My unusual spoked flywheel build

[Metal Butcher]

To make a 2 - 3/4'' X 3/8'' flywheel I started with a 3'' X 1/2'' brass disc. It was a little larger then necessary but when buying scrap your options are limited.

The 3/8'' deep recess and the crank shaft bore were done in the lathe using a three jaw chuck. The flywheel blank was then mounted in a spin index using a machined 1/2'' mandrel. The six holes through the rim and part way into the center hub were drilled and reamed. For this particular pattern every other hole was offset 40 degrees. This is a simple index of 0-4-12-16-24-28. The picture shows the spokes cut oversize in length and already soldered in place.

After cooling the blank was returned to the chuck for a final facing to remove the 1/8'' thickness left from the first operations that held the rim and hub as one piece. The flywheel was then mounted on a mandrel that was machined and left in the chuck. This assured that all faces could be machined to run true. This picture shows those completed operations plus a light sanding over the solder joints in preparation for painting.

And here's the final picture showing the finished flywheel. This spoke arrangement is an interesting variation of the traditional six spoke flywheel.

 

[chuck foster]

nice looking flywheel...........diffrent is good 8) Thm:

hope to see more of the build as it progresses.

chuck

 

[Maryak]

Neat idea, have you arranged the spokes to give a counterbalance effect ??? ???

Best Regards
Bob

 

[Metal Butcher]

Neat idea, have you arranged the spokes to give a counterbalance effect ??? ???

Best Regards
Bob

Hi Bob. The angle of the photo gives the impression that the flywheel is out of balance.
The spokes are properly spaced and the flywheel is balanced.

Another interesting variation would be 3 pairs of closely spaced and parallel spokes

MB

 

[Maryak]

MB,

The photo sure had me fooled, (not that it's difficult to do), but in any event it's a really nice flywheel. :bow:

Best Regards
Bob

 

[90LX_Notch]

That's pretty neat.

 

[Mike N]

Is the spacing 9 segments with 3 spokes removed?

Looks good, nice soldering job!

 

[Metal Butcher]

Is the spacing 9 segments with 3 spokes removed?

Looks good, nice soldering job!

Not sure what you mean.

I just divided 3 into 36 to get increments of 12. this gave me a starting point of 12- 24 -36 (3 spokes).

To those figures I added 4 giving me the the 2nd set of locations (3 more spokes), 16-28-4.

I could have used 3 or 5, but 4 looked good.

I'm really new at this so I hope you can understand what I'm saying.

Thanks for the compliment on the soldering. I really think it could do better without all that excess flow. I guess is will take a lot of practice

MB

 

[Metal Butcher]

Is the spacing 9 segments with 3 spokes removed?

Looks good, nice soldering job!

I'm back. You know, I guess you could look at it that way.

3x9 =27.
36-27=9.
9 divided by 3=3.

Ureaka!