Garden Railway Forum

Hi, this is my first foray into scratch building locomotives. I am just creating a simple drive train where the motor is connected directly to one of two axles via a worn gear on the motor shaft. I therefore need to fit a gear to the middle of one axle. Someone told me that IP Engineering wheels sets would be suitable for this and, thus, I have bought a set of their 45mm gauge, 20mm diameter wheel sets. However, I can't get the wheel off the axle.

Can anyone suggest how I might achieve this?

Try heating them up as they will be secured with Loctite.

Place the wheel in a vice and gently tap the axle out.

I'd do as Tom says and gently tap them out. Once you've broken the grip they should come fairly easily.

Gareth McGrillen wrote: ↑Thu Jun 20, 2019 11:08 am Hi, this is my first foray into scratch building locomotives. I am just creating a simple drive train where the motor is connected directly to one of two axles via a worn gear on the motor shaft. I therefore need to fit a gear to the middle of one axle. Someone told me that IP Engineering wheels sets would be suitable for this and, thus, I have bought a set of their 45mm gauge, 20mm diameter wheel sets. However, I can't get the wheel off the axle.

Can anyone suggest how I might achieve this?

Let us know how you get on and post some pictures up of the task, before and after

Gareth McGrillen wrote: ↑Thu Jun 20, 2019 11:08 am However, I can't get the wheel off the axle.

Can anyone suggest how I might achieve this?

Since a picture is said to be worth a thousand words.........

As Tom and Philip said, use a vice and tap the axle out of the wheel with a small hammer. I've not seen Loctite used by IP Engineering on 45mm gauge wheels, usually they are just pressed on. Sometimes they can be removed by twisting the wheel off by hand. It depends on the fit of the insulating bushes.

The black plastic bush can be seen on the wheel set on the right. It should be supported by the top of the vice jaws, otherwise it can stay on the axle and come out of the wheel.

The wheelset on the left shows how to use the vice. To remove a wheel the vice jaws need to be almost closed, but not tight, as they shouldn't quite touch the axle, but do need to support the bush.

Using a small hammer tap on the end of the axle until it starts to move. To completely push the axle through, use a suitable size pin punch if you have one. If you don't, file the end of a suitable size nail flat and use that to drift the axle out of the plastic bush.

To replace the wheel, reverse the setup, as shown by the wheel set on the right. The other wheel set can be used as a reference to get the back to back dimension right, but take it slowly and don't overshoot. It's not as easy to remove/adjust a wheel on an axle with a gear on it. For that you'd need to make a wheel puller.


Regards,
Graeme

Cheers. Worked a treat. I had to use a workbench rather than a metal vice and a nail rather than a punch (I don't have the former and I've lost the latter) but it still worked fine. I will post a picture when I get the time - or shalnt be until after the weekend unfortunately. I will keep you all up-to-date as the project goes along.

Out of interest, what motors does everyone use in their models. The one I am currently looking at can be found on the following URL.
https://uk.rs-online.com/mobile/p/dc-motors/2389715/

However, I have no idea of what the necessary load capacities, etc. - generally speaking - should be. I can't include an idea of the model but it will be two axles - driven on one axle - and will be relatively lightweight since part of the point of this project is to build a locomotive using my 3D printer - from designs up.

Gareth

For those who are interested I have posted a video of the working locomotive on youtube @:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcp1YWT ... e=youtu.be

It is a very simple design but the whole point was to prove that I could make a working 3D printed locomotive on the cheap.
In total it has cost me around £20.

The scale of the loco to the tack is a little odd and it would perhaps look better on 32mm but I only have 45mm and I can't adjust the gauge.
Not bad for a first attempt?

Interested to hear anyone's opinion.

Gareth

The link you have posted doesn't work.

Have a read of this:

https://gardenrails.org/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=9208

Nice speed and looking good so far. Well done or a first attempt.

Not sure if youv'e changed something since Tom's post, but the video link works for me.

Is this any better?
I don't have the time to keep up to date with a lot of those changes/mods.

By the way, just to make things clear, I am aware that the recent posts no longer fit into the 'Help and Advice' category - probably. But they are relevant to the original posts so I have included them on the same topic. However, if anyone has any issue with this, I will re-post the video in a different category such as Projects.
Just in case anyone does have any issues.

Gareth

Glad you got the video working.

The topic can stay here.

If you do further work on the loco then feel free to start a new topic.