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Lighten Up -- A Gear/Wheel

How DO they do that??
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ddyke
Pitcrew
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:22 pm
Location: Westside of Cincinnati: The Baddest Part of Town

Lighten Up -- A Gear/Wheel

Post by ddyke »

I have rules:

1) Try to make it before buying it.
2) Make it using either existing stuff (tools and materials) or make it as cheaply as possible.
3) Buy tools if and when you have the money before you buy slot cars.

I do have a bunch of tools. A while back I got a rotary table (http://www.harborfreight.com/3-inch-rot ... 98077.html) for my mill and lathe cheap. I was using it for a non-slot project. Sometimes I just stare at something and an idea hits me. "I can make a tool to accurately drill holes or slots in wheels and gears!"

I took a brass bolt I had in the scrap metal repository and turned it down into a mandrel that the small end slid in the center post hole of my rotary table. The other end is slightly enlarged to keep the thing from sliding too far into the rotary table. A 3/32 hole is drilled into the larger end to hold the axle on which the gear or the wheel is to be fit. I made it but it was a hair to small. Out comes a second bolt and I nailed this one spot on in size. A friend claims he could make one of these out of hardwood on a wood lathe that would work just as well.

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The axle was glued in so it did not turn.

The whole thing is set up permanently on one end of my milling table. A side note. You don't need to get a mill but there are good milling tables out there for drill presses that are adequate for most slot car use. It could even be done using a block of wood. I might try this later.

Here it is on the rotary table. This pictured me drilling the first from the backside. Next I drilled one with the teeth facing up. That is the preferred way.

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Here is the end result:

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An end mill could be substituted for the drill bit and slots cut instead of holes, but I don't have one small enough -- yet.
Scrappy Dan
When I'm not eating food or sleeping, I'm down in the basement, wrecking slot cars!
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