My second wheel design
Wheel diameter - 4"
Hex axle - .5" (Same as AM)
Mass - .39 pounds (Without the tread)
Dead axle
Sorry. Yes, I meant Live axles.
My second wheel design
The roughed Aluminium looks good for this. Only thing I would suggest is the replacement of your decorative hex holes with round holes. This would save a lot of manufacturing time.
Looks good, sort of a prehistoric ice cave themed look? (mabye its just the render lighting…)
If you are planning to use dead axles, the wheel has to have bearings that fit into it so it can be driven, which means you either have to somehow find a ball bearing with a hex outside shape. Or find a bushing in the shape of a hex shape externally and put a ball bearing inside of that which doesn’t make sense as bushings sort of work like bearings.
If you are planning on driving the axles, you are fine.
Direct drive wheels aka live axles (which your wheel looks like it is made for as there is no mounting hole for a sprocket) you are fine as you are.
Thanks, I originally had fillets on the hex holes so that during cutting the bit could just go to that point then continue on. The must have gotten deleted in all my many fixes and I didn’t notice. Do you think that with the fillets it would speed it up enough or should I still change to circles?
I meant live axles. Sorry for the confusion, I must have gone brain dead while submitting this.
As far as cool looks, it’s a winner.
As far as manufacturability and efficiency, it could be further optimized:
- Hex holes must be broached, round ones can be drilled. Unless you require a hexagonal hole, use round. (But, those hex holes in the spokes DO look cool)
- The ring surrounding the axle area (that has those oblong slots in it) serves lettle purpose aside from adding weight. To understand why, imagine the metal ‘spoke’ if that ring wasn’t there - it would go from the central hub to the outer rim. The ring might be distributing forces very slightly across the spokes, but not enough to make any difference. Instead beef up the center hub a little bit (thinnest area about 3/8-1/2 inch) and lengthen the spokes to fit.
- Ease the edges of the spokes a bit.
How thick are the spokes? To me it seems you could get away with them being about half as thick.
Judging by the picture, the hex holes seem pretty small. In order to maintain the “hex” look with fillets, you would need them to be tiny, which is just as bad because you don’t want to be machining the wheel with a 1/8 inch bit.
Eliminate the external radius on the hub. External radii are the best way to make your machinist hate you. Everyone loves them because they look cool but you need a special tool to do it and it takes time. If you really want a non-square edge, chamfers are much better.
Agreed and why not make the hub smaller if your going live?
On these wheels (the one under the one standing up), there is a mini hub instead of a lightening pattern around the hub. Try it out in CAD and see if you lose more weight that way.
-RC
Ditto to what Cory is saying here. The external fillet is not providing additional strength to the wheel and thus is purely cosmetic.
Brando
Ok, Here are a list of things that I could improve upon that I have taken from everything that has been said.
- Switch from hex to circles. (Would it be better to go for a keyway circle? Or keep the hex on the drive? )
2.Trash the outside ring on the hub and make the spoke longer.
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Take off the fillet on the hub.
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Take off some of the width on the spokes.
If I have left anything out or am misinterpreting things, please, do not hesitate to correct me.
-Rion
The change from hex to circles was only in reference to your lightening pattern in the spokes.
The choice of hex broaching for direct driving is based on our resources and experience with hex.
Rion if you ever get some time. Send the wheel over to me and I’ll take a look at it. I’ll be able to give you detailed explanation of things.
-RC
I agree with RC here. If you are going to drive it with a live axle, your interior hub can be smaller, those 5 interior slots can be omitted, and your spokes can all be longer.
Keep up the good work. It takes guts to put your design out here to be critiqued. Good job.
Sincerely,
Andy Baker
Publicly explaining and critiquing might be better for all of us who are still learning about wheel design, RC. :rolleyes: I know I’m learning from these posts, so I’m sure others are too.