Custom wheel making

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

Cannot agree more with this entire post.

We made custom wheels for a long time, and when we started looking at COTS options and the time difference between implementing them- it was a no brainer to go COTS.

They make for a fun project, and there are a ton of cool things you can do with them in terms of making them (machining, molding, printing, etc). For us, the effort is just better spent in other places.

-Brando

I agree entirely as well, but if you have the resources readily available, it can be cheaper to make your own wheels.

In 2008, 2079 needed leather treaded wheels (torque miscalculation required that our swerve drive have very little friction on the wheels). We found a lot of suitable off-the-shelf wheels that were very expensive compared to the cost of raw material, and relatively minimal machine time to create a simple wheel. We were able to create some very cheap custom wheels for our intake in 2009.

I suppose it does depend on what you use the wheels for, which ones are available for purchase that suit your needs, and how you are going to fabricate them.