Custom forged wheels

WB projects

WB projects

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Hey guys! Off topic discussion for the ones who's interested in. Alex is not the only one who can't sleep at night for crazy idea 😂 for the past week I have the idea of macking my own set of wheel. Long story short, I found online some forged blank wheel. I just need to mill my design in it! I was so stoke about it but at the end, the price is too much. I found some blank for 250$ CAD each. The price is exellent if I think a cheap good cast wheel is arround 300$ each. Compare to a vossen wheel for arround 600-800$ US. I'm a cheap wheel guy and I will never buy an expensive forged wheel. But I would like to make it! Finally the shipping cost is 1050$ US (arround 1400$ CAD). Way to much 😭. Anyway, if someone know a company who sells blank wheel, tell me 😂
Here's the process of it
 
Wow - I need to spend some more time on my own damn forum. That would be really cool! The biggest issue I could think of is liability - if a wheel fails, are you responsible? Getting old sucks - you start thinking about such things more and more. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a forged blank wheel. I do have a question - what sort of cnc machines do you use? I've often thought about getting a small one, but for what I do, a decent manual mill might be a better choice - a lot of one off stuff. But a cnc would be much faster - and the geometries can be more complex.
 
I bought the blank finaly! I found a seller with a good price 😂 I've made some research about FEA analysis. So I can make it "reliable".
For my CNC I have an old 1998 3 axes feeler. This is my every day CNC. I first tought manual milling was the way to go for small part. To be honnest, I can do anything faster on the CNC! Programming can take seconds to make !
But for home CNC, there's some good brand
 
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I'm worried I'd be breaking tooling all the time with a CNC. Which brands do you think I should look into for a home shop?
 
Tormach is incredible! Not too expensive, a lot of forum and a nice brand. I'm pretty sure you can find it used. Or I think you can find a real CNC from a shop for cheap! My boss always buy old machine 😂 and we run an old 1989 CNC for some years for big tractor cast wheel! He paid 2000$ for it HAHAHA
Anyway "any" CNC is good. But Im pretty sure you can relate with torque and rigidity of the machine! You can use a simple cheap CNC but you will be limited with this 2 problems. Yes you can do the job but you will be limited with the speed of the work.
Rigidity is important for precision and it's a factor of long lasting tool.
Honestly you will brake tool with crash! Use HSS if you worried of breacking tool but you have plenty of thing you can watch to not crash you machine. It may look complicate, but for real, it's more straight foward then 3D modeling.
There's some rules of thumb to use in speed and feed to not break your tool!
For example I use a 1/2" hendmill for the past 6 months and it finaly break last week 😂
Simple word you will remember for the rest of your life
"Your feed is never to fast, your speed is."
Im pretty sure, you ever try to be carefull with your tool and go slowly into your work piece. This is the bad thing to do (well I understand too why). Going slow into your piece makes frictions and in some case some vibrations. Frictions dull your tools.
You have SFM (surface foot minute) and FPT (feet per tooth)
SFM is important for cutting capability and temperature. For example, normal steel with carbide I use 200-350 SFM (you can use less no problems but you need to stay with the same FPT)
FPT is important for frictions and vibrations. For example I use between 0.0028-0.0045" per tooth (1/2" endmill)
This is where the rule of thumb is..
Even if you want to go slow with 100 SFM **you need** to feed with the right FPT.
You can't turn at 1600 RPM and go 2" minutes of feed.. with 1600 RPM you need to feed with 25" minute.. if 25" minute is too much for you, go with 800 RPM and 12" minutes.
If you have vibrations, slow your RPM, not you feed.
Anyway this is 80% of the longevity of your tool. Yo can tweek and go slower but you get the point.
In programming, I can give you files I have of a Mast**Cam 2019 I have on my USB key. It's super simple to use. Where it's more complicate is when you have 3D surface to make. There's no easy way to go, I never have them first try! 😂 You can make simulation of your tool path! So when it's good on the computer, the only other thing can mess up it's you. The machine will make exactly what you tell her to do 😂 Anyway I love this subject and it's not for nothing I want to be a machiniste teacher!
When I will make the wheel and the video, I will try to show a little bit of programming!
 
