill the gap in the tire
between the halves when you assemble
it. If the wheel disk is .025-inch thick,
sand the foam to the same thickness
before cutting the holes.
Cut the inside diameter of the wheel
disk. Again, without changing the cutter
setting for the inside cut, make a fixture,
as shown, using .055-inch-thick mat
board (a common material for framing
photos). Glue it to another piece of mat
board with the same dimensions.
Keep the plug you cut from the circle
in the upper mat board and mark it as
something easy to remember, such as
“Plug.” You will need it later to force the
rim against the fixture. Making two
fixtures like this will speed up the
building process. You will need to cut
the plug down slightly to allow space for
the rim in this fixture.
Lay out the rim parts. (See Table 1 for
sizes.) Make the rim strips longer than
needed, and then cut the strips to length
later when you fit the rim in the wheelrim
fixture.
I lightly scribe the rim strips with a
sharp X-Acto knife on the side that will
be glued to the wheel disk before I cut
them into strips. You can see these scribe
marks if you look closely at the photos.
Mark two thin pencil lines in the
middle of the strip, and then scribe a line
on each side of that. These marks help
the wheel rim bend to its final curved
cross-section. The pencil lines will tell
you if it is centered on the wheel disk
when it is glued. Cut the rim parts.
It is time to assemble the rim. Fit the
rim strip in the fixture with the marks
facing out, and cut a tapered lap joint
into it with a sharp single-edge blade.
Glue the lap joint with a small amount of
white glue before assembly.
If cut down to the correct diameter,
the plug should hold the rim firmly
against the fixture. At this time I cut a
second plug the same size and fit it on
top of the first plug in the fixture.
Slip the wheel disk over the rim and
Foam meat trays and take-home boxes,
which come in various colors and
thicknesses, are the material used in this
how-to.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 54
January 2008 55
The aluminum hub is centered vertically on the wheel rim using a piece
of scrap tubing and a small disk (red) to lift the hub to the correct level.
A cardboard disk on the lacing fixture
centers the wheel disk and rim before the
lacing operation. Notice the spoke-position
numbers.
The wheel disk and rim mounted on the lacing fixture are
held in place with pins. The cardboard disk is removed
once the rim is centered.
Use the marking gauge to indicate where spoke-hole positions are on the
wheel disk. Two versions are shown.
Cut inner and outer hub tubing to length in a slotted
cardboard fixture. Make flanges from sheet plastic with a
modified punch.
The curve in the rim that “clinches” the
tire edge is formed by burnishing the rim
on a hardwood fixture with a piece of
shaped dowel.
Slip the rim over a dowel covered with
rubber tubing to absorb the needle or drill
impact. Use care not to separate the parts.
A 1-inch wheel is ready for final assembly.
L-R: foam filler, painted tire half, painted
rim, second tire half.
How success looks. The 2-inch wheel rim on
the fixture with all spokes in place. Krylon
paint is recommended.
Sandwich and weight glued parts between
two layers of cardboard with holes cut in
them. Trim off excess foam filler when dry.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:43 PM Page 55
2-Inch, 40-Spoke Wheel 1-Inch, 24-Spoke Wheel
Hole Start Hole Finish Go to Hole Start Hole Finish Go to
1 on top to 27 around to 28 1 on top to 23 around to 24
28 on bottom to 2 around to 3 24 on bottom to 2 around to 3
3 on top to 17 around to 18 3 on top to 13 around to 14
18 on bottom to 4 around to 5 14 on bottom to 4 around to 5
5 on top to 31 around to 32 5 on top to 21 around to 22
32 on bottom to 6 around to 7 32 on bottom to 6 around to 7
7 on top to 21 around to 22 7 on top to 21 around to 22
22 on bottom to 8 around to 9 22 on bottom to 6 around to 7
9 on top to 35 around to 36 7 on top to 15 around to 16
36 on bottom to 10 around to 11 16 on bottom to 8 around to 9
11 on top to 25 around to 26 9 on top to 19 around to 20
26 on bottom to 12 around to 13 20 on bottom to 10 around to 11
13 on top to 39 around to 40 11 on top to 17 around to 18
40 on bottom to 14 around to 15 18 on bottom to 12—You’re finished!
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
15 on top to 29 around to 30
30 on bottom to 16 around to 19
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
19 on top to 33 around to 34
34 on bottom to 20—You’re finished!
Table 3. Wheel-Lacing Procedure
glue it with white glue. Don’t use
cyanoacrylate; it makes the poster board
too hard to work. When the structure
dries, turn it over and glue the other side.
As shown, I have two fixtures. I
marked them “A0” and “A1” and marked
the four plugs to go with the fixture they
mate with.
Fabricate the Hub: This part is built from
telescoping aluminum tubing with plastic
flanges. See Table 2 for tubing sizes.
Make a mat-board cutting fixture for
the tubing, as shown. Cut and trim it with
a single-edge razor blade, and then finish
with a file and sandpaper. Remove burrs
on the inside with a #11 blade. Center the
outer hub on the inner hub, and glue them
delicately with cyanoacrylate.
A hub flange is one of the trickiest
things to make. If there is a source of
ready-made plastic washers such as this, I
do not know about it.
Unless you find those elusive washers,
begin making your flanges by drilling
holes the size of your inner hub in the
plastic sheet. I do a whole strip at once.
Under them is a piece of scrap cardboard
to absorb the punch’s impact. It too has
holes drilled in it.
Modify a punch (see Table 1 for
flange sizes) by making some small
pieces of telescoping tubing that will fit
inside the punch, as shown. In a small
block of wood, glue a piece of tubing
(3/32 in this case) the same diameter as
the inner hub. Slide the tubing adapter
inside the punch over the tubing sticking
out of the wood. Strike it once firmly,
and with luck you should have a small
plastic washer or flange.
Lace the Wheel: You have reached the
“fun” part of the project. The 2-inch wheel
uses a 40-spoke pattern. The 1-inch wheel
uses a 24-spoke pattern. See Table 3 for
the pattern and lacing order.
Other patterns are possible. The ones I
am showing are semiscale. If you want
true scale spoke patterns, do the research,
make many drawings, and take numerous
photos to document and understand the
spoke pattern.
To lace a wheel you need to mark the
rims/disks for the spoke locations, drill
holes for the spokes, cut small notches in
the outer edge to hold your lacing material
in place, and then number the spoke
locations.
To mark the wheel rims/disks for spoke
locations, make a marking gauge such as
the ones shown. Mark spoke lines in red
on one side and black on the opposite side.
The fixture on the left is easier to
make and is proving to be more flexible
to use; it can accommodate many sizes of
wheels on one fixture simply by
changing the size of the mat-board disk.
The disk thumbtacked to the gauge holds
the wheel in place while you mark it.
Once you are finished marking the rim,
write the number of every other spoke
position with a sharp pencil.
“Drill” rim holes with a sharp needle.
To do this, slip the rim assembly over a
dowel covered with rubber tubing or
wrapped in masking tape to absorb the
needlepoint. Put the inside of the rim
against the rubber and push into it with a
needle—ideally slightly down toward the
center of the rim.
You should get a nice hole. If not, you
can follow up with a tiny drill bit, such as
a #73. I use a small pin vise to grasp the
needle.
Forming the rim clincher on the
burnishing fixture is magic, and it forms
the curve in the rim that “clinches” the
edge of the tire. It’s also the main thing
that makes this multipart wheel look so
realistic when compared to wheels carved
from laminated balsa.
Make a fixture, as shown, using hard,
dense wood as the base. The space
between the two angled pieces needs to
equal the wheel disk’s thickness. The
notched dowel slides along the inside of
the rim and burnishes the curved edge
into the rim as you rotate the rim through
56 MODEL AVIATION
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 56
Sources:
DMC
(33) 01 49 28 10 00
www.dmc.com
Hobbico
(217) 398-3630
www.hobbico.com
Olfa
(760) 739-5778
www.olfaproducts.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
any other means. How do I know? My
first attempt was with a spray can of
silver paint on cotton thread. This
instantly produced a barbed-wire effect
worthy of All Quiet on the Western Front.
Since then I have avoided the spray and
used the brush.
I’ve tried several types of paints. My
choices are generally acrylics such as
Tamiya Color or enamels such as Krylon
Short Cuts or Testors. Acrylics smell
better and are easy to clean up with water,
but I recommend the Krylon; it has less
paint buildup. The finished 2-inch wheel
shown was painted with acrylic, and the
1-inch wheel was painted with Krylon.
The golden rule for painting these
wheels is to test the paint on something
first. You have way too much time
invested in the project at this point.
If you are trying new spoke material,
make a simple test fixture with a few strands
of the material and make sure the paint sticks
to it before you spoke the whole wheel and
can’t get paint to adhere to it. If you find
some new wonder paint, test it first.
A simple fixture holds the rim while you
paint it. Avoid painting the actual wheel
disk; you will be gluing to it. I painted the
foam tires and foam spacer with black india
ink. Other black inks may or may not work.
Higgins india ink does work. Test whatever
you use on scrap foam before painting.
I’ve also used black watercolor markers,
such as the Mr. Watercolor brand, but
beware and test first. Anything called a
“permanent” marker will usually dissolve
foam, and many dry-erase markers will not
color the foam.
When you are finished painting parts you
should have a stack for each wheel that
includes a painted rim, the tire halves, and a
foam filler.
Final Assembly: Sandwich the glued
parts between two layers of corrugated
cardboard sheets with holes cut in them.
Be sparing with the adhesive. I used
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue, which is
stickier than white glue and reminds me
of canopy adhesive. Test whatever glue
you choose before using it.
Place weights on top of the wheel
stack to hold the assembly under
compression until the glue dries. When it
is dry, trim off the remainder of the foam
filler and lightly sand the outer edge of
the tire. Imperfections can be filled with
Red Devil Lightweight Spackling and
then sanded and touched up with india
ink.
If you are thinking about building
stouter wheels for heavier models,
consider cutting the wheel-disk parts from
sheet styrene. I’ve only started
experimenting with sheet styrene and the
preformed strip shapes for the wheel rims.
With this technique it’s possible to build a
wheel that is capable of being used on small
electric- or gas-powered models. MA
Jon Putnam
[email protected]
the fixture. In the photo you can also see
the small notches cut for each spoke
position in the outer part of the rim. You
can see how the curved edge of the 2-
inch rim clinches the tire.
It’s finally beginning to look like a
wheel. Now all you need to do is lace and
paint it.
The lacing fixture is simple. Mount a
piece of wire, that is the same size as the
inside diameter of your inner hub, on a
piece of 1/4 plywood. Three small blocks
support the wheel. The smaller the wheel,
the taller the blocks should be to give you
room to lace the wheel. For the 2-inch
wheel they are 3/4 inch high; for the 1-
inch wheel I would go 1 inch or higher.
Temporarily mount a mat-board disk
on the fixture to center the rim. Use
insect pins to hold the rim in place. Then
remove the cardboard disk, leaving the
rim centered.
The hub can be centered vertically on
the rim or offset to one side for a more
“dished” wheel. The hub shown is
centered vertically on the wheel rim. To
accomplish that, cut a piece of tubing and
a small disk (both are painted red in the
photo) to lift the hub to the correct level.
You can adjust this with a small spacer
placed under the red section if you cut the
spacer too short.
I’ve experimented with many spoke
materials. For the 2-inch wheels I now
use 6-pound fishing line. For 1-inch
wheels I use invisible thread or
transparent nylon thread. Avoid cotton or
silk thread unless you have nothing better
to use.
Do the lacing with a needle and your
choice of spoke material. The big secret
is the needle; it needs to be long and
extraordinarily thin. Fortunately such a
thing exists; it is called a beading needle
(10-13 from DMC) and is available in
many yardage and craft stores.
The 6-pound fishing line will need to be
cyanoacrylate-glued to the eye of the
needle. The small thread fits through the
eye, but glue it with cyanoacrylate as well.
To lace a 2-inch wheel, start on the top
of the rim at hole 1. Pull the thread all the
way through and cyanoacrylate-glue the
end into the slot you cut in the edge of the
rim at hole 1. Go around and over the hub,
hook the line on the edge of the hub, and
then go through hole 27. Lock the line into
the slot at 27 and then go under and out
hole 28. Go around the hub and up to hole
2.
Repeat this pattern as shown in Table 3.
The pattern for the 24-spoke hub is also
shown in the table.
When you are at the final hole,
cyanoacrylate-glue the end of the spoke
material in the final slot. Lightly apply
cyanoacrylate to the area on the top and
bottom of the hubs. Add the flanges. Now
you are finished with the rim.
Paint the Parts: You can destroy your
work of art faster by painting it than by
January 2008 57
AMA’s Take:
Spotlight on Safety
When using any kind of highspeed
tool, such as a drill press, in
the vicinity of your fingers and
eyes, practice “safety first” so you
can continue to use your fingers
and eyes for future projects. Here
are some precautions to follow.
• Maintain a firm grip on the
material being cut into. Be
prepared to shut off the tool
if the cutter grabs the wood
underneath.
• Keep your fingers out of the
cutter’s way.
• Don’t let loose-fitting shirt
cuffs near the drill press.
• Have a good light source, even
if you need to rig up a small,
portable floodlight.
• Wear goggles or a face shield.
There are numerous flying
foam particles and the
potential for a broken fly
cutter blade.
• Wear a face mask over your
mouth to keep from inhaling
foam dust particles. MA
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 57
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/01
Page Numbers: 51,52,53,54,55,56,57
Build lightweight
custom wire wheels
for your park flyer
or FF model
IT MAY SEEM intimidating, but building
wire wheels for your model can have your
flying buddies turning their heads and
saying “Where did you buy those little
gems?” They’ll look at you as if you just
took on the status of a watchmaker when
you say “I made them myself.”
My wire-wheel saga grew from an
interest in rubber-powered pre-World War I
Pioneer aircraft. A quick glance at the
requirements of the “Magnificent Men”-era
machines made me realize that I needed to
learn how to make light wire wheels and
radial engines, or the game was over before
I started. There’s no use in building a
lightweight Blériot and not having the
wheels or engine to make it look right.
