Trolley Wheels

I have access to some suitable pipe to make trolley wheels. I'll be making some for myself, and wondered if there's a demand for these. If so I could make a batch lot and perhaps offload them on Ebay.
Is there much demand for reasonable looking trolley wheels? What preferred diameter? Width? axle diameter?
Suggested pricing?

sounds interesting - i think there is demand for good looking wheels but i think price would be a big factor as old cast ones are also on ebay, i would be interested to see some pics of the ones you make,

size of the wheel depends on engine and trolly design.

steve w wrote:sounds interesting - i think there is demand for good looking wheels but i think price would be a big factor as old cast ones are also on ebay, i would be interested to see some pics of the ones you make,

size of the wheel depends on engine and trolly design.

1 1/2-2" wide is a nice width for the rally fields , but this all depends on the diameter of wheel as said above by steve mate
if the pipe diameter is big enough and the price is right i maybe after some 3"-3 1/2" wide ones
kev

Kev, I take it you are talking width & not diameter there???

Diameters range from about 4 or maybe 6 inches on the smaller side, up to 8, 10 & 12 inches on the larger engines.

A good axle width for the smaller ones is 20mm, not so sure about the larger ones, maybe 25mm axles.

As Kev has already said, with the width, it's better to have slightly wider as they don't dig in or get bogged down. I suppose the smaller wheels want an absolute minimum width of 2 inches, going up with diameter, to keep the wheels in proportion.

I would also be interested to see what they look like & how you go about construction. I could do with a set of wheels for a Lister D trolley, I would also like to have a couple of pairs in reserve for future projects. I would personally go for the smaller diameter wheels, no bigger than 6" diameter, as height is an issue & I don't generally buy big engines as space & weight are an issue too.

I would probably be up for 4 pairs of 6" wheels, if I liked them. (& the price was right).

keep us posted & good luck with them.

What your forgetting is it's best to have smaller wheels on steerable axles so you need an inch on small wheels and maybe 2 inchs on bigger wheels. There is a guy that makes and sells modern wheels on ebay every now and then and they don't sell to quick and at £45 a set there not a bad price but I think some people just want cast iron wheels.
Good luck and if you could knock one up and take a pic you could well have some buys if the price is right and you can sort a cheap way to deliver them.

Stu.

I don't think £45 a set is cheap by any means. I could probably get a set of old cast iron ones for under £50, maybe even less than £40. It largely depends on the size though. I'm only talking around the 6" to 8" diameter ones. You'd obviously pay more for larger.

I can get a set of modern metal ones with ball bearing centres & rubber tyres for under £20.

(by "set" I mean 4 wheels).

As far as width goes, Stu is right that steering ones are thinner, but I don't think any but maybe the smallest, around 4" diameter, should be 1" wide. 1" is a tiny width for wheels, even on a steering axle. Usually the steering ones are smaller all round, as the steering axle is usually mounted on a wooden steering beam, which obviously brings up the height on that axle compared to the fixed axle. That's the usual way anyway, but it can be done differently, with the same size all round.

Thanks for feedback. I'll not be making these immediately. Will get this Lister D sorted first! (see restoration thread elsewhere)

Geoff it's a great idea if you can keep them to a reasonable price but metal prices don't help as there still going up. I've thought about it being possable to make cast iron wheel but there's that much work has to go into the casting I never got any futher, I wonder how much new cast iron wheels would cost and I don't think they wouldn't be cheap.

Stu.