WPL Wheel system, No Supports Needed, White Spoke/Wagon Wheel

thingiverse

I wanted to make some "White Spoke" WPL wheels to make my C24 look more like the 1982 Toyota I had as a teenager. While at it, I decided to create a system for making the wheels that doesn't require supports when printing. There are five parts which will need to be glued together. I prefer DAP Rapid Fuse, as it sets in 30 seconds and cures in a half hour. I used ASA and ABS filament for my testing, both of which shrink. Parts may need to be resized in the slicer depending on what filament is being used. I recommend starting with the outer hub and making sure it fits on the axle properly. Once that is dialed in, the inner hub should be sized the same, then the other parts may need resizing to fit the hub. If you have problems getting the wheel insert over the lug nut area, an alternative outer hub is included to print them both together as one piece. (I wanted a different color for the lug nuts & wheel cap. In the picture, the lugnuts have been painted with Molotow Liquid Chrome before the wheel insert was installed.) Use a file or sandpaper to ensure that all mating surfaces are flat. Check inside of where the axle will be inserted to make sure it is free from debris. You may want to use small clamps or a heavy object to keep the layers pressed tightly together while the glue dries. There are no alignment pins for the inner and outer hubs. They should be assembled using the truck axle or a 5mm hex key for alignment. Be careful not to glue the truck axle or hex key in place! Make sure the "spoke" supports of both hubs are aligned. ***IMPORTANT - When installing the wheel insert, note that only two of the lug nuts & lug nut holes form a direct line with with the spokes. Use these to orient the wheel insert on the outer hub. If installed properly, the support spokes on the hubs will be directly behind the spokes on the wheel insert. The inner lip is slightly larger and deeper than the outer lip. Hopefully that is enough info to get your wheels made. Besides not requiring supports, this system could be used to make different style wheels. I've included a blank wheel insert. Also included is a blank wheel insert that combines the insert and outer lip. This will require supports for the lip, but would allow the design to use more of the lip area. The support spokes on the hub may not be covered up by a different wheel design, but they can be printed or painted black to make them less visible. Side note: I created the wheel insert by bitmap tracing an image of the original American Racing whitespoke wheel. Therefore, the triangle cutouts may not be perfectly uniform, but they are close enough for me. EDIT: One of the triangular cutouts had a very flat spot which bothered me, so I corrected that (1/22/2022). The cutouts may still have other imperfections from being bitmap traced. Good luck. I am hoping for some remixes. 1/25/2022 - Added American Racing AR-39 "Swirl" style insert. Had those on a 90's Toyota. Again, picture of wheel was bitmap traced so the design has some imperfections which won't affect performance.