The 17/8-inch-diameter wheels shown in
this article are for a 1911 Bristol Prier
monoplane that Otto Khuni designed. (Plans
are available from Peck-Polymers.)
However, the wheel design works on any
aircraft through World War I.
The method I’ll describe produces a
semiscale wheel that is well suited to
rubber-powered models or even RC park
flyers. It uses tires made from foam meat
trays, and they are mounted on poster-board
rims. In this instance the rims are from a
discarded bakery cake box. Aluminum hubs
and fishing-line spokes complete the project.
These wheels are easy on the wallet,
even if you do have to purchase your own
poster board instead of a cake. They are also
extremely light; the 17/8-inch wheels
weighed .6 gram each; a pair’s weight is
roughly half that of a copper penny. With
changes in materials they can be adapted for
use on small electrics and CO2-powered
models.
Before we get started I’ll share a couple
tips I’ve learned the hard way. They are to:
• Make the tires and then create the rims to
fit the tires. How do I know to do things in
this order? I’ve tried it both ways. It’s
much easier fitting rims to foam tires than
modifying foam tires to fit rims.
• Cut more parts than you need to create a
pair of wheels. If your learning curve is
like mine, you will butcher some parts
learning the process and you will be glad
for the spare components.
The major steps in the wire-wheel
building process are:
1) Creating working drawings
2) Making the fly cutter and cutting the
tires
3) Making the wheel disk and rim
4) Fabricating the hubs
5) Lacing the wheels
6) Painting the parts
7) Final assembly
Create Working Drawings: Make an
accurate drawing of the wheels you intend
to build, as in Figure 1. A planview is
noncritical but a section view, as shown,
is a must; you need it to lay out the fly
cutter. See the sidebar for dimensional
details about the wheel drawing.
Make the Fly Cutter and Cut the Tires: To
make each tire you will need to cut its
halves from meat trays. To do this you
need to make a fly cutter.
I learned about fly-cut wheels in a Bill
January 2008 51
by Jon Putnam
AUTHENTIC SPOKED WHEELS
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:25 PM Page 51
52 MODEL AVIATION
Photos by the author
Cutting tire halves from foam on a drill press is easy but requires good lighting,
careful technique, and proper safety procedures. See the safety sidebar.
A simple wood fixture aligns and holds the fly cutter
blade and shaft for soldering. A caliper is used to
center the blade.
The tire-thickness sanding fixture has a hole that is the same size as
the outside diameter of the finished tire and as deep as one tire half.
The four steps in creating a foam tire are fly-cutting tire halves on a
drill press, trimming the outside tire edge, sanding the tire thickness,
and trimming the inside tire edge.
The wheel-rim assembly consists of a posterboard
wheel disk and a poster-board wheelrim
strip. Also shown is a foam spacer.
High-quality, accurate, easy-to-use circle
cutters from Olfa and Hobbico make many
rounded modeling projects a snap.
To sand the tire half, drop in the foam tire
face down and sand from multiple directions
using medium sandpaper and light pressure.
Left: Cutting a tapered lap
joint in the rim requires a
sharp blade and some trial
and error to get a good fit.
Cut long and then trim to
fit.
Right: Glue wheel rims and
wheel disks on a simple
cardboard fixture with
temporary plugs in the
center to hold the rim
against the disk.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:27 PM Page 52
January 2008 53
Upper Tire Half
Lower Tire Half
F - Inner Hub E - Outer Hub
G - Hub Flange
B
A
D C
Wheel Disk
Wheel Rim
Foam Filler
For the 17/8-inch-diameter wheel,
the tire width is 5/32 inch and the hub is
1/2 inch long. This produces a wheel
with a moderate amount of “dish.” The
1-inch wheel uses a 1/8-inch tire and a
3/8-inch-long hub. The hub can be
centered symmetrically, as it is in
Figure 1, or offset to one side, as it is
on many World War I aircraft. MA
—Jon Putnam
The 1- and 2-inch (17/8-inch) wheels
shown in this article are semiscale. They
fit a wide variety of models, from Peanut
Scale to airplanes spanning approximately
24 inches. If you are creating scale wheels
to match a prototype aircraft, do your
research beforehand. Take photos and
make detailed measurements and
drawings of the spoke pattern and tire
tread.
Warner “Free Flight Scale/Sport” Create Working Drawings of Your Wheels
column (February 1982 MA, pages 54-
55) that described the late Emanuel
Fillon’s wheel-making method. (You
can access this column using the MA
Digital Archives.) Make a pattern based
on the section view from your drawing.
Transfer it to .025-.030 brass sheet,
steel, or hack saw blades. I used brass
because it is easier to work with and
solder.
For the tires, drill holes in your
cutting-blade blank using the sizes in
Table 1 and then remove the extra
material to half the depth of the drilled
circle. Sharpen the cutting edge in the
direction of rotation using a file or
wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a
dowel.
A simple scrap-wood soldering
fixture with a 1/8-inch hole drilled in the
center makes aligning and soldering the
fly cutter a snap. The small blocks have
slots cut into them to hold the blade in
place. Notice the scribed lines in the
center of the cutter, to help alignment
for soldering.
Center the blade on the shaft using a
small plastic caliper to measure side-toside
blade offset. Clean the brass parts
with steel wool or sandpaper, and then
use flux and 60/40 rosin core solder to
assemble the cutter.
To cut the tire halves you will need a
drill press. Do not try cutting them with
a portable drill; it is simply unsafe.
Insert the cutter into a drill press, set the
depth so the top of the cutter barely
clears some scrap plywood under the
foam meat tray, and set the drill to a
medium-high speed.
Now is the big moment. Turn on the
drill and lower the fly cutter slowly into
the foam. A slow-feed speed of the
cutter into the foam gives you better and
safer control of the process. With luck
you will soon have a gorgeous tire half.
If you are on a roll, cut a dozen to have
spare parts.
When you are finished on the drill
press, you will have half a foam tire
with a fine layer of foam in the middle.
Cut around the outer edge of the tire
with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade. It should
now look like step 2, shown in one of
the photos.
Build a tire-thickness sanding fixture,
as in step 3, using a circle cutter and
scrap illustration board. Sand the tire
from the backside until it is half the
finished tire size. Step 4 shows the
finished tire halves. Another photo
shows in more detail how to build the
thickness sanding fixture.
Parts for the 2-inch tire-thickness
sanding fixture include a base layer and
two layers with holes cut the same OD
(outside diameter) as the tire. The trick
in building the sanding fixture is using a
stack of cardboard that is the same
thickness as the tire half. For the 2-inch
wheel the tire diameter was 5/32, or
Dimension Description 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inches)
A Outer Wheel Diameter 1-0 inch 17/8 inches
B Inner Wheel Diameter 3/4 inch 19/16 inches
C & E Outer Hub Length 3/8 inch 1/2 inch
D & F Inner Hub Length 1/4 inch 3/8 inch
G Hub Flange 5/32 inch 3/16 inch
- Tire Diameter 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Dimensions for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Figure 2. Fly Cutter Drawing
Figure 1. Wheel Section
Trim off this area beyond these lines
Scribe these lines to line up shaft
Fly Cutter
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 53
54 MODEL AVIATION
Materials List
Part 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inch)
Fly Cutter .025-.030 brass sheet and 1/8-inch-outside-diameter brass tubing
Tire Drill Size 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Tire Material Foam meat tray that is 1/8 inch or thicker
Wheel Disk .015-.020 poster board .025-.030 poster board
Rim 1/8-inch-wide x .015 thick 9/64-inch (1/8-inch+)-wide x .020
poster board. Length to fit thick poster board. Length
inside diameter of tire. to fit inside diameter of tire.
Spokes 4-pound nylon fishing line, 6-pound nylon fishing line
transparent nylon thread,
invisible thread, silk thread
Hub All material is aluminum tubing
Inner: 1/4 x 1/16 inch OD Inner: 3/8 x 3/32 OD
Outer: 3/8 x 3/32 OD Outer: 1/2 x 1/8 OD
Flange Roughly .015-inch sheet styrene or plastic
Table 2. Materials List for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types and thicknesses of
materials. Many drug stores and art-supply stores carry different weights of
poster board. I like a material with a hard, fairly shiny surface. The heavy
poster board is .020-.025, while the lighter-weight material is .015. Many
bakery boxes are a good source for this kind of cardboard.
Foam meat trays and foam takehome
boxes come in various colors
and thicknesses. Black meat trays
seem to make better wheels than
white ones, but this may only be my
imagination.
Choosing spoke material is almost
an art form. Avoid cotton thread. Use
silk thread only as a last resort. When
painted, thread absorbs too much
paint and can quickly take on the
“barbed wire” look.
The hubs are made from aluminum tubing, but plastic tubing may work well.
The heavier clear plastic used as vacuum packaging is excellent for the flanges.
The white styrene sheet I used is common in model-railroad construction and
is sold in hobby stores. MA
—Jon Putnam
.15625. Half of that is approximately
.075, or one layer of .050 plus a layer of
.025 cardboard.
Drop the wheel face down into the tirethickness
fixture and sand from multiple
directions on the backside using medium
paper and light pressure. As you begin to
come in contact with the cardboard, you
are finished.
Breathe deep. And you can because
you’re finished making, and breathing,
foam dust. You are finished with the tires
except for painting them.
Circle Cutters: The key to success in
making these wire wheels is using a
circle cutter. You can purchase good
ones from Hobbico (item HCAR0230)
and Olfa (item CMP-1). Both are
available online and in many hobby and
art-supply stores. Following are tips for
using these tools.
• Buy extra blades and use them. This is
especially important if the cut is critical,
such as for the wheel disk or if the
material is thick or dense.
• Use light pressure and make several
thin cuts rather than one heavy cut.
• Make test cuts for parts on thin card
stock or paper to save your blades. Once
you get the circle-cutter setting correct,
move to the final material. This saves
blades and materials.
• Rotate the material—not the circle
cutter. This works well on small parts
such as the inside cuts of 1-inch wheels.
Make the Wheel Disk and Rim: The rim
assembly includes the wheel disk and the
wheel rim. Wheel disks are cut from
poster board (see Table 2 for sizes) using
the circle cutter. Make the outside cuts
first. The disk’s finished size should be
slightly smaller than the wheel’s finished
size. If you are making two wheels, make
extra disks in case some are damaged.
Without changing the setting, cut
several thin foam spacers from the
bottom of a foam take-home box, as
shown. These will fill the gap in the tire
between the halves when you assemble
it. If the wheel disk is .025-inch thick,
sand the foam to the same thickness
before cutting the holes.
Cut the inside diameter of the wheel
disk. Again, without changing the cutter
setting for the inside cut, make a fixture,
as shown, using .055-inch-thick mat
board (a common material for framing
photos). Glue it to another piece of mat
board with the same dimensions.
Keep the plug you cut from the circle
in the upper mat board and mark it as
something easy to remember, such as
“Plug.” You will need it later to force the
rim against the fixture. Making two
fixtures like this will speed up the
building process. You will need to cut
the plug down slightly to allow space for
the rim in this fixture.
Lay out the rim parts. (See Table 1 for
sizes.) Make the rim strips longer than
needed, and then cut the strips to length
later when you fit the rim in the wheelrim
fixture.
I lightly scribe the rim strips with a
sharp X-Acto knife on the side that will
be glued to the wheel disk before I cut
them into strips. You can see these scribe
marks if you look closely at the photos.
Mark two thin pencil lines in the
middle of the strip, and then scribe a line
on each side of that. These marks help
the wheel rim bend to its final curved
cross-section. The pencil lines will tell
you if it is centered on the wheel disk
when it is glued. Cut the rim parts.
It is time to assemble the rim. Fit the
rim strip in the fixture with the marks
facing out, and cut a tapered lap joint
into it with a sharp single-edge blade.
Glue the lap joint with a small amount of
white glue before assembly.
If cut down to the correct diameter,
the plug should hold the rim firmly
against the fixture. At this time I cut a
second plug the same size and fit it on
top of the first plug in the fixture.
Slip the wheel disk over the rim and
Foam meat trays and take-home boxes,
which come in various colors and
thicknesses, are the material used in this
how-to.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 54
January 2008 55
The aluminum hub is centered vertically on the wheel rim using a piece
of scrap tubing and a small disk (red) to lift the hub to the correct level.
A cardboard disk on the lacing fixture
centers the wheel disk and rim before the
lacing operation. Notice the spoke-position
numbers.
The wheel disk and rim mounted on the lacing fixture are
held in place with pins. The cardboard disk is removed
once the rim is centered.
Use the marking gauge to indicate where spoke-hole positions are on the
wheel disk. Two versions are shown.
Cut inner and outer hub tubing to length in a slotted
cardboard fixture. Make flanges from sheet plastic with a
modified punch.
The curve in the rim that “clinches” the
tire edge is formed by burnishing the rim
on a hardwood fixture with a piece of
shaped dowel.
Slip the rim over a dowel covered with
rubber tubing to absorb the needle or drill
impact. Use care not to separate the parts.
A 1-inch wheel is ready for final assembly.
L-R: foam filler, painted tire half, painted
rim, second tire half.
How success looks. The 2-inch wheel rim on
the fixture with all spokes in place. Krylon
paint is recommended.
