I built the new Italeri 1/12th kit when it came out and was quite impressed with it.
I always threatened to make some decent wire wheels (old school - ali, lathe, drilling lots of tricky small holes etc) for it but never got around to it.
As I’m doing a lot more with CAD now, I thought I would have a crack at drawing and printing some instead.
Just for fun, and with no expectation of success, I thought I would try printing them as-is:-
Amazingly, my poor little printer very nearly managed to do it.
However, it did prove that scale thickness spokes would be too weak using this technique, so back to the drawing board (screen? We need a new expression in 2021 I think)
Welcome to my ‘patented’ print support/jig/stringing guide concept!
The hub is printed separately so you can get at it to clear all the spokes holes, they are mostly printed but you cannot guarantee they are all free from resinat .3mm diameter, so I run a drill through them all. This is very easy as even if they are slightly clogged they form very obvious pilot holes and pull the drill down the correct path.
The hub has a key way, which is then screwed into the former. The printed guide on the jig shows one of each of the 6 different stringing patterns to get you started. Finally the nipples are all printed separately too and just slide on. Lock the whole thing off with ultra-thin CA and you’re done.
This isn’t quite right or finished, but for a first prototype, I’m quite pleased with it and it proves my little system.
Thanks for looking,
Nick
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