Best material for widening wheels?

[OldNYJim]

Looking for some ideas and advice here - what do you guys like to use to widen a set of wheels for a wider tire?

An identical wheel makes sense - but it seems a waste to slice up perfectly good wheels if there's a scratchbuilding material that would work.  Anyone ever seen a hollow Plastruct bar or similar that's a large enough diameter to help with a job like this?  Any good ideas that you all like to use if you need to add some width to a rim?

[BigTallDad]

Just get some sheet styrene from your LHS (thickness of choice) and cut circles to make some shims.

[OldNYJim]

34 minutes ago, BigTallDad said:

Just get some sheet styrene from your LHS (thickness of choice) and cut circles to make some shims.

That's a great idea for a mild widening, yes!  I never thought of that.  WOuld be pretty easy to add a scale inch or four that way, good thinking.

What would you do for something THIS wide though (cue evil laugh)?

[Ace-Garageguy]

Styrene tube from Evergreen and Plastruct is only available up to about 13mm i.d.

Butyrate tube from about 3mm to 28mm is available here:  http://modelshop.co.uk/Shop/Item/Butyrate-round-tube-white/ITM1179

K&N brass tube is available up to 11/32".   http://www.ksmetals.com/26.html

Hard clear acrylic tube can be had from 8mm to 25mm here:   https://www.theplasticshop.co.uk/acrylic-tube-extruded-clear-8mm-od-to-25mm-od.html

You can cut brass, styrene, butyrate, and acrylic tube and keep the ends square in a miter box, using a razor saw.

Or, you can do it just like full-scale steel wheels are widened, with round bands made from sheet stock.

Get some styrene sheet stock of about .020" or .030" thickness.

Cut strips of the width you want to widen.

Wrap them around a mandrel (like an X-acto handle or socket) of the correct, or close, diameter.

Tape the band firmly to the mandrel, after cutting off most of the excess from the overlap.

Dip it in boiling water for a few seconds.

When it cools, the styrene strip will now be "tempered" in the round shape of a band.

Mark the overlapped end carefully and cut.

Glue the ends together.

Allow to dry overnight.

You now have a custom round band, in any size you need.

 

 

Edited August 2, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[OldNYJim]

Great advice, thank you Bill!  I never considered acrylic tube, that's a great idea.  I like the banding idea too, that's a great one!

[Ace-Garageguy]

22 minutes ago, CabDriver said:

Great advice, thank you Bill!  I never considered acrylic tube, that's a great idea.  I like the banding idea too, that's a great one!

You're welcome. 

Looks like hard white butyrate tube in lotsa sizes (up to 1 1/8") is available from Plastruct on this side of the Atlantic, too.

Butyrate can be glued with epoxy, CAA, or Plastruct's own solvent glue.

https://plastruct.com/product-category/tubing-fittings/butyrate-round-tubing/

Edited August 2, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[OldNYJim]

Ohhh, that Butyrate tube is just the kind of thing I was thinking!  Brilliant! 

My local Michaels stocks Plastruct products, they might be able to order this stuff for me...thanks again Bill!

[cobraman]

1 hour ago, CabDriver said:

That's a great idea for a mild widening, yes!  I never thought of that.  WOuld be pretty easy to add a scale inch or four that way, good thinking.

What would you do for something THIS wide though (cue evil laugh)?

Ma's resin sold sets of those. I ordered 2 sets from them . They are a copy of some tires a man named Richard Caroll made years ago. I paid for them well over 2 years ago and as of yet I did not get them. No answer to email and a phone call was never answered .

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, CabDriver said:

What would you do for something THIS wide though (cue evil laugh)?

If I had those and wanted to use them, I'd be asking how to narrow them to something a bit more realistic looking. 

[OldNYJim]

1 hour ago, cobraman said:

Ma's resin sold sets of those. I ordered 2 sets from them . They are a copy of some tires a man named Richard Caroll made years ago. I paid for them well over 2 years ago and as of yet I did not get them. No answer to email and a phone call was never answered .

That's right, yeah, Richard Carroll tires!  As used on such bananas builds as this:

And this:

1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

If I had those and wanted to use them, I'd be asking how to narrow them to something a bit more realistic looking. 

You COULD narrow them too, but look at the fun you'd be missing out on ?.  Definitely not ones for the accuracy purists (which I admittedly AM sometimes myself...)