I've heard good things about Tormach. I don't even know where you would go to find used CNC machines. I'll likely wait until I move to buy one - if I can justify it at the time. My first big purchase will be my own dyno. I appreciate the tips. I do tend to go slow and have found, particularly in aluminum, that I get a fair amount of material "welded" to the tooling unless I keep it lubed. Or go really slowly - which, as you said, imparts vibrations, particularly with a tiny, not great mill like I've got.

I would love to learn more about this process. I actually have a small CNC engraver; I've used it a few times (made the plastic insulators for version 1 of the e-turbo with it). You can see it in action for a few seconds here (1:22 in - the link jumps right to it):

CNCEngraver.jpg

The problem is the software I don't think is legit. It makes it difficult to use - at least for a beginner like me. You could actually machine small aluminum parts on this thing, if I had the time to figure it out. Sorry for taking your thread off topic.
 
Don't worry for my off topic thread, we always take the topic off the track. It don't bother me!
I will do a small video to show you how simple it can be!
I have some spare time right now, I will show you my programmation
 
The video is uploading! I try to keep it short, I was worcking at this time haha but you will see is a simple toolpath that give you an idea how it simple to program it. When you are use to it, it takes 10min to program. The thing to keep in mide is you programme in 2D. Dont look it like its in 3D. Use 2D line and the depth cut will give you your 3D!
I don't know how far your knowledge is in programming but this is a good start. 80% of programming is how well you know your tool. How much you can take in 1 pass. You can take 100 pass of 0.015" instead of 10 pass of 0.150". The SFM and the IPT is the most important. After this is up to you on what way to go.
 
I'll check it out tonight - thanks! Also - the BEST free editing software by far (I use the paid version professionally, like for actual TV shows and commercials) is Blackmagic Design's Davinci Resolve (google will find it). The free version does 95% of what the paid version does. I can't recommend it highly enough.
 
Ahahaha I knew I saw you talk about it somewhere here on the forum but don't remember the name of it! Thanks I will check it
 
Forged blank wheels sounds great, but i assume after all the cnc and paintwork is done, price will be comparable as well?
 
M@ikel said:
Forged blank wheels sounds great, but i assume after all the cnc and paintwork is done, price will be comparable as well?
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Forged wheel have all kind of price! If you look Vossen wheel for example.. they are between 600$-2000$ per wheel 😅 it cost me 1450$ for the blank at my door plus couple hundred for powder coat. So for me the price is good but If someone else machine it for me, the price would be ridiculous for sure!
 
Thanks so much for that video! That's a great overview of what's involved on the programming side. The one thing I missed - and what I'm not sure about - is how you fixture/orient the part in the machine. I'm assuming that's very specific so the toolpaths all align, correct? I think I watched a video some time back about how to do that in a CNC. For one-off parts like I do, do you really think this would be better for me than a manual mill? I know I can't engrave or make complex compound shapes, like you can in a CNC, but I also don't really plan that far ahead (lol - don't tell anyone). You're getting me motivated to play with the CNC engraver more!

That price for wheels isn't bad. Look at what some Weld wheels cost - particularly the high-end drag ones. I run Bogarts, and while they're very light, they're also not cheap.
 
You see the orange axes on my drawing? When you work on manual lathe or milling, you take your reference point. With an edge finder or something else. The orange line is the reference point! Just need to find this point in the machine!
 
WB projects said:
AHHAHAHA at this point we all have our speciality and mine is machining 😂
You can go see my project if you have'nt
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That's perfect, i need a good affordable machinist 😉

Just watched all your video's, you're epic 🤣, and i subscribed! 😀

Funny since i'm looking to do this on my Fiesta ST150, basically the same engine except yours is DI.

What power does yours have stock?

Mine will be running 200+ this summer, after that it's boost time 🤩
 
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