DIY wheel and sleeve casting

Hi there,
time to start a new thread over here about DIY wheel casting techniques, everyone with experience is invited to make it more complete.
I casted myself sleeves for hub motors resembling MBS AT wheels. I love these for driving without fear of wheels blocking, they survive even bigger stones since they tend to throw stuff away instead of locking it.

First I had to make the silicone mold. I used this silicone https://trollfactory.de/produkte/silikon-kautschuk/haertegrad-shore/mittel-shore-a26-45/7039/tfc-troll-factory-silikon-kautschuk-typ-3-hb-zinnguss-hitzebestaendig-rtv-1zu1 which might have been overkill. You actually need less material when you keep a box around it but it was the first time I did stuff like that :smiley: As you can see I put a M8 screw in there to behave like an axle, tried it before without centering aid which failed in a bumpy way :wink: Its important to fix the screw really tight since it guarantees a centered wheel when the PU is cured. I then put the original wheels with bearings on top of these and filled all gaps with dough to force the silicone to the outside of the wheel only. After the silicone cured I removed the wheels and thats where we are now :smiley:

I prepared the sleeve with a dremel so the new PU can sink in the gaps to make a better bond. Later versions were just drilled like a swiss cheese, it was faster and more reliable that way.

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After that preparation the sleeves were put in the silicone mold, centered by a printed centering cylinder (basically a cylinder with the same diameter as the inside of the sleeve and a axle-width hole in the middle)

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Now I had to prepare the PU, in my case PMC-780 from Smoothon (https://www.smooth-on.com/products/pmc-780-dry/), a two component PU with shore 80A. According to Hummie its not the best material you can use but it was easily available for me. I used black PU pigment to get a dark black color for it to match the MBS wheels :slight_smile:

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After a little less than 2 days curing time it resulted in these wheels (Landwheel hubs):
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Since then I used the same method for DIYeboard/Meepo style hubs and mellowboard hubs, all with great success. For a better finish I let the wheels spin and use a file to make them even on the outer sides.
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Mellow:


I hope someone can use this little tutorial and more wheel casters will chime in like on the other forum

:sunglasses:

47 Likes

That’s such a great idea, huge congrats !!
Love the thing !

just a little heart pinch seeing the mellow wheels getting destroyed

I love how they get better and better. This is DIY spirit! You’ll be banned soon.

15 Likes

:smiley: I hope not too soon, still have two open groupbuys :smiley:
The mellow sleeves on the last picture are my masterpiece so far, they are flawless. Its a pity that the hubs by themselves are not as good (torquewise) as I anticipated :smiley:

Fuck man. That is so awesome. Wow.

3 Likes

Awesome man!

How fast can you go with the MBS wheels on the meepo style hubs?

1 Like

Awesome! anything in the pipeline for maytech hubs?

where is the heat pipe on the trucks?:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

2 Likes

42 afair :slight_smile: I gave them to a friend, I can check when wlhis rebuild with fsescs is done

No, but it works with every sleeve :slight_smile:

2 Likes

You have inspired me. I have some hubs to play with thank you

1 Like

Made some Airless Designs inspired by on-ix. What pattern do you think is better?
A


B

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B, the chamfered edges will prevent premature chunking

2 Likes

I think so too. I already startet to print. I will skip the molding part and print the mold. Saves me some money.

Keep us up to date :blush:

Since the lack of good 100mm wheels never thought to make a good let’s say kegel core?
Maybe 3d printed core is enough or I can help in make it out of POM for durability. A community 100mm wheels. Of course if the thane is really good, comperable to popoca would be nice.

This is seriously impressive.

1 Like

This so needs to happen. Boa is such a question mark in so many ways. There’s been an effort to get those 90mm wheels eLofty was supplying made into 100s but no traction yet. I’m going to ask Haggyboard if they would ever consider producing a run of 100mm Senor Pepes. Hopes and prayers.

EDIT: There is a really interesting 100mm kegel core in the works out in cool shit land. Will update here when more details emerge.

4 Likes

Haggy would be nice. I like the colour combination he used and the thane is nice, I have heard, never tried. Maybe if possible also a dark grey or black would be really sick.

There are alot 97mm wheels. Dunno why you would want 100mm. I am personally more interested in these airless types for better comfort. I hate compromising my route because of bad roads. But I also don’t want the tube hassle.

1 Like