Garden Railway Forum

Hi, I want to make my own wheel sets but not sure what material to use. I have a Warco mini lathe which is rubbish at cutting metal round bar so rather than upgrading the lathe I thought I might make some wheels out of plastic. I have found a couple of suppliers of BLACK Plastic PVC Round Rod Bar, and Black Acetal Round Bar, are these products any good. Many thanks, Peter

Acetal machines well and is very strong.

Thank you very much Mr Bricks, Peter

ether823 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 11, 2017 9:57 am Hi, I want to make my own wheel sets but not sure what material to use.

I've turned 200+ wheels out of 1.25" round BMS bar on a chinese mini lathe (a Sieg C2) with no major problems over the last few years. It won't part off steel at that dia., so I turn my wheels from blank discs, sawn off the bar in the bandsaw and turned on a mandrel. Just needs the gibs to be kept adjusted properly and take fairly light cuts. I don't normally take heavier cuts than 0.25mm in steel and 0.5mm in brass when roughing down, half that for finishing cuts.

Plastics are a pain to machine, as the swarf tends to melt back onto the workpiece if you don't get the speeds and feeds just right and keep tools really sharp. Parting off plastics can get interesting for the same reasons.

I'm not a fan of plastic wheels as you may have gathered. I've found rigid PVC a little easier to turn than than the Acetal bar I have, but that may just be due to the grades I have in stock. Acrylic (perspex) machines nicely, but I've no idea if it is available in black round bar. Nylon may also be a possibility. Binnie wheels are moulded in glass filled nylon, which is a pig to machine, but there are nylon grades sold in bar form for machining bearings.

If your lathe can't turn steel, round cast iron bar is about the same price as mild steel bar and machines easily. Quite suitable for wheels, but machining it makes a major mess of the area around the lathe..........

Regards,
Graeme

Hi Graeme, this is my 3rd lathe and the worst of the lot. I have had it just under a year and I have had a replacement motor within the first three months. The metal bolts on the chuck have all been replaced because of rubbish metal. I had to fettle the drive as it was out of kilter due to a hole being drilled off centre. The chuck gets very hot after ten minutes work (this must be heat from the motor) I am thinking of going back to my 1914 circa american lathe (ex treadle) the only reason I dont use it is because of the morse taper. Its between 1 & 2. Peter

ether823 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 11, 2017 1:35 pm this is my 3rd lathe and the worst of the lot.

That's not good and hardly fit for purpose. Looking at their website, Warco seem to be selling 'Real Bull' machines, rather than the 'Sieg' machines like mine.

My C2 has had none of those sort of quality problems. One change wheel was missing when it was unpacked, but that was replaced without question. The place where I bought it is only a half an hour drive away, but I've had no failures in the 7 years I've had it, so never tested their after sales service. It's no Swiss automatic lathe, but it does the job required. Maybe I was just lucky.

Thinking about it, the heat buildup you see may be due to the motor, but could also be from the headstock bearings having been overtightened during assembly. Mine barely gets warm, even when in continuous use on a hot summer day.


As they say on the DIY shows, 'this is one I prepared earlier'.............

I give the lathe and mill a going over about once a year and this wheel was turned up last month to check the mini lathe operation after adjustment. It's one of my standard rolling stock wheels, 28mm dia and made to the G1MRA coarse standard.

It was turned up from a slice of 1.25" dia. BMS round bar, using HSS tools. I use ordinary 1020 grade, as the free machining 12L14 grade is hard to find locally in small quantities, although it is much easier to machine.


Regards,
Graeme

Looks good to me