Sandwich and weight glued parts between
two layers of cardboard with holes cut in
them. Trim off excess foam filler when dry.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:43 PM Page 55
2-Inch, 40-Spoke Wheel 1-Inch, 24-Spoke Wheel
Hole Start Hole Finish Go to Hole Start Hole Finish Go to
1 on top to 27 around to 28 1 on top to 23 around to 24
28 on bottom to 2 around to 3 24 on bottom to 2 around to 3
3 on top to 17 around to 18 3 on top to 13 around to 14
18 on bottom to 4 around to 5 14 on bottom to 4 around to 5
5 on top to 31 around to 32 5 on top to 21 around to 22
32 on bottom to 6 around to 7 32 on bottom to 6 around to 7
7 on top to 21 around to 22 7 on top to 21 around to 22
22 on bottom to 8 around to 9 22 on bottom to 6 around to 7
9 on top to 35 around to 36 7 on top to 15 around to 16
36 on bottom to 10 around to 11 16 on bottom to 8 around to 9
11 on top to 25 around to 26 9 on top to 19 around to 20
26 on bottom to 12 around to 13 20 on bottom to 10 around to 11
13 on top to 39 around to 40 11 on top to 17 around to 18
40 on bottom to 14 around to 15 18 on bottom to 12—You’re finished!
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
15 on top to 29 around to 30
30 on bottom to 16 around to 19
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
19 on top to 33 around to 34
34 on bottom to 20—You’re finished!
Table 3. Wheel-Lacing Procedure
glue it with white glue. Don’t use
cyanoacrylate; it makes the poster board
too hard to work. When the structure
dries, turn it over and glue the other side.
As shown, I have two fixtures. I
marked them “A0” and “A1” and marked
the four plugs to go with the fixture they
mate with.
Fabricate the Hub: This part is built from
telescoping aluminum tubing with plastic
flanges. See Table 2 for tubing sizes.
Make a mat-board cutting fixture for
the tubing, as shown. Cut and trim it with
a single-edge razor blade, and then finish
with a file and sandpaper. Remove burrs
on the inside with a #11 blade. Center the
outer hub on the inner hub, and glue them
delicately with cyanoacrylate.
A hub flange is one of the trickiest
things to make. If there is a source of
ready-made plastic washers such as this, I
do not know about it.
Unless you find those elusive washers,
begin making your flanges by drilling
holes the size of your inner hub in the
plastic sheet. I do a whole strip at once.
Under them is a piece of scrap cardboard
to absorb the punch’s impact. It too has
holes drilled in it.
Modify a punch (see Table 1 for
flange sizes) by making some small
pieces of telescoping tubing that will fit
inside the punch, as shown. In a small
block of wood, glue a piece of tubing
(3/32 in this case) the same diameter as
the inner hub. Slide the tubing adapter
inside the punch over the tubing sticking
out of the wood. Strike it once firmly,
and with luck you should have a small
plastic washer or flange.
Lace the Wheel: You have reached the
“fun” part of the project. The 2-inch wheel
uses a 40-spoke pattern. The 1-inch wheel
uses a 24-spoke pattern. See Table 3 for
the pattern and lacing order.
Other patterns are possible. The ones I
am showing are semiscale. If you want
true scale spoke patterns, do the research,
make many drawings, and take numerous
photos to document and understand the
spoke pattern.
To lace a wheel you need to mark the
rims/disks for the spoke locations, drill
holes for the spokes, cut small notches in
the outer edge to hold your lacing material
in place, and then number the spoke
locations.
To mark the wheel rims/disks for spoke
locations, make a marking gauge such as
the ones shown. Mark spoke lines in red
on one side and black on the opposite side.
The fixture on the left is easier to
make and is proving to be more flexible
to use; it can accommodate many sizes of
wheels on one fixture simply by
changing the size of the mat-board disk.
The disk thumbtacked to the gauge holds
the wheel in place while you mark it.
Once you are finished marking the rim,
write the number of every other spoke
position with a sharp pencil.
“Drill” rim holes with a sharp needle.
To do this, slip the rim assembly over a
dowel covered with rubber tubing or
wrapped in masking tape to absorb the
needlepoint. Put the inside of the rim
against the rubber and push into it with a
needle—ideally slightly down toward the
center of the rim.
You should get a nice hole. If not, you
can follow up with a tiny drill bit, such as
a #73. I use a small pin vise to grasp the
needle.
Forming the rim clincher on the
burnishing fixture is magic, and it forms
the curve in the rim that “clinches” the
edge of the tire. It’s also the main thing
that makes this multipart wheel look so
realistic when compared to wheels carved
from laminated balsa.
Make a fixture, as shown, using hard,
dense wood as the base. The space
between the two angled pieces needs to
equal the wheel disk’s thickness. The
notched dowel slides along the inside of
the rim and burnishes the curved edge
into the rim as you rotate the rim through
56 MODEL AVIATION
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 56
Sources:
DMC
(33) 01 49 28 10 00
www.dmc.com
Hobbico
(217) 398-3630
www.hobbico.com
Olfa
(760) 739-5778
www.olfaproducts.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
any other means. How do I know? My
first attempt was with a spray can of
silver paint on cotton thread. This
instantly produced a barbed-wire effect
worthy of All Quiet on the Western Front.
Since then I have avoided the spray and
used the brush.
I’ve tried several types of paints. My
choices are generally acrylics such as
Tamiya Color or enamels such as Krylon
Short Cuts or Testors. Acrylics smell
better and are easy to clean up with water,
but I recommend the Krylon; it has less
paint buildup. The finished 2-inch wheel
shown was painted with acrylic, and the
1-inch wheel was painted with Krylon.
The golden rule for painting these
wheels is to test the paint on something
first. You have way too much time
invested in the project at this point.
If you are trying new spoke material,
make a simple test fixture with a few strands
of the material and make sure the paint sticks
to it before you spoke the whole wheel and
can’t get paint to adhere to it. If you find
some new wonder paint, test it first.
A simple fixture holds the rim while you
paint it. Avoid painting the actual wheel
disk; you will be gluing to it. I painted the
foam tires and foam spacer with black india
ink. Other black inks may or may not work.
Higgins india ink does work. Test whatever
you use on scrap foam before painting.
I’ve also used black watercolor markers,
such as the Mr. Watercolor brand, but
beware and test first. Anything called a
“permanent” marker will usually dissolve
foam, and many dry-erase markers will not
color the foam.
When you are finished painting parts you
should have a stack for each wheel that
includes a painted rim, the tire halves, and a
foam filler.
Final Assembly: Sandwich the glued
parts between two layers of corrugated
cardboard sheets with holes cut in them.
Be sparing with the adhesive. I used
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue, which is
stickier than white glue and reminds me
of canopy adhesive. Test whatever glue
you choose before using it.
Place weights on top of the wheel
stack to hold the assembly under
compression until the glue dries. When it
is dry, trim off the remainder of the foam
filler and lightly sand the outer edge of
the tire. Imperfections can be filled with
Red Devil Lightweight Spackling and
then sanded and touched up with india
ink.
If you are thinking about building
stouter wheels for heavier models,
consider cutting the wheel-disk parts from
sheet styrene. I’ve only started
experimenting with sheet styrene and the
preformed strip shapes for the wheel rims.
With this technique it’s possible to build a
wheel that is capable of being used on small
electric- or gas-powered models. MA
Jon Putnam
[email protected]
the fixture. In the photo you can also see
the small notches cut for each spoke
position in the outer part of the rim. You
can see how the curved edge of the 2-
inch rim clinches the tire.
It’s finally beginning to look like a
wheel. Now all you need to do is lace and
paint it.
The lacing fixture is simple. Mount a
piece of wire, that is the same size as the
inside diameter of your inner hub, on a
piece of 1/4 plywood. Three small blocks
support the wheel. The smaller the wheel,
the taller the blocks should be to give you
room to lace the wheel. For the 2-inch
wheel they are 3/4 inch high; for the 1-
inch wheel I would go 1 inch or higher.
Temporarily mount a mat-board disk
on the fixture to center the rim. Use
insect pins to hold the rim in place. Then
remove the cardboard disk, leaving the
rim centered.
The hub can be centered vertically on
the rim or offset to one side for a more
“dished” wheel. The hub shown is
centered vertically on the wheel rim. To
accomplish that, cut a piece of tubing and
a small disk (both are painted red in the
photo) to lift the hub to the correct level.
You can adjust this with a small spacer
placed under the red section if you cut the
spacer too short.
I’ve experimented with many spoke
materials. For the 2-inch wheels I now
use 6-pound fishing line. For 1-inch
wheels I use invisible thread or
transparent nylon thread. Avoid cotton or
silk thread unless you have nothing better
to use.
Do the lacing with a needle and your
choice of spoke material. The big secret
is the needle; it needs to be long and
extraordinarily thin. Fortunately such a
thing exists; it is called a beading needle
(10-13 from DMC) and is available in
many yardage and craft stores.
The 6-pound fishing line will need to be
cyanoacrylate-glued to the eye of the
needle. The small thread fits through the
eye, but glue it with cyanoacrylate as well.
To lace a 2-inch wheel, start on the top
of the rim at hole 1. Pull the thread all the
way through and cyanoacrylate-glue the
end into the slot you cut in the edge of the
rim at hole 1. Go around and over the hub,
hook the line on the edge of the hub, and
then go through hole 27. Lock the line into
the slot at 27 and then go under and out
hole 28. Go around the hub and up to hole
2.
Repeat this pattern as shown in Table 3.
The pattern for the 24-spoke hub is also
shown in the table.
When you are at the final hole,
cyanoacrylate-glue the end of the spoke
material in the final slot. Lightly apply
cyanoacrylate to the area on the top and
bottom of the hubs. Add the flanges. Now
you are finished with the rim.
Paint the Parts: You can destroy your
work of art faster by painting it than by
January 2008 57
AMA’s Take:
Spotlight on Safety
When using any kind of highspeed
tool, such as a drill press, in
the vicinity of your fingers and
eyes, practice “safety first” so you
can continue to use your fingers
and eyes for future projects. Here
are some precautions to follow.
• Maintain a firm grip on the
material being cut into. Be
prepared to shut off the tool
if the cutter grabs the wood
underneath.
• Keep your fingers out of the
cutter’s way.
• Don’t let loose-fitting shirt
cuffs near the drill press.
• Have a good light source, even
if you need to rig up a small,
portable floodlight.
• Wear goggles or a face shield.
There are numerous flying
foam particles and the
potential for a broken fly
cutter blade.
• Wear a face mask over your
mouth to keep from inhaling
foam dust particles. MA
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 57
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/01
Page Numbers: 51,52,53,54,55,56,57
Build lightweight
custom wire wheels
for your park flyer
or FF model
IT MAY SEEM intimidating, but building
wire wheels for your model can have your
flying buddies turning their heads and
saying “Where did you buy those little
gems?” They’ll look at you as if you just
took on the status of a watchmaker when
you say “I made them myself.”
My wire-wheel saga grew from an
interest in rubber-powered pre-World War I
Pioneer aircraft. A quick glance at the
requirements of the “Magnificent Men”-era
machines made me realize that I needed to
learn how to make light wire wheels and
radial engines, or the game was over before
I started. There’s no use in building a
lightweight Blériot and not having the
wheels or engine to make it look right.
The 17/8-inch-diameter wheels shown in
this article are for a 1911 Bristol Prier
monoplane that Otto Khuni designed. (Plans
are available from Peck-Polymers.)
However, the wheel design works on any
aircraft through World War I.
The method I’ll describe produces a
semiscale wheel that is well suited to
rubber-powered models or even RC park
flyers. It uses tires made from foam meat
trays, and they are mounted on poster-board
rims. In this instance the rims are from a
discarded bakery cake box. Aluminum hubs
and fishing-line spokes complete the project.
These wheels are easy on the wallet,
even if you do have to purchase your own
poster board instead of a cake. They are also
extremely light; the 17/8-inch wheels
weighed .6 gram each; a pair’s weight is
roughly half that of a copper penny. With
changes in materials they can be adapted for
use on small electrics and CO2-powered
models.
Before we get started I’ll share a couple
tips I’ve learned the hard way. They are to:
• Make the tires and then create the rims to
fit the tires. How do I know to do things in
this order? I’ve tried it both ways. It’s
much easier fitting rims to foam tires than
modifying foam tires to fit rims.
• Cut more parts than you need to create a
pair of wheels. If your learning curve is
like mine, you will butcher some parts
learning the process and you will be glad
for the spare components.
The major steps in the wire-wheel
building process are:
1) Creating working drawings
2) Making the fly cutter and cutting the
tires
3) Making the wheel disk and rim
4) Fabricating the hubs
5) Lacing the wheels
6) Painting the parts
7) Final assembly
Create Working Drawings: Make an
accurate drawing of the wheels you intend
to build, as in Figure 1. A planview is
noncritical but a section view, as shown,
is a must; you need it to lay out the fly
cutter. See the sidebar for dimensional
details about the wheel drawing.
Make the Fly Cutter and Cut the Tires: To
make each tire you will need to cut its
halves from meat trays. To do this you
need to make a fly cutter.
I learned about fly-cut wheels in a Bill
January 2008 51
by Jon Putnam
AUTHENTIC SPOKED WHEELS
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:25 PM Page 51
52 MODEL AVIATION
Photos by the author
Cutting tire halves from foam on a drill press is easy but requires good lighting,
careful technique, and proper safety procedures. See the safety sidebar.
A simple wood fixture aligns and holds the fly cutter
blade and shaft for soldering. A caliper is used to
center the blade.
The tire-thickness sanding fixture has a hole that is the same size as
the outside diameter of the finished tire and as deep as one tire half.
The four steps in creating a foam tire are fly-cutting tire halves on a
drill press, trimming the outside tire edge, sanding the tire thickness,
and trimming the inside tire edge.
The wheel-rim assembly consists of a posterboard
wheel disk and a poster-board wheelrim
strip. Also shown is a foam spacer.
High-quality, accurate, easy-to-use circle
cutters from Olfa and Hobbico make many
rounded modeling projects a snap.
To sand the tire half, drop in the foam tire
face down and sand from multiple directions
using medium sandpaper and light pressure.
Left: Cutting a tapered lap
joint in the rim requires a
sharp blade and some trial
and error to get a good fit.
Cut long and then trim to
fit.
