Con-Cor U50 Wheelsets - Replacements?

[PGE-N°2]

My head just sort of exploded - I cannot fathom Walmart having anything like this in the first place. What a weird and wonderful find.

I had the same thought. I would love to go to Walmart and find a few pieces micro machinery for building things.

[LV LOU]

I had the same thought. I would love to go to Walmart and find a few pieces micro machinery for building things.

Micro Mark used to sell them.Theirs was the same basic machine I got for 29 bucks,but had more attachments.It was something like 99 bucks.It was just a toy,though.I looked all over,can't seem to even find a pic of it now.Mine only uses the base,tailstock and gearbox housings,all the rest is Dremel,Cobra R/C,and handmade.

[peteski]

Rod stock down the barrel was my first thought, but then you still have the jaws potentially biting into a bearing surface. I guess a spacer might solve that.

Even then, the thin tubular axle half could easily shear (at the back of the wheel) under the strain of the thread being cut.

I've also turned wheels by turning down screw stock to be a close-fit with enough threads left to use a nut for clamping into the chuck. It worked OK for doing flanges, but I wouldn't want to rely on that for treads.

Agreed, there is a lot more force involved in turning the thread down (even if it was done in very small increments. That would also take a lot of time).

That's why I asked about the possible methods - I couldn't think of one.

[C855B]

Progress. The NWSL wheels arrived in the mail today, and I managed to find 2.0mm brass tubing during our recent travels. Wheels are a good press fit on the tubing, but I might have to ream the tubing slightly to get the Con-Cor axle inserts to fit cleanly. Looks like a decent evening's project... fingers crossed!

[rodsup9000]

   Mike
 What wheels did you get from NWSL???  I have several turbines that I might do your trick to.

 Oh, hows the layout building coming along??  Have you done much lately to it??

Thanks
Rodney

[C855B]

40"/64, with 2mm centers. It might be a few days before I know we're on the right track... when starting to cut tubing I realized I didn't have anything in my toolkit to make consistent repetitive cuts in brass, so I'm standing by for a Micro-Mark order to arrive.

Layout building has been on "pause" for the past couple of weeks during our annual cross-country train excursion. We've been over there yesterday and today more or less cleaning up from winter and getting a couple of prep projects out of the way. Temperatures are moderating, so there is some hope for serious progress to resume this next week.