Quote:
Originally Posted by rsegrest
COOL!! Okay, it's been done for years (REALLY good to kow)...how do they usually attach the tread? We were considering Gorilla Glue...seriously
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Gorilla glue is not the best method. Here is what we do.
To prepare the wheel, we cut the rubber tread off using a
bandsaw, carefully not cutting into the black polycarb.
We then spin the wheel on a lathe, carefully cutting the rest
of the tread off, just barely getting into the black polycarb.
We then use the tread material from mcmaster, carefully
sanding the back with a belt sander to just barely remove
the first layer of nylon. The sanded tread is then cut into
strips the width of the wheel. The strips are then carefully
cut for length so that they will just butt around the wheel
with a little stretch. The black rubber of the tread, and the
black poly carb of the wheel are then cleaned with MEK.
The tread is then glued onto the wheel with slow cure
cyano glue, using a special clamp made of sheet metal that
is drawn together with a modified pair of wide jaw vice
grips. After everything is in place zip kicker is used to
cure the glue.
Treads glued on this way do not peel off. No rivets or
screws are required. The rubber on the back of the tread
will rip apart before the glue will let go.
Yes, its a custom wheel now and you can't use it for a second
year. It is cheap, however, and it works really well.