Flywheel pattern making

[Chucketn]

I am researching making patterns to cast al flywheels. Ifound a drawing from Elmer Verberg’s info at the Jon-Tom website. How do Imachine the tapered spokes, shown in thedrawing below, on a rotary table? I can understand the setup for drilling thecorner holes for the cutouts, but how do I offset for the taper of the spokes?
Chuck

 

[David Kirtley]

If you are making patterns, just turn them separately and assemble them.

As far as finishing the castings, you will probably do just as well to get out the small files and do it by hand.

Mr. Pete on Youtube has a video of making similar.

[video=youtube_share;5zzRFa524kM]http://youtu.be/5zzRFa524kM[/video]

[video=youtube_share;MeiFMN50QJc]http://youtu.be/MeiFMN50QJc[/video]

 

[NEL957]

Chuck
Myfordboy's has a video of him making a pattern to pour an aluminum wheel. It is very informative and makes it a very simple project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sQCJ6rv54s&list=UUNC9gjgYrzLfyMQmp31DnjA
He uses very simple approach from making the wheel to casting it. If you would like look around his site. He has many different kinds of engines.
Nelson Collar

 

[Chucketn]

Yes, Nelson, I've seen that video.

Chuck

 

[NEL957]

Chuck
If you have seen the video then what is the problem? I do not think anyone can explain it any better.
Nelson Collar

 

[kwoodhands]

I am researching making patterns to cast al flywheels. Ifound a drawing from Elmer Verberg’s info at the Jon-Tom website. How do Imachine the tapered spokes, shown in thedrawing below, on a rotary table? I can understand the setup for drilling thecorner holes for the cutouts, but how do I offset for the taper of the spokes?
Chuck

I have made several of Elmers engines and cast the flywheel fro Type metal.Type metal is mostly tin,some lead and another metal that I forgot the name of,Antonin or something like that.
Type metal will melt easily with a propane torch in a proper vessel.I use a ladle that was made for pouring lead fishing sinkers.I made the patterns from hardwood. The wood patterns scorch and might last one or two pourings .If the wood catches fire I just blow it out.I set the patterns on firebrick and surround it on 3 sides with fire brick.I use a dovetail router bit for the spokes,9° bevel.Works well and never had a fire ,just some scorching from hot metal on wood.
I used cherry because I have a lot of it.When the casting cools,takes quite a while,I tap the wood block pattern on a table and often the casting comes out with no effort.Worse thing is I have to saw around the wood and break pieces of wood off.The type metal shrinks a lot so make the pattern about 10% larger than you need.You can turn it to dimension on your lathe.Save any turnings and other scrap,can be reheated for other casts.
I bought 20 lbs of type metal on E-Bay about 5 years ago,still have some left.

mike

 

[T Bredehoft]

Antimony is the metal added to type metal to make it expand as it cools to fill type molds.

 

[derf]

Most flywheels on hit -n-miss engines are made from cast iron for their mass. (Full size ones, anyway) But if you look closer you will find that a lot of those flywheels have curved spokes. There is a reason for this.