Right: Glue wheel rims and
wheel disks on a simple
cardboard fixture with
temporary plugs in the
center to hold the rim
against the disk.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:27 PM Page 52
January 2008 53
Upper Tire Half
Lower Tire Half
F - Inner Hub E - Outer Hub
G - Hub Flange
B
A
D C
Wheel Disk
Wheel Rim
Foam Filler
For the 17/8-inch-diameter wheel,
the tire width is 5/32 inch and the hub is
1/2 inch long. This produces a wheel
with a moderate amount of “dish.” The
1-inch wheel uses a 1/8-inch tire and a
3/8-inch-long hub. The hub can be
centered symmetrically, as it is in
Figure 1, or offset to one side, as it is
on many World War I aircraft. MA
—Jon Putnam
The 1- and 2-inch (17/8-inch) wheels
shown in this article are semiscale. They
fit a wide variety of models, from Peanut
Scale to airplanes spanning approximately
24 inches. If you are creating scale wheels
to match a prototype aircraft, do your
research beforehand. Take photos and
make detailed measurements and
drawings of the spoke pattern and tire
tread.
Warner “Free Flight Scale/Sport” Create Working Drawings of Your Wheels
column (February 1982 MA, pages 54-
55) that described the late Emanuel
Fillon’s wheel-making method. (You
can access this column using the MA
Digital Archives.) Make a pattern based
on the section view from your drawing.
Transfer it to .025-.030 brass sheet,
steel, or hack saw blades. I used brass
because it is easier to work with and
solder.
For the tires, drill holes in your
cutting-blade blank using the sizes in
Table 1 and then remove the extra
material to half the depth of the drilled
circle. Sharpen the cutting edge in the
direction of rotation using a file or
wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a
dowel.
A simple scrap-wood soldering
fixture with a 1/8-inch hole drilled in the
center makes aligning and soldering the
fly cutter a snap. The small blocks have
slots cut into them to hold the blade in
place. Notice the scribed lines in the
center of the cutter, to help alignment
for soldering.
Center the blade on the shaft using a
small plastic caliper to measure side-toside
blade offset. Clean the brass parts
with steel wool or sandpaper, and then
use flux and 60/40 rosin core solder to
assemble the cutter.
To cut the tire halves you will need a
drill press. Do not try cutting them with
a portable drill; it is simply unsafe.
Insert the cutter into a drill press, set the
depth so the top of the cutter barely
clears some scrap plywood under the
foam meat tray, and set the drill to a
medium-high speed.
Now is the big moment. Turn on the
drill and lower the fly cutter slowly into
the foam. A slow-feed speed of the
cutter into the foam gives you better and
safer control of the process. With luck
you will soon have a gorgeous tire half.
If you are on a roll, cut a dozen to have
spare parts.
When you are finished on the drill
press, you will have half a foam tire
with a fine layer of foam in the middle.
Cut around the outer edge of the tire
with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade. It should
now look like step 2, shown in one of
the photos.
Build a tire-thickness sanding fixture,
as in step 3, using a circle cutter and
scrap illustration board. Sand the tire
from the backside until it is half the
finished tire size. Step 4 shows the
finished tire halves. Another photo
shows in more detail how to build the
thickness sanding fixture.
Parts for the 2-inch tire-thickness
sanding fixture include a base layer and
two layers with holes cut the same OD
(outside diameter) as the tire. The trick
in building the sanding fixture is using a
stack of cardboard that is the same
thickness as the tire half. For the 2-inch
wheel the tire diameter was 5/32, or
Dimension Description 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inches)
A Outer Wheel Diameter 1-0 inch 17/8 inches
B Inner Wheel Diameter 3/4 inch 19/16 inches
C & E Outer Hub Length 3/8 inch 1/2 inch
D & F Inner Hub Length 1/4 inch 3/8 inch
G Hub Flange 5/32 inch 3/16 inch
- Tire Diameter 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Dimensions for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Figure 2. Fly Cutter Drawing
Figure 1. Wheel Section
Trim off this area beyond these lines
Scribe these lines to line up shaft
Fly Cutter
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 53
54 MODEL AVIATION
Materials List
Part 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inch)
Fly Cutter .025-.030 brass sheet and 1/8-inch-outside-diameter brass tubing
Tire Drill Size 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Tire Material Foam meat tray that is 1/8 inch or thicker
Wheel Disk .015-.020 poster board .025-.030 poster board
Rim 1/8-inch-wide x .015 thick 9/64-inch (1/8-inch+)-wide x .020
poster board. Length to fit thick poster board. Length
inside diameter of tire. to fit inside diameter of tire.
Spokes 4-pound nylon fishing line, 6-pound nylon fishing line
transparent nylon thread,
invisible thread, silk thread
Hub All material is aluminum tubing
Inner: 1/4 x 1/16 inch OD Inner: 3/8 x 3/32 OD
Outer: 3/8 x 3/32 OD Outer: 1/2 x 1/8 OD
Flange Roughly .015-inch sheet styrene or plastic
Table 2. Materials List for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types and thicknesses of
materials. Many drug stores and art-supply stores carry different weights of
poster board. I like a material with a hard, fairly shiny surface. The heavy
poster board is .020-.025, while the lighter-weight material is .015. Many
bakery boxes are a good source for this kind of cardboard.
Foam meat trays and foam takehome
boxes come in various colors
and thicknesses. Black meat trays
seem to make better wheels than
white ones, but this may only be my
imagination.
Choosing spoke material is almost
an art form. Avoid cotton thread. Use
silk thread only as a last resort. When
painted, thread absorbs too much
paint and can quickly take on the
“barbed wire” look.
The hubs are made from aluminum tubing, but plastic tubing may work well.
The heavier clear plastic used as vacuum packaging is excellent for the flanges.
The white styrene sheet I used is common in model-railroad construction and
is sold in hobby stores. MA
—Jon Putnam
.15625. Half of that is approximately
.075, or one layer of .050 plus a layer of
.025 cardboard.
Drop the wheel face down into the tirethickness
fixture and sand from multiple
directions on the backside using medium
paper and light pressure. As you begin to
come in contact with the cardboard, you
are finished.
Breathe deep. And you can because
you’re finished making, and breathing,
foam dust. You are finished with the tires
except for painting them.
Circle Cutters: The key to success in
making these wire wheels is using a
circle cutter. You can purchase good
ones from Hobbico (item HCAR0230)
and Olfa (item CMP-1). Both are
available online and in many hobby and
art-supply stores. Following are tips for
using these tools.
• Buy extra blades and use them. This is
especially important if the cut is critical,
such as for the wheel disk or if the
material is thick or dense.
• Use light pressure and make several
thin cuts rather than one heavy cut.
• Make test cuts for parts on thin card
stock or paper to save your blades. Once
you get the circle-cutter setting correct,
move to the final material. This saves
blades and materials.
• Rotate the material—not the circle
cutter. This works well on small parts
such as the inside cuts of 1-inch wheels.
Make the Wheel Disk and Rim: The rim
assembly includes the wheel disk and the
wheel rim. Wheel disks are cut from
poster board (see Table 2 for sizes) using
the circle cutter. Make the outside cuts
first. The disk’s finished size should be
slightly smaller than the wheel’s finished
size. If you are making two wheels, make
extra disks in case some are damaged.
Without changing the setting, cut
several thin foam spacers from the
bottom of a foam take-home box, as
shown. These will fill the gap in the tire
between the halves when you assemble
it. If the wheel disk is .025-inch thick,
sand the foam to the same thickness
before cutting the holes.
Cut the inside diameter of the wheel
disk. Again, without changing the cutter
setting for the inside cut, make a fixture,
as shown, using .055-inch-thick mat
board (a common material for framing
photos). Glue it to another piece of mat
board with the same dimensions.
Keep the plug you cut from the circle
in the upper mat board and mark it as
something easy to remember, such as
“Plug.” You will need it later to force the
rim against the fixture. Making two
fixtures like this will speed up the
building process. You will need to cut
the plug down slightly to allow space for
the rim in this fixture.
Lay out the rim parts. (See Table 1 for
sizes.) Make the rim strips longer than
needed, and then cut the strips to length
later when you fit the rim in the wheelrim
fixture.
I lightly scribe the rim strips with a
sharp X-Acto knife on the side that will
be glued to the wheel disk before I cut
them into strips. You can see these scribe
marks if you look closely at the photos.
Mark two thin pencil lines in the
middle of the strip, and then scribe a line
on each side of that. These marks help
the wheel rim bend to its final curved
cross-section. The pencil lines will tell
you if it is centered on the wheel disk
when it is glued. Cut the rim parts.
It is time to assemble the rim. Fit the
rim strip in the fixture with the marks
facing out, and cut a tapered lap joint
into it with a sharp single-edge blade.
Glue the lap joint with a small amount of
white glue before assembly.
If cut down to the correct diameter,
the plug should hold the rim firmly
against the fixture. At this time I cut a
second plug the same size and fit it on
top of the first plug in the fixture.
Slip the wheel disk over the rim and
Foam meat trays and take-home boxes,
which come in various colors and
thicknesses, are the material used in this
how-to.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 54
January 2008 55
The aluminum hub is centered vertically on the wheel rim using a piece
of scrap tubing and a small disk (red) to lift the hub to the correct level.
A cardboard disk on the lacing fixture
centers the wheel disk and rim before the
lacing operation. Notice the spoke-position
numbers.
The wheel disk and rim mounted on the lacing fixture are
held in place with pins. The cardboard disk is removed
once the rim is centered.
Use the marking gauge to indicate where spoke-hole positions are on the
wheel disk. Two versions are shown.
Cut inner and outer hub tubing to length in a slotted
cardboard fixture. Make flanges from sheet plastic with a
modified punch.
The curve in the rim that “clinches” the
tire edge is formed by burnishing the rim
on a hardwood fixture with a piece of
shaped dowel.
Slip the rim over a dowel covered with
rubber tubing to absorb the needle or drill
impact. Use care not to separate the parts.
A 1-inch wheel is ready for final assembly.
L-R: foam filler, painted tire half, painted
rim, second tire half.
How success looks. The 2-inch wheel rim on
the fixture with all spokes in place. Krylon
paint is recommended.
Sandwich and weight glued parts between
two layers of cardboard with holes cut in
them. Trim off excess foam filler when dry.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:43 PM Page 55
2-Inch, 40-Spoke Wheel 1-Inch, 24-Spoke Wheel
Hole Start Hole Finish Go to Hole Start Hole Finish Go to
1 on top to 27 around to 28 1 on top to 23 around to 24
28 on bottom to 2 around to 3 24 on bottom to 2 around to 3
3 on top to 17 around to 18 3 on top to 13 around to 14
18 on bottom to 4 around to 5 14 on bottom to 4 around to 5
5 on top to 31 around to 32 5 on top to 21 around to 22
32 on bottom to 6 around to 7 32 on bottom to 6 around to 7
7 on top to 21 around to 22 7 on top to 21 around to 22
22 on bottom to 8 around to 9 22 on bottom to 6 around to 7
9 on top to 35 around to 36 7 on top to 15 around to 16
36 on bottom to 10 around to 11 16 on bottom to 8 around to 9
11 on top to 25 around to 26 9 on top to 19 around to 20
26 on bottom to 12 around to 13 20 on bottom to 10 around to 11
13 on top to 39 around to 40 11 on top to 17 around to 18
40 on bottom to 14 around to 15 18 on bottom to 12—You’re finished!
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
15 on top to 29 around to 30
30 on bottom to 16 around to 19
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
19 on top to 33 around to 34
34 on bottom to 20—You’re finished!
Table 3. Wheel-Lacing Procedure
glue it with white glue. Don’t use
cyanoacrylate; it makes the poster board
too hard to work. When the structure
dries, turn it over and glue the other side.
As shown, I have two fixtures. I
marked them “A0” and “A1” and marked
the four plugs to go with the fixture they
mate with.
Fabricate the Hub: This part is built from
telescoping aluminum tubing with plastic
flanges. See Table 2 for tubing sizes.
Make a mat-board cutting fixture for
the tubing, as shown. Cut and trim it with
a single-edge razor blade, and then finish
with a file and sandpaper. Remove burrs
on the inside with a #11 blade. Center the
outer hub on the inner hub, and glue them
delicately with cyanoacrylate.
A hub flange is one of the trickiest
things to make. If there is a source of
ready-made plastic washers such as this, I
do not know about it.
Unless you find those elusive washers,
begin making your flanges by drilling
holes the size of your inner hub in the
plastic sheet. I do a whole strip at once.
Under them is a piece of scrap cardboard
to absorb the punch’s impact. It too has
holes drilled in it.
Modify a punch (see Table 1 for
flange sizes) by making some small
pieces of telescoping tubing that will fit
inside the punch, as shown. In a small
block of wood, glue a piece of tubing
(3/32 in this case) the same diameter as
the inner hub. Slide the tubing adapter
inside the punch over the tubing sticking
out of the wood. Strike it once firmly,
and with luck you should have a small
plastic washer or flange.
Lace the Wheel: You have reached the
“fun” part of the project. The 2-inch wheel
uses a 40-spoke pattern. The 1-inch wheel
uses a 24-spoke pattern. See Table 3 for
the pattern and lacing order.
Other patterns are possible. The ones I
am showing are semiscale. If you want
true scale spoke patterns, do the research,
make many drawings, and take numerous
photos to document and understand the
spoke pattern.
To lace a wheel you need to mark the
rims/disks for the spoke locations, drill
holes for the spokes, cut small notches in
the outer edge to hold your lacing material
in place, and then number the spoke
locations.
To mark the wheel rims/disks for spoke
locations, make a marking gauge such as
the ones shown. Mark spoke lines in red
on one side and black on the opposite side.
The fixture on the left is easier to
make and is proving to be more flexible
to use; it can accommodate many sizes of
wheels on one fixture simply by
changing the size of the mat-board disk.
The disk thumbtacked to the gauge holds
the wheel in place while you mark it.
Once you are finished marking the rim,
write the number of every other spoke
position with a sharp pencil.
“Drill” rim holes with a sharp needle.
