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

[sinner96ST]

7.8 pounds? sweet!

whats the haas use to cut with? i was particularly impressed w/ that machine that uses jets of water to cut metal.. kinda looks like that.

congrats on the race, looks like you can really work the CNC machines. keep up the good work, mang.

[Defgeph]

thats fuggin sweet I wishg i could make my own wheels

[SpedToe169]

The centers are 7.8lbs. That doesn't include the rims or the hardware to attach the two. The first prototypes weigh 16lbs which still isn't bad for a 17x8. The later versions will be lighter. I think we can get down to 14 for a 17x8.

The haas uses regular cutting tools. Some of them are quite aggressive. I have one thats taking off 4.75lbs of aluminum per minute when in a full cut. It takes 20hp to run that tool.






Waterjets are nice for cutting things out of flat pieces, but not for something as complex as a wheel. The old place I worked had a waterjet that could cut 8" thick stainless steel. It was nuts. Something like 70,000psi coming out of the nozzle.

[RedSunCelica]

is there any possible way to get a whell thats 16X8? i love the 17x7.5 i have but i was looking at going with one inch smaller and a little more wider. please let me know very interested!

[SpedToe169]

Yeah, we'll be able to do any size and offset you want. They won't be cheap though!!

[Drocay]

thats awsome man, i love the design.

[S_C_M]

Awesome. I'd love to do some fabrication eventually. Learning Solidworks right now for that express purpose. More pics, please.

Those pics and info give me another reason to go back to college. I'm such a slacker.

[95STHATCH]

OK, this is the coolest thing i've seen in a long while!

[SpedToe169]

S C M:

Solidworks is a great start. If you can, get some experience on Pro/e and any other stuff you can. Pro is really a superior product if you're doing anything other than solid modeling. With the software packages (All from PTC/Pro) we have I can update the solid model and seamlessly update the FEA model and the manufacturing files. Its really slick and I'm probably only at about 75% usage.

What else do you want pictures of? I'll send you whatever.

Go back to school!! Its a hard road but its worth it!

[Digndoug]

Man you guys destroied that bimmer.. Thats just sad.. even if it is for racing or display...

[tysO]

that's pretty awesome! i've never heard of anyone making their own rims..you could do a lot with that man

[Andason]

out of pure curiousty... is this how all rims are made? i always thought there was molds

[SpedToe169]

Nope, this is a 3 piece wheel. There are also 2 piece wheels, and one piece wheels. Any portion of any of those can be: cast, forged, spun, or machined from billet. As you can imagine there are a lot of combinations.

[van95st]

looks nice...haven't progressed that far in school so far all i've done is build a sterling engine but that was all manual work with the lathe, the only milling work on the cnc machine already had the program written...but it was all fun none the less. again those look very nice, we need a ball park figure for standard sizes that you will have avaiable.

[shid]

Those actually look nice.. what other designs you have?

PS: is the company name Wheels America? :/

[Magic]

Nice Style and fantastic Technic!!!!!:)
Good start boys:)
I hope in near future to send me few samples at Cyprus:)

[SpedToe169]

Our early fitiments will be for Ferarri/Porsche/BMW/Audi/Corvette. It'll be a while before we venture out of that market due to the cost of the wheels. We're probably not going to sell a lot of $500-600ea wheels to a guy with a civic.

[Digndoug]

[SpedToe169]

Hm, how can I put this without saying what I'm not supposed to say.....

It would probably beat a Z06 in a drag race...it doesn't have as much power, but not very much weight either (Maybe 3/4 the power but 2/3 the weight?). Also keep in mind, its not made to drag race AT ALL. Where it really shines is around a corner. A stock Z06 with tires (say hoosiers) will pull about 1.1-1.2g's (a stock celica on factory tires was probably like 0.85g). Thats a lot! We pull about 1.6 on a tire thats not as sticky (toyo RA-1, spec tire). Again, less weight, better suspension. I've been in a lot of cars and these by far out turn anything I've been in aside from a shifter kart.

I used to not give two sh1ts about bimmers until I worked with them. They are really really great cars. If I had more money I'd have one. They're not too bad to buy, but modifying them costs a LOT!!!