Fly wheel

[J. Tranter]

If you didn't have a RT and you wanted to make a spoked flywheel, how would you do it?
John T.

 

[shred]

Elmer's Engines has a section on spoked flywheels made without an RT-- he drills holes then cuts and files or mills between. Drilling is easier with a RT, but the drill pattern can be laid out without one.

 

[BobWarfield]

1. Make a fixture not unlike a rounding over fixture that uses dowel pins to locate the flywheel and to allow you to rotate the flywheel. Here's one I drew up to do "wiggley" spokes:

2. Use a collet block with the flywheel hub in the collet.

3. Drill a series of holes, cut them apart, and file smooth.

4. Silver solder the spokes.

Cheers,

BW

 

[compound driver 2]

Hi
Cut a master spoke from tin sheet or brass sheet. set out the correct divisions on the rim and hub of the flywheel and scrive round the master spoke. after that just chain drill and file no need to work out complex settings on a rotary table or compute chords. Just a sheet of tin and as et of dividers, its the way its always been done.

Cheers kevin

 

[Bogstandard]

Thaks for that Kevin, another way to try out.
I am up for anything as long as it works.

John

 

[Circlip]

Only problem I can see is the difference in rates of expansion and contraction in dissimilar metals. Wouldn't like to be near it if there are any cracks in the rim. Ian.

Oh yes, nearly forgot, Electrolytic corrosion.

 

[J. Tranter]

Thank you for the posts.
Next question, I am having problems trying to figure out how to lay out the spokes.
How do you lay them out? I need all the help I can get. I don't want anymore flywheels with just holes in them. All help will be appreciated( pictures even more)
John T.

 

[mklotz]

John,

You might want to take a look at the FLYWHEEL program on my site.

 

[J. Tranter]

Unfortunately I'm not advanced enough to use Marvs program. So I guess holes it is.
Thank you all very very much for your help.
John T.

 

[tattoomike68]

If you didn't have a RT and you wanted to make a spoked flywheel, how would you do it?
John T.

I would attack it with a black marker till I liked what I saw then bolted it to the mill table and "etch a sketch" it best I could then work it over with a file.
I was a tattoo artist for years so can draw nice, a person could always make some little paper template for the spokes and use it as a temporary guide for the black marker.

It may end up with that hand crafted look and not the super precise CNC made look but the hand crafted look is always nice IMHO.

Close counts

 

[cfellows]

I actually prefer straight spokes over tapered spokes which makes it easier to layout. Here is a picture showing the steps from upper left to lower right. Once I lay it out and fasten it to my rotary table, it's pretty easy to just follow the lines. I usually go complete around and cut out all the open parts leaving about 1/16" extra material inside the lines. Then I make another pass all the way around to clean it up to the lines. Of course, the radius of the end mill will fillet the corners where the spokes meet the rim and the hub.

 

[cfellows]

Here's a picture of a 3" flywheel I milled out of brass. Sorry it doesn't show the flywheel full on.

Chuck-

 

[rickharris]

There are several free CAD programmes out there and drawing circles Curves and lines are what they do best. (assuming you cant find a compass). At school we often cut out a printed template to stick on the materials to guide our 'little hands'.

 

[compound driver 2]

Hi
Thats not a bad point, if you can print from a CAD program to scale theres no reason why you shouldnt use the print to transfer punch marks and chain drill from them.

I have a stearing wheel to make for the 2 inch traction engine its cast iron with an OD of 2 inches and five spokes. The rim is round section and the five spokes are tapered with a helper handle boss on the outside of one spoke. Il probably scrive drill and file that rather than using the rotary table to be honest I find it faster and a lot easier. I may well print a paper template for that.

Id really only go to the rotary for parts that have to be very close.

Cheers kevin

 

[DICKEYBIRD]

If you have or can make a simple indexer (cheap 5C Spindexer works well) you can build up a flywheel from individual pieces. Here's one I made from mild steel and drill rod for the spokes. Since it was used on my finger engine and wasn't highly stressed, I just dribbled a little thin super glue into the joints when completed. It could be soldered as well.

 

[gilessim]

Thats a nice flywheel!, how did you line it up concentrically!, I had thoughts about making one in that way but I was wondering about getting it balanced nicely.

Giles