Wheel that I made

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Great craftsmanship in the way you mounted it. I bet that's why it's so quiet. I can't afford to splurge on a wheel when I already have a flying saucer, but I am certainly drooling over yours. :clap1:

I'm certain if you can streamline your expenses, you'll make a killing on this forum! Seriously the best wheel I've seen...
 
I see everyone saying if he can find the pans cheaper they'd buy, but he also needs to get paid for his work, time, and idea.

I doubt you'll find such a pan at a garage sale or probably not even walmart... I don't think a lot of people realize how big a 16" pan is. I have a 16" frier pan, it's very large, and it's not something most people have just laying around, lol. I cook a lot, and I LOVE my frier pan.. in fact now I'm hungry for fried chicken...
 
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Ok so I may be able to go a different route for the wheel and make it cheaper and lighter while retaining high-quality... The pan is thicker than necessary. I can get the bearing a dollar or 2 cheaper. The nuts, bolts, washers are pretty much as cheap as I can get them because of the size of some of them.

I'll see what I can come up with and let everyone know to see if anyone is interested.
 
What an awesome job! I think it is wonderful that you followed thru with your idea of making your own wheel. It looks great and works great!
 
I am really impressed. I don't think I ever would have come up with that idea. It looks really good.
 
If you could make the running surface a bit wider as well, I'd definitely be interested in buying some for some deserving rescue people I know and also for my colony cages.
 
I don't even care how much it costs... if you decide to sell them, I will save up the money for one. That just looks flipping AMAZING.

Ps. The video does not work now? :(
 
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RDZCRanch said:
If you could make the running surface a bit wider as well, I'd definitely be interested in buying some for some deserving rescue people I know and also for my colony cages.
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That is mighty sweet of you Tab. I have the same intentions once I get this going.

The running path on these are 5" wide. I would like to have it 6" wide but there is nothing I can get that has that width (to my knowledge).

I have contacted someone to get a quote on having the "wheel" part of the wheel custom made so I can have 15" or 16" diameter x 6" wide and not be so heavy. The pan I am using now is overkill and is not necessary to be as thick as it is...It just makes it too heavy. Someone suggested I use a 16x4 cake pan which would have no handles to grind off and would reduce weight by over 2lbs. But if 4" is too narrow I guess it's back to the drawing board.





psycho_ash said:
I don't even care how much it costs... if you decide to sell them, I will save up the money for one. That just looks flipping AMAZING.

Ps. The video does not work now? :(
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The video worked for me just a minute ago. You have to have QuickTime up to date. Imageshack is clunky! Time to create a photobucket account!!!

Thanks everyone for the compliments. I WILL have them for sale once I make them more ideal. Just waiting on an email with a quote!
 
StevieP said:
I have contacted someone to get a quote on having the "wheel" part of the wheel custom made so I can have 15" or 16" diameter x 6" wide and not be so heavy. The pan I am using now is overkill and is not necessary to be as thick as it is...It just makes it too heavy. Someone suggested I use a 16x4 cake pan which would have no handles to grind off and would reduce weight by over 2lbs. But if 4" is too narrow I guess it's back to the drawing board.
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My trusty tape measure and I just did a tour of the chin room to measure running surfaces of various wheels.

Silver Surfer 4"
Ed Wheel 5"
Leo Braun 6"
Chin Spin 6 1/5"

I have 5 Silver Surfer wheels servicing 13 chins and none of the chins have had an issue with 4" not being wide enough.
 
I made a few homemade wheels using the 16x4 inch aluminum cake pan and they are fine for the normal size chin, my tank chin can't use it though. I use them for my vacation cages sine they don't take up alot of room. I like the cake pan better than the oil drip pans some people use since the running surface is flat and not angled down like the drip pans are.
 
I'd prefer a bigger diameter than a wider running space.

I had a leo, and I'd have two running on it... or trying... which to me says if two chins can fit on that... it's plenty wide.
 
Maybe you could offer different widths? I know for my chins, I'd probably be able to do one thinner (4" wheel) but I'd need one wider one for for my cage of chubs.
 
The reason the homemade ones aren't ideal at 4 inches is because they slope downwards. If a wheel is straight across (like the silver surfer) it should be fine for 99.8% of chins.
 
Wow, Nice job! I need a wheel for my chins, so I guess once you start selling I'll have to come up with the funds....I love that it's silent....I often end up sleeping on the couch at night. (next to the chin room)....Dang hubby and his snoring!
 
That looks sweet! I would be interested in buying one or two also. I tried making one out of a pot using a lazy susan bearing for the spinning part, but the wheel ended up being too hard for them to spin :p it was a good waste of money.
 
I have been dreading making this update :frown2:

I had these wheels and variants thereof in 4 of my 5 cages since since July. I have 1 original left, here's why.

I used aluminum for it's inability to rust and in my latest model, for it's light weight. The downside to aluminum is that it is too soft for chinchillas if they chew on it. This one in the picture has a rounded edge which I thought would deter them from chewing on it, but they still destroyed it. The original wheels that were thicker (and too heavy) still got chewed and sharp edges resulted from it.

The bearings also showed their true colors after a few months and make a little noise. I am looking into others to test out.

I have been saving some cash and plan to invest in some metalworking equipment so I can design exactly what I want. I have not given up, and hope that one day I will be able to produce something of the highest quality and still be affordable. There are a few prototypes sitting in the garage that need a few mods and months of testing.

Ideas are always welcome, and I apologize to let anyone down who may have been waiting for this. In the meantime the chin-spin and flying saucer are apparently great wheels.

theycheweverything.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/465/theycheweverything.jpg
 
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