Problem with Resin wheels

You're gonna run into this sorta stuff using resin, it comes with the territory. In your case here the safe bet is to open up the hub a tad to get the right fit. Then use superglue or epoxy to mate the two as normal modeling glues have no effect on resin. Good luck.

BK

Thanks Brandon.  Yeah, the more I look at the situation the more I think removing any length from the axle would result in a substantially weaker part.  The hub is thick enough to allow some work so I will go that route.

Good to know this is fairly normal with resin.  I wasn't sure if I should contact the maker and do some shouting.  lol

Cheers, Mark

Drill the hub and ca the gear on. You need the axle length for strength so no cutting off that part.

Yep, as mentioned, this is usual for resin wheels, i often find the hole on the whel is not wide enought either. As the guys have said, best to deepen the hole, of course being very careful you don't go right through.

Bish

being very careful you don't go right through.

Hello!

That's why I would recommend trimming the axle. If you are going to superglue the wheel on anyway, it will be strong enough, and you don't have the risk of wrecking the wheel. Of course you could also use both methods - drill a little and trim a little - this might be optimal here. Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Yes, be sure to measure how much stock you have left when you drill.  Measuring how deep the hole is now isn't bad- stick a drill or any kind of rod in it and mark how deep.  But measuring the thickness of the wheel requires a caliper. On the other hand, calipers these days are cheap- even digital ones- so maybe now is the time to pick one up.

 And, once you start drilling, go slowly and remeasure the depth of the hole frequently.

Thank you all for the advice.  I think I will focus on the hubs first, to see how much I can safely remove and then if I need to I could take a little from the axle.  I hope it won't come to that. 

Don, I actually bought a caliper when I returned to the hobby.  I thought, maybe this will come in handy some day.  

Cheers, Mark

I take a different view, regarding the resin part.

Any modification you make to the resin, if it gets goofed up, will be pretty impossible to fix. There's a lot of fine bolt detail around the hole in the hub that could easily get eradicated.

Looking at your fit photo, is the diameter of the plastic pin too loose inside the hub?

Loading in glue isn't going to fix that.

I think metal needs to be involved. Can you find a piece of tubing that can be forced over the pin and forced into the hub without much modification?

GMorrison

I take a different view, regarding the resin part.

Any modification you make to the resin, if it gets goofed up, will be pretty impossible to fix. There's a lot of fine bolt detail around the hole in the hub that could easily get eradicated.

Looking at your fit photo, is the diameter of the plastic pin too loose inside the hub?

Loading in glue isn't going to fix that.

I think metal needs to be involved. Can you find a piece of tubing that can be forced over the pin and forced into the hub without much modification?

 

 

Hi, Mr. Stecks -

As GMorrison said, how well does the larger part of the axle fit, in the larger bore of the wheel? As I look at the photo, it seems that it may be reasonably close to a decent fit.

My suggestion: If that larger part of the axle does mostly fill the hole, then a simple shortening of the smaller axle pin might actually work for you. Since you have the micrometer, maybe you can check those measurements before any cutting takes place.

Since only CA glue works with resin, once you have a decent fit that glue will provide a gap filling ability and you'd have it whipped. I'd like to know how you resolve this, I've not tried resin or after market bits yet, it would be good school housin' for me.

Patrick 

Actually, the diameter of the hole is pretty good for the pin...  not snug but not really loose.  The real problem is the depth of the hole.  In the second picture you can see down into the hub and the hole suddenly narrows about halfway down.  I think if I can open up that section to match the diameter of the top of the hole, then the pin will reach in to the proper depth.

But I hadn't thought about using some metal tubing.  I do have a pile of various diameter tubing that I bought for some craft-art a few years ago.  I'll have a look through that and see if I have something that might help in this situation.  Thanks for the suggestion.

Whatever I do, I'm goint to go very slow.  I can still fall back to the kit wheels if I muck this up.  hahaha...

Cheers, Mark

Aftermarket resin parts. I have tiny drills that you work with your fingers. I'd very carefully drill the holes deeper, and only sand back the pins if they would require you to drill all the way through.  

On a 1/32 kit I built once I drilled a hole in the pin and inserted a narrow pin hole into it as I had trimmed it down to far. I found a pin with a round flat head and drilled a hole through the tire and was able to get the pin to go into the hole in the pin through the tire. I used slow cure cyanoacrylate. I'm mentioning this because I made a mess of it the first time I tried and thats how I recovered. Good luck. 

I've worked with resin models and resin parts for many years and you can use other glues than cyanoacrylate (aka super glue) with resin. Glues I have used sucessfully are:

• Cyanoacrylate
• Elmers white glue. Resin to resin only. 
• 2 part epoxy. This works with just about everything.
• gorilla gule (cyanoacrylate version and wood glue type)

Now for the most troublesome parts there is a two part epoxy you can buy from the autoparts store that is for glueing the rearview mirror to your car windshield. Its a single use vial and once you break the vial to get it out you have about 3 to 5 minutes to use it. It is my glue of last resort and its a bit pricey if since you only have a short time to use it.