Wanna build a black hood...

[kpinnc 17,823]

Not much- But finally got time to get the second front wheel done today. 

 

Gonna be a meaty front end on this tractor! 

 

 

[kpinnc 17,823]

Just for giggles I set the axle assembly in front of the 523H. Surprised to see this is about two inches wider than the swept axle with 8 inch front wheels and trailer hubs on it. 

 

Definitely gonna have a wide track. I was going for that, but didn't realize it was this wide...

 

 

 

 

[kpinnc 17,823]

Got my donor wheels together for the rear. I don't have any more wide rears so I'm gonna have to make a set from two different pairs. The pair with the surface rust has a way wrong offset. They came from a Ford LGT. 

 

The tires on Ford pair would not break loose at the bead, even though they were clean. I had to use a 3 foot 2x6 and the weight of the Tundra to break them. 

 

Hopefully I can gain another skinny pair of wheels using these as well. We will see... 

 

 

[AlexR 2,829]

8 hours ago, kpinnc said:

Got my donor wheels together for the rear. I don't have any more wide rears so I'm gonna have to make a set from two different pairs.

How hard is it to do this? It doesn't seem like it would be easy to cut right, and that is a lot of welding too. 

[kpinnc 17,823]

9 hours ago, AlexR said:

How hard is it to do this? It doesn't seem like it would be easy to cut right, and that is a lot of welding too. 

 

I'm about to find out. Never done it before, but I have a plan... 

[AlexR 2,829]

3 hours ago, kpinnc said:

I'm about to find out. Never done it before, but I have a plan... 

Sounds like we are going to get a How-to haha

[kpinnc 17,823]

4 hours ago, AlexR said:

Sounds like we are going to get a How-to haha

 

Well... maybe. Your mileage may vary. 

 

I tried for several days to figure out how to hold the wheels and rotate them so I could cut them straight. I started to build a jig to hold them, but then realized that was against hillbilly rule #7: Use what you have on hand. 

 

So I put a tractor on jack stands and removed a Wheel. Then mounted the bare rim and used a sharpie to mark the cut line all the way around. Sat on a 5 gallon bucket and lightly cut into the wheel on the lines until it cut all the way. It gets a little sketchy when the cutting  wheel first breaks through. You have to turn the grinder to rotate the same direction as the wheel is turning so it doesn't grab. Ask me how I know... 

 

Holding the two halves together to get the welding started was interesting. Grinding deep "V" shapes in the backside to fill didn't help. Angle iron around inside or out didn't work. I used a couple big magnets to tack the first joint, and welding clamps two inches at a time until all the way around. 

 

But it turned out great. Rim is 9 inches wide bead to bead and the bonus is that the extra parts make up a nice set of 6 inch wheels, so nothing is wasted. 

 

Wheel has no wobble after everything was finished. Plenty good enough for a slow garden tractor. 

 

Took all evening to do one wheel. Learned a few tricks so the second one should go much faster. 

 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by kpinnc

[Pullstart 69,628]

@Achto did similar.  Anything to add Dan?

 

Awesome work, Kevin!

[ebinmaine 78,209]

6 hours ago, kpinnc said:

Use what you have

 

One of our favorite sayings around here! 

 

 

5 minutes ago, Pullstart said:

Awesome work, Kevin!

 

I agree with Kevin Kevin! 

 

Niiiiice! 

[sqrlgtr 2,550]

@kpinnc what type of grinder did you use?  Been wanting to try this myself. I have a couple extra sets of wheels and like you mentioned it's hard to find the wide rears with the right Wheel horse off set.

[Pullstart 69,628]

I’d assume a death wheel (thin style) would be much better than a heavy grinding wheel.  

[Achto 31,527]

Great job Kevin !! 

 

I had some waste when I built mine. Spun the rims on my  C-145 lathe.  My finished width was 11.5"

 

[kpinnc 17,823]

4 hours ago, sqrlgtr said:

what type of grinder did you use?  Been wanting to try this myself. I have a couple extra sets of wheels and like you mentioned it's hard to find the wide rears with the right Wheel horse off set.

 

Just a corded 4 inch grinder. Took two cutoff wheels to get through a wheel. 

 

3 hours ago, Achto said:

Great job Kevin !! 

 

I had some waste when I built mine. Spun the rims on my  C-145 lathe.  My finished width was 11.5"

 

Thank you!

 

I really wanted mine a bit wider but the dish location on one pair of wheels dictated where I cut them. If I had another pair of WH wheels the width would be at least 10.5. 

 

3 hours ago, Pullstart said:

I’d assume a death wheel (thin style) would be much better than a heavy grinding wheel.  

 

Absolutely. And this goes through the cut off wheels pretty quick. 

[Achto 31,527]

42 minutes ago, kpinnc said:

really wanted mine a bit wider but the dish location on one pair of wheels dictated where I cut them.

 

I had to cut the dish out of one set on mine to get the width that I wanted. 

[ebinmaine 78,209]

6 hours ago, Pullstart said:

I’d assume a death wheel (thin style) would be much better than a heavy grinding wheel.  

 

 

USE PROPER SAFETY EQUIPMENT. 

 

 

I was on site when someone got into a fight with one of those wheels. 

 

DON'T! 

 

 

 

[sqrlgtr 2,550]

2 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

 

 

USE PROPER SAFETY EQUIPMENT. 

 

 

I was on site when someone got into a fight with one of those wheels. 

 

DON'T! 

 

 

 

[kpinnc 17,823]

2 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

 

I was on site when someone got into a fight with one of those wheels. 

 

Yes they can be very dangerous. That's another reason I'm using smaller wheels, and when you cut these rotating steel rims, you don't put alot of pressure into it.