[Pete Thornton]

make insulated wheels for the Ruby


There is a technique that I read about (haven't tried it personally) used by the UK guys, who have lots of steel and iron wheels to play with.

Using a fine coping saw, cut through half the spokes on one side of the wheel near the rim/tread. Fill the saw cuts with epoxy and allow to set thoroughly. Repeat process with the other half of the wheel. Check that the insulation works.

I think you could esaily get some spare Ruby wheels to experiment with from Accucraft. I also think that varying the angles of the cuts will add strength when the epoxy sets.

Any comments Gordon?

 

[Pete Thornton]

Only problem with this is keeping a path for the electricity isolated

Noel,

The problem with a hub sleeve is the valve gear and cylinders, which connect the wheel electrically. Hence the Oz and UK techniques of insulating at the rim.

 

[Pete Thornton]

Posted By redbeard on 12/11/2008 7:23 AM
Hi everybody!
Caught this thread today and have a question. I understand the principle of cutting through every other one of the spokes and replacing the metal with epoxy, then doing the remaining spokes. BUT the Ruby drivers that I have only have spokes on one side. Would you still try to do this with these drivers? And if so, how would you proceed? The large "counterweight" area will be a pretty long cut to keep straight. (or curved in this case!) As a person who uses such a saw every day, I am not sure I would do this cut. Here is a picture of one of my unused Ruby drivers. Keep in mind that unless you remove the drivers from the axles, one set will have eccentrics to get in the way of the saw as well.

Maybe I am missing something here?
redbeard AKA Larry Newman SA #1956





Oops. Maybe I should have looked at my FWRR/Ruby first... Sorry - it's upstairs under the Xmas tree adding red and green train to the festivity.

My guess is that the only way to deal with this wheel is to put it in a lathe and cut through the outer part of the wheel/inner part of tread, to separate the tread from the wheel. Then epoxy it back. As I don't have a lathe, this is purely hypothetical and probably impossible.