Carriage and wagon wheels

[Andy B]

You asked, so:-

Design done.
Supplier approached.
Prices received.

The spec:
- Scale 3'-6" carriage wheels
- Turned from steel, with outer face to BR curved profile
- 6.8mm wide tyre with 2mm high flange
- Uninsulated
- 4mm journals (No bearings - use brass axleboxes, or miniature roller bearings to your choice)
- Chemically blackened finish

Indicative price per wheelsets (2 wheels on axle) GBP13.50 - based on a batch of 50 wheelsets.
If we can get sufficient commitment for 100 wheelsets, price reduces to around GBP11.50 per wheelset.

No plastic and no mouldings, so minimum runout assured.
Ready blackened, so no rust to remove or spending time painting or blackening yourself.

Is there enough interest to order a batch?

Please let me know by posting here, sending me a pm, email or phone.
Sorry that we won't be able to discuss at Biggleswade!

Andy

[MikeWilliams]

Andy,

Unfortunately for you, this has come at a time when other posts will knock yours off the top of the forum list!  That's one reason for this reply.  Another is that this great initiative deserves to be supported, so I'll take some - exactly how many we can discuss when a few more people come forward.

Mike

[Peaky 556]

Andy, I'll take a dozen please.
Cheers, Tim

[Richard T]

I think I'll stick to the choice of 4 types of coach wheels, insulated, two axles (4 wheels) for £14.44 from that bloke in Derbyshire.

[Peaky 556]

Richard, I couldn't find anything at 3'6" for coaches last time I looked?
I know they are cheap, but I do like the weight of steel wheels.  I have also spent a lot of time making them up on my own lathe, which is completely untenable financially, unless I was working at the Polish minimum wage!
Cheers, Tim

[IanT]

2" EN1a mild steel - 10" about £18 (excluding P&P - from eBay) - maybe 8 wheel sets, although it's hard to part off from a stub end, so maybe not quite that many....   Eight RTR axle sets cost £108 (@ £13.50) - maybe less if higher volumes ordered...

I'd guess about 3-4 hours just for the lathe work required. To save £90?. Well, yes maybe it would be worth it to some (although I haven't costed/included the axle material or 'blacking' ...)

However, for most folk here, that sounds like a reasonable deal to me....   :-)

Regards,

IanT

[Peaky 556]

Ian, I think it a good deal too, as in my view you have vastly underestimated the lathe time needed.  You also need 2 1/4" bar to make 3'6" wheels, unless you cheat on the sizing!

[IanT]

Yes, maybe Tim.

I just quickly converted 42" to G3 (42"/22.6=1.86") which doesn't leave that much (3.5mm) for the flange etc

Much of the time required would be in changing between the various machine 'set-ups' needed - drilling, facing and parting off the blanks, facing the blank to 'hub' width (4-jaw), setting up a suitable mandrel, then turning the face, rim, tread/flange to size. Multiple parts tend to be relatively quick to do once you have the machine set-up - albeit somewhat boring.

I haven't done an exhaustive time and motion study here - it was just a rough estimate of total time needed and obviously some folk work quicker than others (I'm on the slow side myself). I don't often do extended machining sessions these days either - about an hour or so is my limit. I find I get tired standing at the lathe much more quickly now and then it is easy to start making mistakes. But in my own workshop, I can simply leave things set-up 'as-is' and either go off and do something else for a while or even come back to it another day.

One thing is for sure - a CNC lathe will be faster (and more accurate) than me and won't stop for coffee or rest breaks either...

Regards,

IanT

[MikeWilliams]

Andy,

There's a lot of chatter here and I hope that has translated into firm orders for you.  Our Editor has been asking for something like this for ages, so suspect he may take the full 50 axles 

They are too late for my own period of interest and I don't do many coach kits yet, but I do make the occasional coach bogie for people, so I'll take four axle sets and if it makes up the minimum order numbers would take eight at a push.

I assume those prices are plus VAT?

Mike

[Peaky 556]

IanT, I am also on the slow side, I think it took me around 10 hrs to make a batch of 8 wheels from sliced blanks! That was using my best batch production methods too!  Terrible, eh?  The axle is, of course, on top of that!

Andy, can I suggest you write a suitable letter for the Newsletter to promote the wheels at these prices? Copy date is a week on Monday.

Regards, Tim

[MikeWilliams]

This topic is just slipping off the front page, so here's another post to keep it visible.

Come on chaps - steel wheels like this have been asked for several times.  Andy has gone out of his way to find the details and get a quote from someone I happen to know is a first class engineer, and the wheels would be absolutely superb.  He deserves our support - and the response from members has been dismal.  He needs a minimum order of 50 wheels (just 12 coaches) and we can't even do that between us.

Does nobody want scale profiled, solid steel, blackened coach wheels?

Mike

P.S. I have nothing whatsoever to do with this initiative except a wish to see quality products introduced to the Gauge 3 market - whatever they are and whoever does it.

[unklian]

I have not expressed interest so far as I require insulated wheels with mansell style wooden centres.  If the wheelsets were available unmounted I would be much more interested. Maybe six axles.

[Traininvain]

Apparently Walsall Model Industries have produced a large number of G3 coach wheels similar to the ones Brandbright did and these are available at about £8 an axle I understand.

Ian

[Andy B]

Well, I won't be wasting any more of my time in the future on other people's wish lists, that's for sure!

Andy

[unklian]

Apparently Walsall Model Industries have produced a large number of G3 coach wheels similar to the ones Brandbright did and these are available at about £8 an axle I understand.

Ian

Can't see them anywhere on their website. Are you sure they still have them ?

Cheers  Ian