To do this, slip the rim assembly over a
dowel covered with rubber tubing or
wrapped in masking tape to absorb the
needlepoint. Put the inside of the rim
against the rubber and push into it with a
needle—ideally slightly down toward the
center of the rim.
You should get a nice hole. If not, you
can follow up with a tiny drill bit, such as
a #73. I use a small pin vise to grasp the
needle.
Forming the rim clincher on the
burnishing fixture is magic, and it forms
the curve in the rim that “clinches” the
edge of the tire. It’s also the main thing
that makes this multipart wheel look so
realistic when compared to wheels carved
from laminated balsa.
Make a fixture, as shown, using hard,
dense wood as the base. The space
between the two angled pieces needs to
equal the wheel disk’s thickness. The
notched dowel slides along the inside of
the rim and burnishes the curved edge
into the rim as you rotate the rim through
56 MODEL AVIATION
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 56
Sources:
DMC
(33) 01 49 28 10 00
www.dmc.com
Hobbico
(217) 398-3630
www.hobbico.com
Olfa
(760) 739-5778
www.olfaproducts.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
any other means. How do I know? My
first attempt was with a spray can of
silver paint on cotton thread. This
instantly produced a barbed-wire effect
worthy of All Quiet on the Western Front.
Since then I have avoided the spray and
used the brush.
I’ve tried several types of paints. My
choices are generally acrylics such as
Tamiya Color or enamels such as Krylon
Short Cuts or Testors. Acrylics smell
better and are easy to clean up with water,
but I recommend the Krylon; it has less
paint buildup. The finished 2-inch wheel
shown was painted with acrylic, and the
1-inch wheel was painted with Krylon.
The golden rule for painting these
wheels is to test the paint on something
first. You have way too much time
invested in the project at this point.
If you are trying new spoke material,
make a simple test fixture with a few strands
of the material and make sure the paint sticks
to it before you spoke the whole wheel and
can’t get paint to adhere to it. If you find
some new wonder paint, test it first.
A simple fixture holds the rim while you
paint it. Avoid painting the actual wheel
disk; you will be gluing to it. I painted the
foam tires and foam spacer with black india
ink. Other black inks may or may not work.
Higgins india ink does work. Test whatever
you use on scrap foam before painting.
I’ve also used black watercolor markers,
such as the Mr. Watercolor brand, but
beware and test first. Anything called a
“permanent” marker will usually dissolve
foam, and many dry-erase markers will not
color the foam.
When you are finished painting parts you
should have a stack for each wheel that
includes a painted rim, the tire halves, and a
foam filler.
Final Assembly: Sandwich the glued
parts between two layers of corrugated
cardboard sheets with holes cut in them.
Be sparing with the adhesive. I used
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue, which is
stickier than white glue and reminds me
of canopy adhesive. Test whatever glue
you choose before using it.
Place weights on top of the wheel
stack to hold the assembly under
compression until the glue dries. When it
is dry, trim off the remainder of the foam
filler and lightly sand the outer edge of
the tire. Imperfections can be filled with
Red Devil Lightweight Spackling and
then sanded and touched up with india
ink.
If you are thinking about building
stouter wheels for heavier models,
consider cutting the wheel-disk parts from
sheet styrene. I’ve only started
experimenting with sheet styrene and the
preformed strip shapes for the wheel rims.
With this technique it’s possible to build a
wheel that is capable of being used on small
electric- or gas-powered models. MA
Jon Putnam
[email protected]
the fixture. In the photo you can also see
the small notches cut for each spoke
position in the outer part of the rim. You
can see how the curved edge of the 2-
inch rim clinches the tire.
It’s finally beginning to look like a
wheel. Now all you need to do is lace and
paint it.
The lacing fixture is simple. Mount a
piece of wire, that is the same size as the
inside diameter of your inner hub, on a
piece of 1/4 plywood. Three small blocks
support the wheel. The smaller the wheel,
the taller the blocks should be to give you
room to lace the wheel. For the 2-inch
wheel they are 3/4 inch high; for the 1-
inch wheel I would go 1 inch or higher.
Temporarily mount a mat-board disk
on the fixture to center the rim. Use
insect pins to hold the rim in place. Then
remove the cardboard disk, leaving the
rim centered.
The hub can be centered vertically on
the rim or offset to one side for a more
“dished” wheel. The hub shown is
centered vertically on the wheel rim. To
accomplish that, cut a piece of tubing and
a small disk (both are painted red in the
photo) to lift the hub to the correct level.
You can adjust this with a small spacer
placed under the red section if you cut the
spacer too short.
I’ve experimented with many spoke
materials. For the 2-inch wheels I now
use 6-pound fishing line. For 1-inch
wheels I use invisible thread or
transparent nylon thread. Avoid cotton or
silk thread unless you have nothing better
to use.
Do the lacing with a needle and your
choice of spoke material. The big secret
is the needle; it needs to be long and
extraordinarily thin. Fortunately such a
thing exists; it is called a beading needle
(10-13 from DMC) and is available in
many yardage and craft stores.
The 6-pound fishing line will need to be
cyanoacrylate-glued to the eye of the
needle. The small thread fits through the
eye, but glue it with cyanoacrylate as well.
To lace a 2-inch wheel, start on the top
of the rim at hole 1. Pull the thread all the
way through and cyanoacrylate-glue the
end into the slot you cut in the edge of the
rim at hole 1. Go around and over the hub,
hook the line on the edge of the hub, and
then go through hole 27. Lock the line into
the slot at 27 and then go under and out
hole 28. Go around the hub and up to hole
2.
Repeat this pattern as shown in Table 3.
The pattern for the 24-spoke hub is also
shown in the table.
When you are at the final hole,
cyanoacrylate-glue the end of the spoke
material in the final slot. Lightly apply
cyanoacrylate to the area on the top and
bottom of the hubs. Add the flanges. Now
you are finished with the rim.
Paint the Parts: You can destroy your
work of art faster by painting it than by
January 2008 57
AMA’s Take:
Spotlight on Safety
When using any kind of highspeed
tool, such as a drill press, in
the vicinity of your fingers and
eyes, practice “safety first” so you
can continue to use your fingers
and eyes for future projects. Here
are some precautions to follow.
• Maintain a firm grip on the
material being cut into. Be
prepared to shut off the tool
if the cutter grabs the wood
underneath.
• Keep your fingers out of the
cutter’s way.
• Don’t let loose-fitting shirt
cuffs near the drill press.
• Have a good light source, even
if you need to rig up a small,
portable floodlight.
• Wear goggles or a face shield.
There are numerous flying
foam particles and the
potential for a broken fly
cutter blade.
• Wear a face mask over your
mouth to keep from inhaling
foam dust particles. MA
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 57
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/01
Page Numbers: 51,52,53,54,55,56,57
Build lightweight
custom wire wheels
for your park flyer
or FF model
IT MAY SEEM intimidating, but building
wire wheels for your model can have your
flying buddies turning their heads and
saying “Where did you buy those little
gems?” They’ll look at you as if you just
took on the status of a watchmaker when
you say “I made them myself.”
My wire-wheel saga grew from an
interest in rubber-powered pre-World War I
Pioneer aircraft. A quick glance at the
requirements of the “Magnificent Men”-era
machines made me realize that I needed to
learn how to make light wire wheels and
radial engines, or the game was over before
I started. There’s no use in building a
lightweight Blériot and not having the
wheels or engine to make it look right.
The 17/8-inch-diameter wheels shown in
this article are for a 1911 Bristol Prier
monoplane that Otto Khuni designed. (Plans
are available from Peck-Polymers.)
However, the wheel design works on any
aircraft through World War I.
The method I’ll describe produces a
semiscale wheel that is well suited to
rubber-powered models or even RC park
flyers. It uses tires made from foam meat
trays, and they are mounted on poster-board
rims. In this instance the rims are from a
discarded bakery cake box. Aluminum hubs
and fishing-line spokes complete the project.
These wheels are easy on the wallet,
even if you do have to purchase your own
poster board instead of a cake. They are also
extremely light; the 17/8-inch wheels
weighed .6 gram each; a pair’s weight is
roughly half that of a copper penny. With
changes in materials they can be adapted for
use on small electrics and CO2-powered
models.
Before we get started I’ll share a couple
tips I’ve learned the hard way. They are to:
• Make the tires and then create the rims to
fit the tires. How do I know to do things in
this order? I’ve tried it both ways. It’s
much easier fitting rims to foam tires than
modifying foam tires to fit rims.
• Cut more parts than you need to create a
pair of wheels. If your learning curve is
like mine, you will butcher some parts
learning the process and you will be glad
for the spare components.
The major steps in the wire-wheel
building process are:
1) Creating working drawings
2) Making the fly cutter and cutting the
tires
3) Making the wheel disk and rim
4) Fabricating the hubs
5) Lacing the wheels
6) Painting the parts
7) Final assembly
Create Working Drawings: Make an
accurate drawing of the wheels you intend
to build, as in Figure 1. A planview is
noncritical but a section view, as shown,
is a must; you need it to lay out the fly
cutter. See the sidebar for dimensional
details about the wheel drawing.
Make the Fly Cutter and Cut the Tires: To
make each tire you will need to cut its
halves from meat trays. To do this you
need to make a fly cutter.
I learned about fly-cut wheels in a Bill
January 2008 51
by Jon Putnam
AUTHENTIC SPOKED WHEELS
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:25 PM Page 51
52 MODEL AVIATION
Photos by the author
Cutting tire halves from foam on a drill press is easy but requires good lighting,
careful technique, and proper safety procedures. See the safety sidebar.
A simple wood fixture aligns and holds the fly cutter
blade and shaft for soldering. A caliper is used to
center the blade.
The tire-thickness sanding fixture has a hole that is the same size as
the outside diameter of the finished tire and as deep as one tire half.
The four steps in creating a foam tire are fly-cutting tire halves on a
drill press, trimming the outside tire edge, sanding the tire thickness,
and trimming the inside tire edge.
The wheel-rim assembly consists of a posterboard
wheel disk and a poster-board wheelrim
strip. Also shown is a foam spacer.
High-quality, accurate, easy-to-use circle
cutters from Olfa and Hobbico make many
rounded modeling projects a snap.
To sand the tire half, drop in the foam tire
face down and sand from multiple directions
using medium sandpaper and light pressure.
Left: Cutting a tapered lap
joint in the rim requires a
sharp blade and some trial
and error to get a good fit.
Cut long and then trim to
fit.
Right: Glue wheel rims and
wheel disks on a simple
cardboard fixture with
temporary plugs in the
center to hold the rim
against the disk.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:27 PM Page 52
January 2008 53
Upper Tire Half
Lower Tire Half
F - Inner Hub E - Outer Hub
G - Hub Flange
B
A
D C
Wheel Disk
Wheel Rim
Foam Filler
For the 17/8-inch-diameter wheel,
the tire width is 5/32 inch and the hub is
1/2 inch long. This produces a wheel
with a moderate amount of “dish.” The
1-inch wheel uses a 1/8-inch tire and a
3/8-inch-long hub. The hub can be
centered symmetrically, as it is in
Figure 1, or offset to one side, as it is
on many World War I aircraft. MA
—Jon Putnam
The 1- and 2-inch (17/8-inch) wheels
shown in this article are semiscale. They
fit a wide variety of models, from Peanut
Scale to airplanes spanning approximately
24 inches. If you are creating scale wheels
to match a prototype aircraft, do your
research beforehand. Take photos and
make detailed measurements and
drawings of the spoke pattern and tire
tread.
Warner “Free Flight Scale/Sport” Create Working Drawings of Your Wheels
column (February 1982 MA, pages 54-
55) that described the late Emanuel
Fillon’s wheel-making method. (You
can access this column using the MA
Digital Archives.) Make a pattern based
on the section view from your drawing.
Transfer it to .025-.030 brass sheet,
steel, or hack saw blades. I used brass
because it is easier to work with and
solder.
For the tires, drill holes in your
cutting-blade blank using the sizes in
Table 1 and then remove the extra
material to half the depth of the drilled
circle. Sharpen the cutting edge in the
direction of rotation using a file or
wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a
dowel.
A simple scrap-wood soldering
fixture with a 1/8-inch hole drilled in the
center makes aligning and soldering the
fly cutter a snap. The small blocks have
slots cut into them to hold the blade in
place. Notice the scribed lines in the
center of the cutter, to help alignment
for soldering.
Center the blade on the shaft using a
small plastic caliper to measure side-toside
blade offset. Clean the brass parts
with steel wool or sandpaper, and then
use flux and 60/40 rosin core solder to
assemble the cutter.
To cut the tire halves you will need a
drill press. Do not try cutting them with
a portable drill; it is simply unsafe.
Insert the cutter into a drill press, set the
depth so the top of the cutter barely
clears some scrap plywood under the
foam meat tray, and set the drill to a
medium-high speed.
Now is the big moment. Turn on the
drill and lower the fly cutter slowly into
the foam. A slow-feed speed of the
cutter into the foam gives you better and
safer control of the process. With luck
you will soon have a gorgeous tire half.
If you are on a roll, cut a dozen to have
spare parts.
When you are finished on the drill
press, you will have half a foam tire
with a fine layer of foam in the middle.
Cut around the outer edge of the tire
with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade. It should
now look like step 2, shown in one of
the photos.
Build a tire-thickness sanding fixture,
as in step 3, using a circle cutter and
scrap illustration board. Sand the tire
from the backside until it is half the
finished tire size. Step 4 shows the
finished tire halves. Another photo
shows in more detail how to build the
thickness sanding fixture.
