Best budget English Wheel

[Khe Sanh]

Having it straight down gives more clearance and the smaller section isn't cantilevered, so less flex. The majority of the forces are going to be in the vertical plane so there will be feet mounted directly under the contact area so the design should be very stiff. I'm making it from 6mm plate but I think 3mm would be fine also. Having it thicker at the bottom was my mates idea, not sure if it's really needed or not, probably not but as long as it doesn't effect clearance then best to be safe.

[german8rcoupe]

Mitch, it was a few years ago, but yes I got hit with duty....can't avoid it.

I got the anvils for a good price during an ebay shop clearout at HP. I figured that if I was having them sent over I may as well get other stuff.....that blew the budget on an upper adjuster and the 4x9!

My frame is a 42" throat. It is a truss design made from 100x100x6 box with the sides plated with 5 mm plates.
When the pressure is on, I get movement although that is down to my laziness in welding the yokes properly as they are currently held by some heavy tacks.

[Khe Sanh]

Originally Posted by german8rcoupe

Mitch, it was a few years ago, but yes I got hit with duty....can't avoid it.

I got the anvils for a good price during an ebay shop clearout at HP. I figured that if I was having them sent over I may as well get other stuff.....that blew the budget on an upper adjuster and the 4x9!

My frame is a 42" throat. It is a truss design made from 100x100x6 box with the sides plated with 5 mm plates.
When the pressure is on, I get movement although that is down to my laziness in welding the yokes properly as they are currently held by some heavy tacks.

Thanks.

I can't wait to get the stuff and get it built now. Not sure how long it takes to get the parts from the US but I'll get the frame cut out hopefully in the next week or two.

Yours sounds like a beast, 42" would certainly let you do some big panels. I've wanted one for ages and was going to buy one of the cheap ones so am really glad I came on here and got some good advice from the members.

You know what they say; wheeling machines are for life, not just for Christmas.

[Phil Minton]

Don't want to put a dampener on things Mitch but it seems there's a backlog here dealing with stuff coming into the UK. I'm expecting a package that took 5 days to get here from the US, it's now sat with Parcelforce for 9 days so far waiting for paperwork to be sent out and they have the gall to call it "Express 48"

[Khe Sanh]

Thanks Phil.

I'm away to Englandshire for work for a week from the 20th so I'm not really going to be in a position to start the job in anger until the end of the month. Hopefully arrange for the frame to be laser cut and then having everything for the end of the month.

Doing a metal shaping course at MPH motor panels in April so would like to get some practice in before then though.

Also need to get the Amazon back on the road by the end of May so a busy few months coming up.

[Joe Andrews]

all of our wheels have bearings that protrude exactly .01
I do this so the edges of the Anvil never rub on the cradle or lifter sides.

On English Wheeling Machines if the alignment is off even a little bit it forces the Wheels to one side or the other. When this happens if the bearing is flush with the wheel the Lower anvil will Rub, and sometimes stop rotation. Not everyone uses our cradles and yokes which are perfectly Square. If your side plates on a cradle or upper yoke are not Square they will rub.

I go one step further on the Uppers we do. The bearings hang out .01 like the lowers do, and the Outer Rim on All our Upper Wheels are relieved an Additional .015 so with Calipers or Mics all upper rims are .04 under the nominal number.

Measuring any of the wheels at the bearings will show them on size or .005 under. That's tight tolerance that guarantees no slop and the relieved edges guarantee no dragging.

I hope this clarifies things.

[Khe Sanh]

Thanks for the info Joe.

So the anvil cradle mounting face and the upper wheel adjuster mounting face need to be spot on square with each other. Am I right in saying your cradle has some adjustment to fine tune the alignment between the upper wheel and anvils to get it spot on? But I assume it's best to get the mounting faces spot on as well though. Does anyone go to the effort of machining the anvil cradle mounting face to ensure it is perfectly square with the upper wheel adjuster mounting face or is that a bit OTT?

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Mitch, We make our yokes out of tubing. It's not always perfectly square but I can usually put it in a vice and bend it if necessary. On the lower yokes we make two sizes. The 2" width is easy to bend into alignment. The 3" width is made from 1/2" wall material and the ID id just a bit more than 3". We drill and tap for a 3/8" brass set screw on one side.

We make our upper yokes out of 6x12x1/2 tube so the ID width is 5". This gives room for any upper including the gokart slick. 1" PVC water pipe has a 3/4+ ID and this is what we make spacers with. In addition, using the PVC spacers makes it easy to offset the upper if you want to get tricky with something. We also make them tall enough that you can put your hand on top of the upper wheel and drive it when you are working tiny stuff.

I've probably made a thousand yokes of various sizes. Every once in a while I get one that just is not up to quality standards and I use them on my personal machines. If they are off a bit and the anvil drags on one side, it is easy to grind some clearance with a hand grinder. The anvil yokes need to hold the anvil without much movement because if it shifts around your tracking will be shifting also.

Lots of ways to do it. All the sheet metal knows is PSI at the contact patch. Everything else is either your technique or concern about the machine appearance. Upper adjuster, lower, high or low contact point, 3 legs or 4, soft or weak frame....all can be compensated for or worked around. Obviously we all have our preferences but there is no single universal truth to any of this stuff. Lots of ways to do most anything in metalshaping. You have to figure out what works for you based on what you have to work with, your physical limitations, and how your head wraps around what you are trying to do.

I was working an event once...talking to about 10 people while doing a demo. This one guy kept focusing on why the upper adjuster on our machine and why a lower wouldn't be just as good. I was explaining why we prefer the upper and mentioned you could just reach up with one hand and make a tweek to the pressure with your God given torque wrench while holding the metal level with the other hand. At that point, the guy kind of stepped closer and I saw that he only had one arm..... Obviously, he will need a kickwheel machine.

We've built machines for people that were 4'11" to 6'10".

[Khe Sanh]

Thanks Kerry,

I didn't notice the PVC pipe before in your design and I've spent plenty of time on your website so thanks for taking the time to explain.

I've gone for the full kit from Joe, because it gets highly recommended and because I'm lazy and didn't want to spend too much time building the wheel as I have other projects to crack on with.

Agree with you regarding the top adjuster, that does seem like the more practical place for it when working the machine.

You have to love the human spirit, wheeling with one arm, fair dues to the guy.

My two big goals for this year are to improve my metal shaping skills and to build a flow bench so I can flow test cylinder heads for old Volvos. It's all good clean fun this car bodging stuff.

Made space in my workshop last night for the wheel, so just need to crack on and get it built now.

[Khe Sanh]

Did a bit more of a tweak on my design, it's now 32" throat. Mocked it up out of a bit of mdf that I had at the workshop to see how it looked. My mate is going to tweak the cad design and we'll finish off the cad drawing once I have the parts from Joe to double check everything fits the frame. I'll make some detachable rear legs so it can be tied to the wall flat and out of the way when not in use.