Where I've been lately, Finally building wheels!!!! Options

[SpedToe169]

Ok sports fans, here it is. This is the reason I haven't been around much lately. I built these wheels entirely by myself (I had funding of course). My boss and I are starting a new company to compete with some of the high end custom wheel manufacturers (HRE, Fikse, CCW, Volk, etc.). These are our first prototypes to be tested on one of our racecars (hence the orange and green, blah!). The wheels just survived their first real world test at the Speed World Challenge Touring Car race at historic Limerock Park in Connecticut. If things go well we should be offering wheels for sale to the public within 6 months. We will have several different designs, yet to be unveiled, and we will offer a number of different sizes and offsets as well as the option for complete custom one off wheels (for a $$).

Not to brag, but I did these wheels all alone. Here is a little of what went into them in no particular order:

Spec'd out Haas CNC Vertical Machining Center
Learned Haas CNC Control System (machine operation)
Learned Milltronics Centurion V Control System (lathe operation)
Learned Pro/Engineer Production Machining (software)
Learned Pro/Mechanica FEA Analysis package (software)
Developed multiple wheel designs (10 individuals) and evaluated the structural quality of each
Chose the best wheel design based on FEA results
Further refined the design based on hundreds of FEA analyses
Spec'd out rim halves and fasteners
Learned 'G' code for CNC operation
Wrote a postprocessor for Milltronics ML24 CNC lathe
Designed and fabricated Lathe Jaws and machined to specification (took two sets to get it right)
Developed workholding strategies for Haas VMC
Machined the first 10 prototypes
Assembled 10 prototypes

This is just a small picture of how busy I've been over the past few months. There are many details that have been left out. The prototypes ended up at 16lbs for a 17x8. Subsequent versions will be several pounds lighter.

Here are the pics:

I start with a solid 6061-T6 Aluminum Billet weighing nearly 48lbs:

It gets put in the lathe where is is machined into a blank 'disk' that weighs about 22lbs. Over 50% of the weight is already gone.





After the lathe operations are complete, the blanks go to the mill...aka, the Haas:


Here the windows are cut out to form the spokes. Holes are drilled and chamfered for the lug nuts, and the mounting holes are drilled and tapped.




After the center is complete in the mill it is ready to be deburred, polished, and bolted together. It has gone from 48lbs to 7.8lbs.







At Limerock we blew a motor in qualifying and had to start from the back (43rd). Bob passed 6 cars before the first turn, 18 cars on the first lap, and 30 cars in the course of a 50 min race. We ended up 10th and received the B&M Holeshot award and the Sonoco hard charger award for advancing the most positions on the first lap and the most positions during the race. Above is the car in the winners circle after the race.

This post has been edited by SpedToe169: Jun 4, 2004 - 7:14 PM