Parts for the 2-inch tire-thickness
sanding fixture include a base layer and
two layers with holes cut the same OD
(outside diameter) as the tire. The trick
in building the sanding fixture is using a
stack of cardboard that is the same
thickness as the tire half. For the 2-inch
wheel the tire diameter was 5/32, or
Dimension Description 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inches)
A Outer Wheel Diameter 1-0 inch 17/8 inches
B Inner Wheel Diameter 3/4 inch 19/16 inches
C & E Outer Hub Length 3/8 inch 1/2 inch
D & F Inner Hub Length 1/4 inch 3/8 inch
G Hub Flange 5/32 inch 3/16 inch
- Tire Diameter 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Dimensions for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Figure 2. Fly Cutter Drawing
Figure 1. Wheel Section
Trim off this area beyond these lines
Scribe these lines to line up shaft
Fly Cutter
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 53
54 MODEL AVIATION
Materials List
Part 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inch)
Fly Cutter .025-.030 brass sheet and 1/8-inch-outside-diameter brass tubing
Tire Drill Size 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Tire Material Foam meat tray that is 1/8 inch or thicker
Wheel Disk .015-.020 poster board .025-.030 poster board
Rim 1/8-inch-wide x .015 thick 9/64-inch (1/8-inch+)-wide x .020
poster board. Length to fit thick poster board. Length
inside diameter of tire. to fit inside diameter of tire.
Spokes 4-pound nylon fishing line, 6-pound nylon fishing line
transparent nylon thread,
invisible thread, silk thread
Hub All material is aluminum tubing
Inner: 1/4 x 1/16 inch OD Inner: 3/8 x 3/32 OD
Outer: 3/8 x 3/32 OD Outer: 1/2 x 1/8 OD
Flange Roughly .015-inch sheet styrene or plastic
Table 2. Materials List for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types and thicknesses of
materials. Many drug stores and art-supply stores carry different weights of
poster board. I like a material with a hard, fairly shiny surface. The heavy
poster board is .020-.025, while the lighter-weight material is .015. Many
bakery boxes are a good source for this kind of cardboard.
Foam meat trays and foam takehome
boxes come in various colors
and thicknesses. Black meat trays
seem to make better wheels than
white ones, but this may only be my
imagination.
Choosing spoke material is almost
an art form. Avoid cotton thread. Use
silk thread only as a last resort. When
painted, thread absorbs too much
paint and can quickly take on the
“barbed wire” look.
The hubs are made from aluminum tubing, but plastic tubing may work well.
The heavier clear plastic used as vacuum packaging is excellent for the flanges.
The white styrene sheet I used is common in model-railroad construction and
is sold in hobby stores. MA
—Jon Putnam
.15625. Half of that is approximately
.075, or one layer of .050 plus a layer of
.025 cardboard.
Drop the wheel face down into the tirethickness
fixture and sand from multiple
directions on the backside using medium
paper and light pressure. As you begin to
come in contact with the cardboard, you
are finished.
Breathe deep. And you can because
you’re finished making, and breathing,
foam dust. You are finished with the tires
except for painting them.
Circle Cutters: The key to success in
making these wire wheels is using a
circle cutter. You can purchase good
ones from Hobbico (item HCAR0230)
and Olfa (item CMP-1). Both are
available online and in many hobby and
art-supply stores. Following are tips for
using these tools.
• Buy extra blades and use them. This is
especially important if the cut is critical,
such as for the wheel disk or if the
material is thick or dense.
• Use light pressure and make several
thin cuts rather than one heavy cut.
• Make test cuts for parts on thin card
stock or paper to save your blades. Once
you get the circle-cutter setting correct,
move to the final material. This saves
blades and materials.
• Rotate the material—not the circle
cutter. This works well on small parts
such as the inside cuts of 1-inch wheels.
Make the Wheel Disk and Rim: The rim
assembly includes the wheel disk and the
wheel rim. Wheel disks are cut from
poster board (see Table 2 for sizes) using
the circle cutter. Make the outside cuts
first. The disk’s finished size should be
slightly smaller than the wheel’s finished
size. If you are making two wheels, make
extra disks in case some are damaged.
Without changing the setting, cut
several thin foam spacers from the
bottom of a foam take-home box, as
shown. These will fill the gap in the tire
between the halves when you assemble
it. If the wheel disk is .025-inch thick,
sand the foam to the same thickness
before cutting the holes.
Cut the inside diameter of the wheel
disk. Again, without changing the cutter
setting for the inside cut, make a fixture,
as shown, using .055-inch-thick mat
board (a common material for framing
photos). Glue it to another piece of mat
board with the same dimensions.
Keep the plug you cut from the circle
in the upper mat board and mark it as
something easy to remember, such as
“Plug.” You will need it later to force the
rim against the fixture. Making two
fixtures like this will speed up the
building process. You will need to cut
the plug down slightly to allow space for
the rim in this fixture.
Lay out the rim parts. (See Table 1 for
sizes.) Make the rim strips longer than
needed, and then cut the strips to length
later when you fit the rim in the wheelrim
fixture.
I lightly scribe the rim strips with a
sharp X-Acto knife on the side that will
be glued to the wheel disk before I cut
them into strips. You can see these scribe
marks if you look closely at the photos.
Mark two thin pencil lines in the
middle of the strip, and then scribe a line
on each side of that. These marks help
the wheel rim bend to its final curved
cross-section. The pencil lines will tell
you if it is centered on the wheel disk
when it is glued. Cut the rim parts.
It is time to assemble the rim. Fit the
rim strip in the fixture with the marks
facing out, and cut a tapered lap joint
into it with a sharp single-edge blade.
Glue the lap joint with a small amount of
white glue before assembly.
If cut down to the correct diameter,
the plug should hold the rim firmly
against the fixture. At this time I cut a
second plug the same size and fit it on
top of the first plug in the fixture.
Slip the wheel disk over the rim and
Foam meat trays and take-home boxes,
which come in various colors and
thicknesses, are the material used in this
how-to.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 54
January 2008 55
The aluminum hub is centered vertically on the wheel rim using a piece
of scrap tubing and a small disk (red) to lift the hub to the correct level.
A cardboard disk on the lacing fixture
centers the wheel disk and rim before the
lacing operation. Notice the spoke-position
numbers.
The wheel disk and rim mounted on the lacing fixture are
held in place with pins. The cardboard disk is removed
once the rim is centered.
Use the marking gauge to indicate where spoke-hole positions are on the
wheel disk. Two versions are shown.
Cut inner and outer hub tubing to length in a slotted
cardboard fixture. Make flanges from sheet plastic with a
modified punch.
The curve in the rim that “clinches” the
tire edge is formed by burnishing the rim
on a hardwood fixture with a piece of
shaped dowel.
Slip the rim over a dowel covered with
rubber tubing to absorb the needle or drill
impact. Use care not to separate the parts.
A 1-inch wheel is ready for final assembly.
L-R: foam filler, painted tire half, painted
rim, second tire half.
How success looks. The 2-inch wheel rim on
the fixture with all spokes in place. Krylon
paint is recommended.
Sandwich and weight glued parts between
two layers of cardboard with holes cut in
them. Trim off excess foam filler when dry.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:43 PM Page 55
2-Inch, 40-Spoke Wheel 1-Inch, 24-Spoke Wheel
Hole Start Hole Finish Go to Hole Start Hole Finish Go to
1 on top to 27 around to 28 1 on top to 23 around to 24
28 on bottom to 2 around to 3 24 on bottom to 2 around to 3
3 on top to 17 around to 18 3 on top to 13 around to 14
18 on bottom to 4 around to 5 14 on bottom to 4 around to 5
5 on top to 31 around to 32 5 on top to 21 around to 22
32 on bottom to 6 around to 7 32 on bottom to 6 around to 7
7 on top to 21 around to 22 7 on top to 21 around to 22
22 on bottom to 8 around to 9 22 on bottom to 6 around to 7
9 on top to 35 around to 36 7 on top to 15 around to 16
36 on bottom to 10 around to 11 16 on bottom to 8 around to 9
11 on top to 25 around to 26 9 on top to 19 around to 20
26 on bottom to 12 around to 13 20 on bottom to 10 around to 11
13 on top to 39 around to 40 11 on top to 17 around to 18
40 on bottom to 14 around to 15 18 on bottom to 12—You’re finished!
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
15 on top to 29 around to 30
30 on bottom to 16 around to 19
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
19 on top to 33 around to 34
34 on bottom to 20—You’re finished!
Table 3. Wheel-Lacing Procedure
glue it with white glue. Don’t use
cyanoacrylate; it makes the poster board
too hard to work. When the structure
dries, turn it over and glue the other side.
As shown, I have two fixtures. I
marked them “A0” and “A1” and marked
the four plugs to go with the fixture they
mate with.
Fabricate the Hub: This part is built from
telescoping aluminum tubing with plastic
flanges. See Table 2 for tubing sizes.
Make a mat-board cutting fixture for
the tubing, as shown. Cut and trim it with
a single-edge razor blade, and then finish
with a file and sandpaper. Remove burrs
on the inside with a #11 blade. Center the
outer hub on the inner hub, and glue them
delicately with cyanoacrylate.
A hub flange is one of the trickiest
things to make. If there is a source of
ready-made plastic washers such as this, I
do not know about it.
Unless you find those elusive washers,
begin making your flanges by drilling
holes the size of your inner hub in the
plastic sheet. I do a whole strip at once.
Under them is a piece of scrap cardboard
to absorb the punch’s impact. It too has
holes drilled in it.
Modify a punch (see Table 1 for
flange sizes) by making some small
pieces of telescoping tubing that will fit
inside the punch, as shown. In a small
block of wood, glue a piece of tubing
(3/32 in this case) the same diameter as
the inner hub. Slide the tubing adapter
inside the punch over the tubing sticking
out of the wood. Strike it once firmly,
and with luck you should have a small
plastic washer or flange.
Lace the Wheel: You have reached the
“fun” part of the project. The 2-inch wheel
uses a 40-spoke pattern. The 1-inch wheel
uses a 24-spoke pattern. See Table 3 for
the pattern and lacing order.
Other patterns are possible. The ones I
am showing are semiscale. If you want
true scale spoke patterns, do the research,
make many drawings, and take numerous
photos to document and understand the
spoke pattern.
To lace a wheel you need to mark the
rims/disks for the spoke locations, drill
holes for the spokes, cut small notches in
the outer edge to hold your lacing material
in place, and then number the spoke
locations.
To mark the wheel rims/disks for spoke
locations, make a marking gauge such as
the ones shown. Mark spoke lines in red
on one side and black on the opposite side.
The fixture on the left is easier to
make and is proving to be more flexible
to use; it can accommodate many sizes of
wheels on one fixture simply by
changing the size of the mat-board disk.
The disk thumbtacked to the gauge holds
the wheel in place while you mark it.
Once you are finished marking the rim,
write the number of every other spoke
position with a sharp pencil.
“Drill” rim holes with a sharp needle.
To do this, slip the rim assembly over a
dowel covered with rubber tubing or
wrapped in masking tape to absorb the
needlepoint. Put the inside of the rim
against the rubber and push into it with a
needle—ideally slightly down toward the
center of the rim.
You should get a nice hole. If not, you
can follow up with a tiny drill bit, such as
a #73. I use a small pin vise to grasp the
needle.
Forming the rim clincher on the
burnishing fixture is magic, and it forms
the curve in the rim that “clinches” the
edge of the tire. It’s also the main thing
that makes this multipart wheel look so
realistic when compared to wheels carved
from laminated balsa.
Make a fixture, as shown, using hard,
dense wood as the base. The space
between the two angled pieces needs to
equal the wheel disk’s thickness. The
notched dowel slides along the inside of
the rim and burnishes the curved edge
into the rim as you rotate the rim through
56 MODEL AVIATION
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 56
Sources:
DMC
(33) 01 49 28 10 00
www.dmc.com
Hobbico
(217) 398-3630
www.hobbico.com
Olfa
(760) 739-5778
www.olfaproducts.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
any other means. How do I know? My
first attempt was with a spray can of
silver paint on cotton thread. This
instantly produced a barbed-wire effect
worthy of All Quiet on the Western Front.
Since then I have avoided the spray and
used the brush.
I’ve tried several types of paints. My
choices are generally acrylics such as
Tamiya Color or enamels such as Krylon
Short Cuts or Testors. Acrylics smell
better and are easy to clean up with water,
but I recommend the Krylon; it has less
paint buildup. The finished 2-inch wheel
shown was painted with acrylic, and the
1-inch wheel was painted with Krylon.
The golden rule for painting these
wheels is to test the paint on something
first. You have way too much time
invested in the project at this point.
If you are trying new spoke material,
make a simple test fixture with a few strands
of the material and make sure the paint sticks
to it before you spoke the whole wheel and
can’t get paint to adhere to it. If you find
some new wonder paint, test it first.
A simple fixture holds the rim while you
paint it. Avoid painting the actual wheel
disk; you will be gluing to it. I painted the
foam tires and foam spacer with black india
ink. Other black inks may or may not work.
Higgins india ink does work. Test whatever
you use on scrap foam before painting.
I’ve also used black watercolor markers,
such as the Mr. Watercolor brand, but
beware and test first. Anything called a
“permanent” marker will usually dissolve
foam, and many dry-erase markers will not
color the foam.
When you are finished painting parts you
should have a stack for each wheel that
includes a painted rim, the tire halves, and a
foam filler.
Final Assembly: Sandwich the glued
parts between two layers of corrugated
cardboard sheets with holes cut in them.
Be sparing with the adhesive. I used
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue, which is
stickier than white glue and reminds me
of canopy adhesive. Test whatever glue
you choose before using it.
Place weights on top of the wheel
stack to hold the assembly under
compression until the glue dries. When it
is dry, trim off the remainder of the foam
filler and lightly sand the outer edge of
the tire. Imperfections can be filled with
Red Devil Lightweight Spackling and
then sanded and touched up with india
ink.
If you are thinking about building
stouter wheels for heavier models,
consider cutting the wheel-disk parts from
sheet styrene. I’ve only started
experimenting with sheet styrene and the
preformed strip shapes for the wheel rims.
With this technique it’s possible to build a
wheel that is capable of being used on small
electric- or gas-powered models. MA
Jon Putnam
[email protected]
the fixture. In the photo you can also see
the small notches cut for each spoke
position in the outer part of the rim. You
can see how the curved edge of the 2-
inch rim clinches the tire.
