You are likely to get lots of answers to this!
The ones I was involved with...
we made a mould for the rim from nylon ( a bloody great big chunk turned on the lathe) and a 3 piece hinged pressure former. So you laid up the required laminate on the mould, and then put the pressure former over the laminate and bolted and clamped it up. This squeezed the laminate so you had ann "ideal" glass to resin ratio and the rim had to come out at design size.
Then we made a conical disc for each side. Again this had a mould (solid aliminium billet turned to plan) and a nylon inner. From memory there were 3 layers of 6oz woven cloth, with the fibres each slightly rotated to give a multi "spoke" effect, then 8 single ribbons of carbon tape 25mm wide radiating from the centre to the outside, and a final 6oz, then the nylon pressure plate was clamped down.
While the first side was curing we made a hub from solid alloy to carry the bearings, and etched and knurled on the outside to give a key for the fibreglass.
The first side was released from the mould, the hub mounted on the mould and the second side layed up in the same way, except for having the hub locked into the laminate. While still wet the rim (now released from the mould was clamped in place and bonded in. Now take out the pressure plate, and fit the side which was previously made and bond with aircraft bonding glue (which came form the Harrier jump jet program). Leave to cure in the hotbox, release and fit the bearings and tyre! About 4 hours work, and all up weight of 1.8kg with tyre. Easy peasey (not!)

Bugger that would have turned me of making mine.
Cheers
AUS230

cisco said...

Would the wheels used on trotting sulkies be suitable???

A while back the Kiwi guys tried them, not sure of the outcome, but they dont use them any more. Clemco?

Aus 230 that method would have turned you off? At the time it was the best option. (This was in the time of a wheel diameter restriction) and there were simply no rims available, so we had to make our own. The pressure plate thing was a bit like vacuum bagging but easier to achieve, and with wheels to be made for the 6 yachts in the "team" (plus potential sales to others)the tooling was relatively easy to achieve.

I as not criticizing the method just my inability in being able to make the mold that way.

I also used sulky wheels but had a problem with them blowing apart on hot days at Lefroy. That is the main reason that I have persevered in making my own.

I use a 3/8 " axle but I have had to use class 12 bolts to stop them bending (my hubs are out of the plastic sulky wheels) and have not bent or broken one yet in 3 years.

Cheers
AUS230

Thanks guys for the gen on sulky wheels. That is one hot looking yacht there clemco.

oops I use 5/8"not 3/8' axles. The plastic rims where OK if I only inflated them to 25 ppsi (some days on Lefroy the temp is around 40c, on the beaches I do not think there would be a problem as the ground temp would be much cooler).
Cheers
AUS230