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Turning wheel castings to S7 by Adrian Cherry

Many moons ago I purchased a wheel profile tool from the Scale7 stores so that I could turn up wheels for another few planned projects and so to kick off that project I wanted to start on the wheels.

The wheel profile tool is just supplied as a disc of steel with the correct profile cut in it. It is left to the user to work out how to mount it in the lathe.

As I didn't have any square steel stock I found a length of 5/8" round bar. So, a short length was clamped in the tool stock holder on the lathe and an end mill in the chuck.

The cross-slide travel was limited to a couple of inches but was sufficient to turn the round bar into something square (albeit with rounded corners.)

This was then drilled and tapped M5, a steel bush turned up to clamp the profile tool in place

The rest of the round bar was used to make a couple of mandrels for mounting the wheels.

Here I'm reprofiling a few diesel wheels from Roxey Mouldings. They were very nice to convert to Scale7, only needing 12 - 15 thou removing from the rear face to thin the flange down and then touching up with the profile tool.


So I now have a set of 2'6" disc wheels to start my next project.


Mark Wood castings for a Stanier 8F


Mark Wood(l) and JPL(r) castings compared.


JPL castings part-machined


The Scaleseven Group profiling tool in use


I use split axles

Completed tender wheel set

Getting this sorted has also helped with the 3F kit. As mentioned I'm looking at insulated horn blocks and split axles for this. I thought I'd get a set of castings and turn them up myself rather than fiddling with Slater’s wheels.

I ordered a set of tender wheels from JPL to turn up. Whilst not in the same league as AGH I had heard they were an improvement on Walsall Wheels. Although having received a set I'm not so sure - there is certainly a lot of metal to remove!

Scale7 dimensions max width over tyre 3.26mm, casting width 9.5mm.


The finished article


The full set of wheels for the 3F


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