It’s finally beginning to look like a
wheel. Now all you need to do is lace and
paint it.
The lacing fixture is simple. Mount a
piece of wire, that is the same size as the
inside diameter of your inner hub, on a
piece of 1/4 plywood. Three small blocks
support the wheel. The smaller the wheel,
the taller the blocks should be to give you
room to lace the wheel. For the 2-inch
wheel they are 3/4 inch high; for the 1-
inch wheel I would go 1 inch or higher.
Temporarily mount a mat-board disk
on the fixture to center the rim. Use
insect pins to hold the rim in place. Then
remove the cardboard disk, leaving the
rim centered.
The hub can be centered vertically on
the rim or offset to one side for a more
“dished” wheel. The hub shown is
centered vertically on the wheel rim. To
accomplish that, cut a piece of tubing and
a small disk (both are painted red in the
photo) to lift the hub to the correct level.
You can adjust this with a small spacer
placed under the red section if you cut the
spacer too short.
I’ve experimented with many spoke
materials. For the 2-inch wheels I now
use 6-pound fishing line. For 1-inch
wheels I use invisible thread or
transparent nylon thread. Avoid cotton or
silk thread unless you have nothing better
to use.
Do the lacing with a needle and your
choice of spoke material. The big secret
is the needle; it needs to be long and
extraordinarily thin. Fortunately such a
thing exists; it is called a beading needle
(10-13 from DMC) and is available in
many yardage and craft stores.
The 6-pound fishing line will need to be
cyanoacrylate-glued to the eye of the
needle. The small thread fits through the
eye, but glue it with cyanoacrylate as well.
To lace a 2-inch wheel, start on the top
of the rim at hole 1. Pull the thread all the
way through and cyanoacrylate-glue the
end into the slot you cut in the edge of the
rim at hole 1. Go around and over the hub,
hook the line on the edge of the hub, and
then go through hole 27. Lock the line into
the slot at 27 and then go under and out
hole 28. Go around the hub and up to hole
2.
Repeat this pattern as shown in Table 3.
The pattern for the 24-spoke hub is also
shown in the table.
When you are at the final hole,
cyanoacrylate-glue the end of the spoke
material in the final slot. Lightly apply
cyanoacrylate to the area on the top and
bottom of the hubs. Add the flanges. Now
you are finished with the rim.
Paint the Parts: You can destroy your
work of art faster by painting it than by
January 2008 57
AMA’s Take:
Spotlight on Safety
When using any kind of highspeed
tool, such as a drill press, in
the vicinity of your fingers and
eyes, practice “safety first” so you
can continue to use your fingers
and eyes for future projects. Here
are some precautions to follow.
• Maintain a firm grip on the
material being cut into. Be
prepared to shut off the tool
if the cutter grabs the wood
underneath.
• Keep your fingers out of the
cutter’s way.
• Don’t let loose-fitting shirt
cuffs near the drill press.
• Have a good light source, even
if you need to rig up a small,
portable floodlight.
• Wear goggles or a face shield.
There are numerous flying
foam particles and the
potential for a broken fly
cutter blade.
• Wear a face mask over your
mouth to keep from inhaling
foam dust particles. MA
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 57
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/01
Page Numbers: 51,52,53,54,55,56,57
Build lightweight
custom wire wheels
for your park flyer
or FF model
IT MAY SEEM intimidating, but building
wire wheels for your model can have your
flying buddies turning their heads and
saying “Where did you buy those little
gems?” They’ll look at you as if you just
took on the status of a watchmaker when
you say “I made them myself.”
My wire-wheel saga grew from an
interest in rubber-powered pre-World War I
Pioneer aircraft. A quick glance at the
requirements of the “Magnificent Men”-era
machines made me realize that I needed to
learn how to make light wire wheels and
radial engines, or the game was over before
I started. There’s no use in building a
lightweight Blériot and not having the
wheels or engine to make it look right.
The 17/8-inch-diameter wheels shown in
this article are for a 1911 Bristol Prier
monoplane that Otto Khuni designed. (Plans
are available from Peck-Polymers.)
However, the wheel design works on any
aircraft through World War I.
The method I’ll describe produces a
semiscale wheel that is well suited to
rubber-powered models or even RC park
flyers. It uses tires made from foam meat
trays, and they are mounted on poster-board
rims. In this instance the rims are from a
discarded bakery cake box. Aluminum hubs
and fishing-line spokes complete the project.
These wheels are easy on the wallet,
even if you do have to purchase your own
poster board instead of a cake. They are also
extremely light; the 17/8-inch wheels
weighed .6 gram each; a pair’s weight is
roughly half that of a copper penny. With
changes in materials they can be adapted for
use on small electrics and CO2-powered
models.
Before we get started I’ll share a couple
tips I’ve learned the hard way. They are to:
• Make the tires and then create the rims to
fit the tires. How do I know to do things in
this order? I’ve tried it both ways. It’s
much easier fitting rims to foam tires than
modifying foam tires to fit rims.
• Cut more parts than you need to create a
pair of wheels. If your learning curve is
like mine, you will butcher some parts
learning the process and you will be glad
for the spare components.
The major steps in the wire-wheel
building process are:
1) Creating working drawings
2) Making the fly cutter and cutting the
tires
3) Making the wheel disk and rim
4) Fabricating the hubs
5) Lacing the wheels
6) Painting the parts
7) Final assembly
Create Working Drawings: Make an
accurate drawing of the wheels you intend
to build, as in Figure 1. A planview is
noncritical but a section view, as shown,
is a must; you need it to lay out the fly
cutter. See the sidebar for dimensional
details about the wheel drawing.
Make the Fly Cutter and Cut the Tires: To
make each tire you will need to cut its
halves from meat trays. To do this you
need to make a fly cutter.
I learned about fly-cut wheels in a Bill
January 2008 51
by Jon Putnam
AUTHENTIC SPOKED WHEELS
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:25 PM Page 51
52 MODEL AVIATION
Photos by the author
Cutting tire halves from foam on a drill press is easy but requires good lighting,
careful technique, and proper safety procedures. See the safety sidebar.
A simple wood fixture aligns and holds the fly cutter
blade and shaft for soldering. A caliper is used to
center the blade.
The tire-thickness sanding fixture has a hole that is the same size as
the outside diameter of the finished tire and as deep as one tire half.
The four steps in creating a foam tire are fly-cutting tire halves on a
drill press, trimming the outside tire edge, sanding the tire thickness,
and trimming the inside tire edge.
The wheel-rim assembly consists of a posterboard
wheel disk and a poster-board wheelrim
strip. Also shown is a foam spacer.
High-quality, accurate, easy-to-use circle
cutters from Olfa and Hobbico make many
rounded modeling projects a snap.
To sand the tire half, drop in the foam tire
face down and sand from multiple directions
using medium sandpaper and light pressure.
Left: Cutting a tapered lap
joint in the rim requires a
sharp blade and some trial
and error to get a good fit.
Cut long and then trim to
fit.
Right: Glue wheel rims and
wheel disks on a simple
cardboard fixture with
temporary plugs in the
center to hold the rim
against the disk.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:27 PM Page 52
January 2008 53
Upper Tire Half
Lower Tire Half
F - Inner Hub E - Outer Hub
G - Hub Flange
B
A
D C
Wheel Disk
Wheel Rim
Foam Filler
For the 17/8-inch-diameter wheel,
the tire width is 5/32 inch and the hub is
1/2 inch long. This produces a wheel
with a moderate amount of “dish.” The
1-inch wheel uses a 1/8-inch tire and a
3/8-inch-long hub. The hub can be
centered symmetrically, as it is in
Figure 1, or offset to one side, as it is
on many World War I aircraft. MA
—Jon Putnam
The 1- and 2-inch (17/8-inch) wheels
shown in this article are semiscale. They
fit a wide variety of models, from Peanut
Scale to airplanes spanning approximately
24 inches. If you are creating scale wheels
to match a prototype aircraft, do your
research beforehand. Take photos and
make detailed measurements and
drawings of the spoke pattern and tire
tread.
Warner “Free Flight Scale/Sport” Create Working Drawings of Your Wheels
column (February 1982 MA, pages 54-
55) that described the late Emanuel
Fillon’s wheel-making method. (You
can access this column using the MA
Digital Archives.) Make a pattern based
on the section view from your drawing.
Transfer it to .025-.030 brass sheet,
steel, or hack saw blades. I used brass
because it is easier to work with and
solder.
For the tires, drill holes in your
cutting-blade blank using the sizes in
Table 1 and then remove the extra
material to half the depth of the drilled
circle. Sharpen the cutting edge in the
direction of rotation using a file or
wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around a
dowel.
A simple scrap-wood soldering
fixture with a 1/8-inch hole drilled in the
center makes aligning and soldering the
fly cutter a snap. The small blocks have
slots cut into them to hold the blade in
place. Notice the scribed lines in the
center of the cutter, to help alignment
for soldering.
Center the blade on the shaft using a
small plastic caliper to measure side-toside
blade offset. Clean the brass parts
with steel wool or sandpaper, and then
use flux and 60/40 rosin core solder to
assemble the cutter.
To cut the tire halves you will need a
drill press. Do not try cutting them with
a portable drill; it is simply unsafe.
Insert the cutter into a drill press, set the
depth so the top of the cutter barely
clears some scrap plywood under the
foam meat tray, and set the drill to a
medium-high speed.
Now is the big moment. Turn on the
drill and lower the fly cutter slowly into
the foam. A slow-feed speed of the
cutter into the foam gives you better and
safer control of the process. With luck
you will soon have a gorgeous tire half.
If you are on a roll, cut a dozen to have
spare parts.
When you are finished on the drill
press, you will have half a foam tire
with a fine layer of foam in the middle.
Cut around the outer edge of the tire
with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade. It should
now look like step 2, shown in one of
the photos.
Build a tire-thickness sanding fixture,
as in step 3, using a circle cutter and
scrap illustration board. Sand the tire
from the backside until it is half the
finished tire size. Step 4 shows the
finished tire halves. Another photo
shows in more detail how to build the
thickness sanding fixture.
Parts for the 2-inch tire-thickness
sanding fixture include a base layer and
two layers with holes cut the same OD
(outside diameter) as the tire. The trick
in building the sanding fixture is using a
stack of cardboard that is the same
thickness as the tire half. For the 2-inch
wheel the tire diameter was 5/32, or
Dimension Description 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inches)
A Outer Wheel Diameter 1-0 inch 17/8 inches
B Inner Wheel Diameter 3/4 inch 19/16 inches
C & E Outer Hub Length 3/8 inch 1/2 inch
D & F Inner Hub Length 1/4 inch 3/8 inch
G Hub Flange 5/32 inch 3/16 inch
- Tire Diameter 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Dimensions for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Figure 2. Fly Cutter Drawing
Figure 1. Wheel Section
Trim off this area beyond these lines
Scribe these lines to line up shaft
Fly Cutter
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 53
54 MODEL AVIATION
Materials List
Part 1-Inch Wheel 2-Inch Wheel (17/8 Inch)
Fly Cutter .025-.030 brass sheet and 1/8-inch-outside-diameter brass tubing
Tire Drill Size 1/8 inch 5/32 inch
Tire Material Foam meat tray that is 1/8 inch or thicker
Wheel Disk .015-.020 poster board .025-.030 poster board
Rim 1/8-inch-wide x .015 thick 9/64-inch (1/8-inch+)-wide x .020
poster board. Length to fit thick poster board. Length
inside diameter of tire. to fit inside diameter of tire.
Spokes 4-pound nylon fishing line, 6-pound nylon fishing line
transparent nylon thread,
invisible thread, silk thread
Hub All material is aluminum tubing
Inner: 1/4 x 1/16 inch OD Inner: 3/8 x 3/32 OD
Outer: 3/8 x 3/32 OD Outer: 1/2 x 1/8 OD
Flange Roughly .015-inch sheet styrene or plastic
Table 2. Materials List for 1- and 2-Inch Wire Wheels
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types and thicknesses of
materials. Many drug stores and art-supply stores carry different weights of
poster board. I like a material with a hard, fairly shiny surface. The heavy
poster board is .020-.025, while the lighter-weight material is .015. Many
bakery boxes are a good source for this kind of cardboard.
Foam meat trays and foam takehome
boxes come in various colors
and thicknesses. Black meat trays
seem to make better wheels than
white ones, but this may only be my
imagination.
Choosing spoke material is almost
an art form. Avoid cotton thread. Use
silk thread only as a last resort. When
painted, thread absorbs too much
paint and can quickly take on the
“barbed wire” look.
The hubs are made from aluminum tubing, but plastic tubing may work well.
The heavier clear plastic used as vacuum packaging is excellent for the flanges.
The white styrene sheet I used is common in model-railroad construction and
is sold in hobby stores. MA
—Jon Putnam
.15625. Half of that is approximately
.075, or one layer of .050 plus a layer of
.025 cardboard.
Drop the wheel face down into the tirethickness
fixture and sand from multiple
directions on the backside using medium
paper and light pressure. As you begin to
come in contact with the cardboard, you
are finished.
Breathe deep. And you can because
you’re finished making, and breathing,
foam dust. You are finished with the tires
except for painting them.
Circle Cutters: The key to success in
making these wire wheels is using a
circle cutter. You can purchase good
ones from Hobbico (item HCAR0230)
and Olfa (item CMP-1). Both are
available online and in many hobby and
art-supply stores. Following are tips for
using these tools.
• Buy extra blades and use them. This is
especially important if the cut is critical,
such as for the wheel disk or if the
material is thick or dense.
• Use light pressure and make several
thin cuts rather than one heavy cut.
• Make test cuts for parts on thin card
stock or paper to save your blades. Once
you get the circle-cutter setting correct,
move to the final material. This saves
blades and materials.
• Rotate the material—not the circle
cutter. This works well on small parts
such as the inside cuts of 1-inch wheels.
