pic: 4 inch Wheel Render
 

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Pretty good start! How do you plan to attach tread (and what kind of tread)?

The fillets should be okay, especially with a ball-end mill. However, you could simplify it a bit by removing the fillets that are not going in the direction of the axis of rotation of the wheel. In other words, only keep the fillets that can be cut by a normal mill when the wheel is laying flat.

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For tread, I figured I'd just rivet on a strip of blue nitrile roughtop. With 6 or 12 rivets it should hold I think...

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I was thinking this as well.

Any reason for hex as opposed to keyed, or was this not for any particular purpose?

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Hex is way better than keyed, less parts and a stronger connection.

As for the fillets, using a ball end mill to make those fillets is no more difficult than the wheel without. I'm a big fan of them, and every set of wheels I've had machined since 07 has had that feature.

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Chris, RC, and I have just been working on a few things lately that are mostly direct driven such as cost effective West Coast drives. Hex is just much easier to work with when doing this. (Or in most situations actually).

Keep the fillets Chris, they're just another method to disperse stress.

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Have you considered a tread groove?

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Chris, what about making the spokes with a channel cross section? might save some weight and add some strength, if you do it right. And I'm sure it would provide a good SW challenge for at least a few minutes

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You mean all, right? I hate keys and everything about them and never want to work with them if I can avoid it. Hex broaches are not cheap at all, but I think Shaker can earn enough this summer to get one, or we can pool with local teams and collaborators for broaching. After a few scary wheel and chain failures this year, I want to look into live axle drivetrains including West-Coast cantilevered drives.

Yeah, and I may add one to the model just to gain experience. I'm tempted to say with 6 evenly spaced rivets, the tread won't budge, but at least it'll help with the initial setup.

I'm really satisfied with the wheel weight as is, but I'll likely do this just to have fun with Solidworks and to push myself a little further. Thanks for the inspiration.

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This looks awesome!!!

Have you considered drilling a center hole instead of the hex hole and putting this on one side of each wheel?
I am almost sure that it will save you a lot of money when making those wheels... it might weigh a bit more but it will still be cheaper...

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I highly reccommended that you do this or use a contact adhesive on your tread in addition to rivets.

BTW: If you want to free up machine time and get almost the same thing at a reasonable price:
http://www.andymark.biz/am-0393.html

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If you have a hex broach and an arbor press, it will be much cheaper than $15/wheel to get the hexagonal hole.

A 1/2" hex broach is only like $200 on McMaster, so if you plan on making more than 13 hex broached parts, its probably worth it. (A 6wd live axle would require 16: 6 wheels, 10 sprockets.)

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You don't even need an arbor press to do the broaching. Our team has done all of our broaching by just putting the broach in the tailstock of our lathe and pushing it throught the part pressed up against the chuck (not held in the jaws).

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Nice first design. It definitely looks a lot like the AM performance wheel and depending on how much time/money you have, buying those would be more cost effective although making your own is certainly cool!

I definitely echo the sentiment of sticking with the hex at all costs, and keeping the fillets. Its really incredible how much extra strength the fillets give in bending.

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I will agree with Nick on both counts.
A recess for the tread is the only way to go, then you only need two rivets at each end if the tread, the groove takes all the side load on the tread.
And the hex broach is far superior to bolting the A/M flanges on your wheels.
mike d