Aluminum Wheel Designs
 

i thought i would start a post showing some wheels designs and discuss desired styles.

i did some quick modeling this afternoon and came up with a late ninties corvette wheel that i always happened to like.

Could work on the Audi R8. What cars were you thinking of putting that on? Look's great!
I personally would love to see some BBS mesh wheels like these:
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g1.../BBSwheels.jpg
These would look good on just about any/all cars available for the Dnano. Granted, the design would be difficult at this scale, but then again, I have seen it ton's of times available for die-cast models and it's awesome!
Imagine the Porsches and Ferrari's with this wheel! Again, the Audi R8 would look hot too!

Here are some simple to mill wheels I was going to do in derlin

http://miles219th.tripod.com/realtra...s/rimrear8.jpg


http://miles219th.tripod.com/realtra...s/rimrear5.jpg

marc, took me a bit as it took several steps to subtract, union, etc. but i made these bbs mesh wheels that are as close to the picture as i could get at this scale. the inner portion of the spokes is in relief just like the real wheel. this also does not accurately reflect the likely 1/256" radi min. probably required for the milling machine.

Arch, that is simply AWESOME! For the Dnano use, accuracy to replicate the real deal isn't necessary. Just a very good representation like your CAD drawing would work well.
But I just wonder how much detail could be machined with a CNC device on these tiny little wheels. Even if those details could be machined, how much strength would the wheels have in those spots?
Love that drawing Arch, very nicely done! Send that to Aluma-Tech?

that wheel will have more mass than those pn wheels. if you think these are delicate, really take a good look at those pn wheels. your talking minimal mass at best connecting the outer rim to the hub. if those were for a mini-z, they would get bent up all to hell. i don't think the dnano has the mass to cause as much damage though.

other than the min. radi, that wheel should be feasible. i'll have to ask to find out for sure.

Good point, I hadn't thought about that. I was thinking of how thin those spokes will be where the wheel has the openings.
I'd love to get at least two sets of these wheels. One for the Porsche, and one for a future Modena.

Possibly a third set if I get the Audi R8.

Great looking wheel Arch. That looks like it took you some time. Let me know if you want me to try and render it in SolidWorks. I will check on what files I can import and convert. The smallest end mill Aluma-Tech can go to is .031, they can go to a .015 cut but not very deep. He could probabll do a .007 inside radius closer to the center of the wheel (.0625 off the outer rim). Good thread idea.

I have another question regarding my BBS wheel idea. The little peg on the inside of the wheel, where would that line-up with on the "spokes"? Perhaps one of those "holes" in the spoke mesh design could be filled in for that peg, rather than open? Just a thought.
I don't know if this design would work well for 17's since 17's are so small that my Countach wheels wouldn't allow that inner peg.
I'd still love to purchase two-three sets of those wheels.
I like this thread too, I'll post more ideas!

For the Ferrari's, it would be nice if we could get the spokes anodized gold.

if you could, please do render in solidworks.

i'll also have to take the entire process through redraw based on the min. dimensions provided. i can model tons of stuff but it's pointless to model something that is infeasible to machine.

i can put the rear peg on the back of a set of spokes or some other reasonable solution. it's unclear how pn is handling the peg? some of their designs appear to not even have it?

From the designs that PN has shown me, I never even saw the rear, or "inside" of the rims. There for I have no knowledge of that peg either. Their designs however, seem to suggest no such peg. We won't really know till we have a set on hand.

If you asking me about rendering, I don't use solidworks or any program for that matter.

Arch,
I can try and convert your rim to SW to render. what file ext. is your native CAD format in. Here are a few prints of the stock rims I calipered up. I thought someone was asking for them a month back.

http://miles219th.tripod.com/realtra...s/rimrear1.jpg

http://miles219th.tripod.com/realtra...s/rimfront.jpg

i model in autocad and can export to the following; dwg, dxf, stl, wmf, sat, eps, dxx, bmp, 3ds. email me and i will email you the model in whatever format i can.

reworked the mesh wheel with the .006 min dia and this is what you get.

Isn't the design on the right the more modern style of the original one? Seems to me I see that style on racing cars these day's, and the other style on classic's. Not a whole lot different, but there is a difference. I like'em both!