Make the Wheel Disk and Rim: The rim
assembly includes the wheel disk and the
wheel rim. Wheel disks are cut from
poster board (see Table 2 for sizes) using
the circle cutter. Make the outside cuts
first. The disk’s finished size should be
slightly smaller than the wheel’s finished
size. If you are making two wheels, make
extra disks in case some are damaged.
Without changing the setting, cut
several thin foam spacers from the
bottom of a foam take-home box, as
shown. These will fill the gap in the tire
between the halves when you assemble
it. If the wheel disk is .025-inch thick,
sand the foam to the same thickness
before cutting the holes.
Cut the inside diameter of the wheel
disk. Again, without changing the cutter
setting for the inside cut, make a fixture,
as shown, using .055-inch-thick mat
board (a common material for framing
photos). Glue it to another piece of mat
board with the same dimensions.
Keep the plug you cut from the circle
in the upper mat board and mark it as
something easy to remember, such as
“Plug.” You will need it later to force the
rim against the fixture. Making two
fixtures like this will speed up the
building process. You will need to cut
the plug down slightly to allow space for
the rim in this fixture.
Lay out the rim parts. (See Table 1 for
sizes.) Make the rim strips longer than
needed, and then cut the strips to length
later when you fit the rim in the wheelrim
fixture.
I lightly scribe the rim strips with a
sharp X-Acto knife on the side that will
be glued to the wheel disk before I cut
them into strips. You can see these scribe
marks if you look closely at the photos.
Mark two thin pencil lines in the
middle of the strip, and then scribe a line
on each side of that. These marks help
the wheel rim bend to its final curved
cross-section. The pencil lines will tell
you if it is centered on the wheel disk
when it is glued. Cut the rim parts.
It is time to assemble the rim. Fit the
rim strip in the fixture with the marks
facing out, and cut a tapered lap joint
into it with a sharp single-edge blade.
Glue the lap joint with a small amount of
white glue before assembly.
If cut down to the correct diameter,
the plug should hold the rim firmly
against the fixture. At this time I cut a
second plug the same size and fit it on
top of the first plug in the fixture.
Slip the wheel disk over the rim and
Foam meat trays and take-home boxes,
which come in various colors and
thicknesses, are the material used in this
how-to.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:28 PM Page 54
January 2008 55
The aluminum hub is centered vertically on the wheel rim using a piece
of scrap tubing and a small disk (red) to lift the hub to the correct level.
A cardboard disk on the lacing fixture
centers the wheel disk and rim before the
lacing operation. Notice the spoke-position
numbers.
The wheel disk and rim mounted on the lacing fixture are
held in place with pins. The cardboard disk is removed
once the rim is centered.
Use the marking gauge to indicate where spoke-hole positions are on the
wheel disk. Two versions are shown.
Cut inner and outer hub tubing to length in a slotted
cardboard fixture. Make flanges from sheet plastic with a
modified punch.
The curve in the rim that “clinches” the
tire edge is formed by burnishing the rim
on a hardwood fixture with a piece of
shaped dowel.
Slip the rim over a dowel covered with
rubber tubing to absorb the needle or drill
impact. Use care not to separate the parts.
A 1-inch wheel is ready for final assembly.
L-R: foam filler, painted tire half, painted
rim, second tire half.
How success looks. The 2-inch wheel rim on
the fixture with all spokes in place. Krylon
paint is recommended.
Sandwich and weight glued parts between
two layers of cardboard with holes cut in
them. Trim off excess foam filler when dry.
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:43 PM Page 55
2-Inch, 40-Spoke Wheel 1-Inch, 24-Spoke Wheel
Hole Start Hole Finish Go to Hole Start Hole Finish Go to
1 on top to 27 around to 28 1 on top to 23 around to 24
28 on bottom to 2 around to 3 24 on bottom to 2 around to 3
3 on top to 17 around to 18 3 on top to 13 around to 14
18 on bottom to 4 around to 5 14 on bottom to 4 around to 5
5 on top to 31 around to 32 5 on top to 21 around to 22
32 on bottom to 6 around to 7 32 on bottom to 6 around to 7
7 on top to 21 around to 22 7 on top to 21 around to 22
22 on bottom to 8 around to 9 22 on bottom to 6 around to 7
9 on top to 35 around to 36 7 on top to 15 around to 16
36 on bottom to 10 around to 11 16 on bottom to 8 around to 9
11 on top to 25 around to 26 9 on top to 19 around to 20
26 on bottom to 12 around to 13 20 on bottom to 10 around to 11
13 on top to 39 around to 40 11 on top to 17 around to 18
40 on bottom to 14 around to 15 18 on bottom to 12—You’re finished!
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
15 on top to 29 around to 30
30 on bottom to 16 around to 19
Cut off line here and cyanoacrylate-glue in slot
19 on top to 33 around to 34
34 on bottom to 20—You’re finished!
Table 3. Wheel-Lacing Procedure
glue it with white glue. Don’t use
cyanoacrylate; it makes the poster board
too hard to work. When the structure
dries, turn it over and glue the other side.
As shown, I have two fixtures. I
marked them “A0” and “A1” and marked
the four plugs to go with the fixture they
mate with.
Fabricate the Hub: This part is built from
telescoping aluminum tubing with plastic
flanges. See Table 2 for tubing sizes.
Make a mat-board cutting fixture for
the tubing, as shown. Cut and trim it with
a single-edge razor blade, and then finish
with a file and sandpaper. Remove burrs
on the inside with a #11 blade. Center the
outer hub on the inner hub, and glue them
delicately with cyanoacrylate.
A hub flange is one of the trickiest
things to make. If there is a source of
ready-made plastic washers such as this, I
do not know about it.
Unless you find those elusive washers,
begin making your flanges by drilling
holes the size of your inner hub in the
plastic sheet. I do a whole strip at once.
Under them is a piece of scrap cardboard
to absorb the punch’s impact. It too has
holes drilled in it.
Modify a punch (see Table 1 for
flange sizes) by making some small
pieces of telescoping tubing that will fit
inside the punch, as shown. In a small
block of wood, glue a piece of tubing
(3/32 in this case) the same diameter as
the inner hub. Slide the tubing adapter
inside the punch over the tubing sticking
out of the wood. Strike it once firmly,
and with luck you should have a small
plastic washer or flange.
Lace the Wheel: You have reached the
“fun” part of the project. The 2-inch wheel
uses a 40-spoke pattern. The 1-inch wheel
uses a 24-spoke pattern. See Table 3 for
the pattern and lacing order.
Other patterns are possible. The ones I
am showing are semiscale. If you want
true scale spoke patterns, do the research,
make many drawings, and take numerous
photos to document and understand the
spoke pattern.
To lace a wheel you need to mark the
rims/disks for the spoke locations, drill
holes for the spokes, cut small notches in
the outer edge to hold your lacing material
in place, and then number the spoke
locations.
To mark the wheel rims/disks for spoke
locations, make a marking gauge such as
the ones shown. Mark spoke lines in red
on one side and black on the opposite side.
The fixture on the left is easier to
make and is proving to be more flexible
to use; it can accommodate many sizes of
wheels on one fixture simply by
changing the size of the mat-board disk.
The disk thumbtacked to the gauge holds
the wheel in place while you mark it.
Once you are finished marking the rim,
write the number of every other spoke
position with a sharp pencil.
“Drill” rim holes with a sharp needle.
To do this, slip the rim assembly over a
dowel covered with rubber tubing or
wrapped in masking tape to absorb the
needlepoint. Put the inside of the rim
against the rubber and push into it with a
needle—ideally slightly down toward the
center of the rim.
You should get a nice hole. If not, you
can follow up with a tiny drill bit, such as
a #73. I use a small pin vise to grasp the
needle.
Forming the rim clincher on the
burnishing fixture is magic, and it forms
the curve in the rim that “clinches” the
edge of the tire. It’s also the main thing
that makes this multipart wheel look so
realistic when compared to wheels carved
from laminated balsa.
Make a fixture, as shown, using hard,
dense wood as the base. The space
between the two angled pieces needs to
equal the wheel disk’s thickness. The
notched dowel slides along the inside of
the rim and burnishes the curved edge
into the rim as you rotate the rim through
56 MODEL AVIATION
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 56
Sources:
DMC
(33) 01 49 28 10 00
www.dmc.com
Hobbico
(217) 398-3630
www.hobbico.com
Olfa
(760) 739-5778
www.olfaproducts.com
Peck-Polymers
(720) 833-9300
www.peck-polymers.com
any other means. How do I know? My
first attempt was with a spray can of
silver paint on cotton thread. This
instantly produced a barbed-wire effect
worthy of All Quiet on the Western Front.
Since then I have avoided the spray and
used the brush.
I’ve tried several types of paints. My
choices are generally acrylics such as
Tamiya Color or enamels such as Krylon
Short Cuts or Testors. Acrylics smell
better and are easy to clean up with water,
but I recommend the Krylon; it has less
paint buildup. The finished 2-inch wheel
shown was painted with acrylic, and the
1-inch wheel was painted with Krylon.
The golden rule for painting these
wheels is to test the paint on something
first. You have way too much time
invested in the project at this point.
If you are trying new spoke material,
make a simple test fixture with a few strands
of the material and make sure the paint sticks
to it before you spoke the whole wheel and
can’t get paint to adhere to it. If you find
some new wonder paint, test it first.
A simple fixture holds the rim while you
paint it. Avoid painting the actual wheel
disk; you will be gluing to it. I painted the
foam tires and foam spacer with black india
ink. Other black inks may or may not work.
Higgins india ink does work. Test whatever
you use on scrap foam before painting.
I’ve also used black watercolor markers,
such as the Mr. Watercolor brand, but
beware and test first. Anything called a
“permanent” marker will usually dissolve
foam, and many dry-erase markers will not
color the foam.
When you are finished painting parts you
should have a stack for each wheel that
includes a painted rim, the tire halves, and a
foam filler.
Final Assembly: Sandwich the glued
parts between two layers of corrugated
cardboard sheets with holes cut in them.
Be sparing with the adhesive. I used
Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue, which is
stickier than white glue and reminds me
of canopy adhesive. Test whatever glue
you choose before using it.
Place weights on top of the wheel
stack to hold the assembly under
compression until the glue dries. When it
is dry, trim off the remainder of the foam
filler and lightly sand the outer edge of
the tire. Imperfections can be filled with
Red Devil Lightweight Spackling and
then sanded and touched up with india
ink.
If you are thinking about building
stouter wheels for heavier models,
consider cutting the wheel-disk parts from
sheet styrene. I’ve only started
experimenting with sheet styrene and the
preformed strip shapes for the wheel rims.
With this technique it’s possible to build a
wheel that is capable of being used on small
electric- or gas-powered models. MA
Jon Putnam
[email protected]
the fixture. In the photo you can also see
the small notches cut for each spoke
position in the outer part of the rim. You
can see how the curved edge of the 2-
inch rim clinches the tire.
It’s finally beginning to look like a
wheel. Now all you need to do is lace and
paint it.
The lacing fixture is simple. Mount a
piece of wire, that is the same size as the
inside diameter of your inner hub, on a
piece of 1/4 plywood. Three small blocks
support the wheel. The smaller the wheel,
the taller the blocks should be to give you
room to lace the wheel. For the 2-inch
wheel they are 3/4 inch high; for the 1-
inch wheel I would go 1 inch or higher.
Temporarily mount a mat-board disk
on the fixture to center the rim. Use
insect pins to hold the rim in place. Then
remove the cardboard disk, leaving the
rim centered.
The hub can be centered vertically on
the rim or offset to one side for a more
“dished” wheel. The hub shown is
centered vertically on the wheel rim. To
accomplish that, cut a piece of tubing and
a small disk (both are painted red in the
photo) to lift the hub to the correct level.
You can adjust this with a small spacer
placed under the red section if you cut the
spacer too short.
I’ve experimented with many spoke
materials. For the 2-inch wheels I now
use 6-pound fishing line. For 1-inch
wheels I use invisible thread or
transparent nylon thread. Avoid cotton or
silk thread unless you have nothing better
to use.
Do the lacing with a needle and your
choice of spoke material. The big secret
is the needle; it needs to be long and
extraordinarily thin. Fortunately such a
thing exists; it is called a beading needle
(10-13 from DMC) and is available in
many yardage and craft stores.
The 6-pound fishing line will need to be
cyanoacrylate-glued to the eye of the
needle. The small thread fits through the
eye, but glue it with cyanoacrylate as well.
To lace a 2-inch wheel, start on the top
of the rim at hole 1. Pull the thread all the
way through and cyanoacrylate-glue the
end into the slot you cut in the edge of the
rim at hole 1. Go around and over the hub,
hook the line on the edge of the hub, and
then go through hole 27. Lock the line into
the slot at 27 and then go under and out
hole 28. Go around the hub and up to hole
2.
Repeat this pattern as shown in Table 3.
The pattern for the 24-spoke hub is also
shown in the table.
When you are at the final hole,
cyanoacrylate-glue the end of the spoke
material in the final slot. Lightly apply
cyanoacrylate to the area on the top and
bottom of the hubs. Add the flanges. Now
you are finished with the rim.
Paint the Parts: You can destroy your
work of art faster by painting it than by
January 2008 57
AMA’s Take:
Spotlight on Safety
When using any kind of highspeed
tool, such as a drill press, in
the vicinity of your fingers and
eyes, practice “safety first” so you
can continue to use your fingers
and eyes for future projects. Here
are some precautions to follow.
• Maintain a firm grip on the
material being cut into. Be
prepared to shut off the tool
if the cutter grabs the wood
underneath.
• Keep your fingers out of the
cutter’s way.
• Don’t let loose-fitting shirt
cuffs near the drill press.
• Have a good light source, even
if you need to rig up a small,
portable floodlight.
• Wear goggles or a face shield.
There are numerous flying
foam particles and the
potential for a broken fly
cutter blade.
• Wear a face mask over your
mouth to keep from inhaling
foam dust particles. MA
01sig2.QXD 11/19/07 2:29 PM Page 57