New O gauge wheel sets

Compton castle

Western Thunderer
post-5983-0-56739700-1481467768_thumb.jpg
A friend of mine Elliot Powick is going to be introducing a new range of wheel sets for the O gauge modeller. Hopefully filling the gap left by Allan Harris. Elliot has his own CAD business and has been responsible for drawing many items for the preservation movement from frames to cylinder blocks.
Elliot is also designing 5" & 7 1/4" locomotives.
Seen up first is a prototype Firth Briwn or more commonly referred to as Boxpok wheel.
I will post up more details and pictures soon
 

adrian

Flying Squad
I saw these wheels at Reading.
and what did you think of them? They do look good from the photos.

I can't tell from the photos exactly how they are made. I can see from the photo some layering so I presume the masters are 3D printed but are the centres brass castings with a steel rim?
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Adrian,

They're good, in my opinion. I spoke to Elliott and mentioned that there are a couple of foibles to sort out, the items shown being prototypes.

The current material is silicon bronze. My impression is that Elliott isn't necessarily wedded to the choice of material.

I look forward to seeing what becomes of these as I perceive quite a healthy demand whether offered as castings or finished wheel sets.

Steph
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
I had a close look as well, by far and a way the best 7mm Bulleid wheels to date, all the right undercuts and correct profiles of webs and recesses.

I had toyed with getting some correctly shaped inner blanks cast up and then using an overlay to simulate the undercuts etc, but seeing these means that the time I would of spent on that project can be better used elsewhere.

MD
 

Stoke5D

Western Thunderer
Can't really tell from the photo. on my computer but is the rim cast with the wheel centre in bronze? Would prefer separate steel tyres.

As Mick says, seems to capture the undercuts etc. just so - very impressive.


Andrew
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
I had a quick online chat with Elliott the other day - having failed to see the wheels in the flesh at the show. He's got a lot of feedback, and has a lot to think about.

The original plan was to have wheels cast in steel, then turned with integral tyre. Having seen the quality of the bronze castings, he's now considering how to fit a steel tyre. The problem is then how to arrange insulation for electrical pickup.

He's realised he has a lot to deal with. While I'm keen, from a professional builder point of view, to see these new wheels in production, I think we need to be patient. It's a great start, but there's a way to go before full production, I think.
 

Stoke5D

Western Thunderer
[QUOTE="The original plan was to have wheels cast in steel, then turned with integral tyre. Having seen the quality of the bronze castings, he's now considering how to fit a steel tyre. The problem is then how to arrange insulation for electrical pickup.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info. Definitely needs steel (or at least CI) rims to do a premium product like this justice.

I've seen some rim insulated (ie. under the tyre) wheels from the Far East. Another reason to go for separate tyres.

Alternative a nylon sleeve around the axle at the centre works well. I have some Mark Wood wheels supplied turned and assembled like that.


Andrew
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
They look great, hopefully they will be available in S7 too.

When I picked up my 9f kit from MOK they told me their wheels for the 9f would have 5mm axles so what size axles are these going to have as it seems that 3/16th steel is getting rare.

Richard
 

Elliot 84A

Western Thunderer
Afternoon all,

I'm the gentleman at the centre off all this wheel making malarky.

Basically I started out trying to replicate what Alan used to provide just using my CAD skills to create new masters. What has become apparent rather quickly is I need to look at this as more of a new product and not just a copy Alans original designs. As you might've heard I had some wheels with me at Reading that were in silicon bronze and not SG Iron, this was due to the time frame I had from Warley to Reading (2 weeks to design, make and machine 3 wheelsets in two was going to be a tall order) and iron would be about a 4 week turn around. Having now got the silicon bronze masters I'm impressed with the casting quality and with how easy they are to machine so at the moment I need to do a few more trials before I decide which road to go down (suffice to say if it is the bronze route they will have separate tyres).

Anyway I'll leave you with pictures of the first wheel I cast for my Castle build, this one being in SG.
 

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Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Any new high quality cast wheels is good to see come onto the market, personally I'd like to see them in cast steel or iron, bronze centers and steel tyres would be good too and with the option to buy bare castings.
Insulation at the rim is fine for plunger pick-ups ( not my cup of tea) so I'd rather see the option of boss insulation and no insulation for split axle current collection.
Tyre width in S7 is down to 3.25mm .

All the best with your venture Elliot:thumbs:

Col.
 
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Elliot 84A

Western Thunderer
The biggest issue is if I do these wheels in silicon bronze (its the easier to cast by far) and supply them as blanks the customer then has to do his own tyres too. I suppose I could always supply tyre blanks in the "kit" that gives the purchaser the option of S7 or fine and also where they insulate.

E.
 

Elliot 84A

Western Thunderer
Dont get me wrong I'd love to do iron wheels but I have to think economics too. Maybe I could do special order ones for those who REALLY wanted them but obviously at an extra cost.

E.
 

Archie Atkinson

Active Member
post-5983-0-56739700-1481467768_thumb.jpg
A friend of mine Elliot Powick is going to be introducing a new range of wheel sets for the O gauge modeller. Hopefully filling the gap left by Allan Harris. Elliot has his own CAD business and has been responsible for drawing many items for the preservation movement from frames to cylinder blocks.
Elliot is also designing 5" & 7 1/4" locomotives.
Seen up first is a prototype Firth Briwn or more commonly referred to as Boxpok wheel.
I will post up more details and pictures soon
Hopefully we will see correct profile 4' 7.5" wheels for the DJH/Piercy Q6 which will suit a scratch built Q7 and also the T1. The Slaters is only correct for the J25, 26 and 27.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Hopefully we will see correct profile 4' 7.5" wheels for the DJH/Piercy Q6 which will suit a scratch built Q7 and also the T1. The Slaters is only correct for the J25, 26 and 27.
Hi, nice as a correct profile wheel would be this is straying uncomfortably into wish list territory which we like to avoid. I'm sure Elliot has a list to last him a life time if he wanted to. Lets give him time to sort out the initial release and then we will have something tangible to post about.
 

Elliot 84A

Western Thunderer
The latest castings. These are Castle wheels with full spokes. These can only be cast in silicon bronze as the likes of SG Iron and stainless just wont flow enough. The beauty with this design is there is hardly any machining required and the since the tyres would have to be separate you can quite easily do finescale or S7 wheels. These are currently being 3D printed but still produce very good quality castings but I'll be machining my first hard tooling over the Christmas period so hopefully early in the new year I'll have my first "proper" tooled castings to evaluate.

E.

Castle 8.jpg Castle 7.jpg
 

Stoke5D

Western Thunderer
I really like the idea of separate rims - JLTRT...

It's surprising (to me anyway) what a poor surface finish you get from 3D printing.


Andrew
 

Elliot 84A

Western Thunderer
Andrew you have to remember that A. The photo's do amplify the imperfections (and they're not the best pictures in the world, my print/casting guy is a much better engineer than he is a photographer) and B. Rapid prototyping always leaves some form of lined witnesses due to the process involved. They don't take much cleaning up at all in this material to be fair, a lot less than in cast iron.
 
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