Margay Wheels

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Bob Alexander
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Vintage Karting items owned: 1961 Lancer
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Location: NW Ohio

Margay Wheels

Post by Bob Alexander » Wed Jan 25, 2023 1:02 pm

Over the holidays I decided I wanted some narrower wheel rims for some front tires. I use mostly Margay 24 wheels so I decided to create a 2-1/2” wheel with a 1” ring, a hub and I needed an additional 5/16” for this wheel. After a little doodling on the computer, I came up with this drawing.

While visiting McMaster-Carr, I found 6” rounds of 6061 Aluminum, a half inch thick for $20.16, so I ordered two. After some hours on the lathe, I had two nice wheel rings for a wheel.

After milling the rim looked like this.

After assembly the wheel and tire looked like this…
Attachments
Finished Wheel.jpg
Milled Ring.jpg
Turned Ring.jpg
Turned Ring.jpg (46.41 KiB) Viewed 7155 times
HALF INCH WHEEL RING.jpg

Rob Voska
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Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2007 9:04 am

Re: Margay Wheels

Post by Rob Voska » Wed Jan 25, 2023 1:42 pm

Man that was a lot of work but great results! Yes the 1/2" wide inner rims are very hard to find.

So at $1 an hour these are about $50 + material? :o :lol:

Bob Alexander
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:33 pm
Vintage Karting items owned: 1961 Lancer
1963 Dart GP
1967 Dart "A" Bone
1968 SAE clone
1973 SAE clone
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Location: NW Ohio

Re: Margay Wheels

Post by Bob Alexander » Wed Jan 25, 2023 2:12 pm

I had about 3 hours of turning per wheel and a half hour of milling, less than $25.00 each at $1 per hour...

Rob Voska
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Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2007 9:04 am

Re: Margay Wheels

Post by Rob Voska » Wed Jan 25, 2023 5:11 pm

:D Labor of love! Nice job.

roger santee
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Re: Margay Wheels

Post by roger santee » Thu Jan 26, 2023 5:21 am

Those are neat. Great job Bob and thanks for sharing.

REAR
Posts: 1222
Joined: Sat Jun 16, 2007 10:19 am

Re: Margay Wheels

Post by REAR » Thu Jan 26, 2023 7:02 am

Bob,

How does it compare to a stock Margay wheel half in terms of weight ?

R.E.A.R.

dean kanocz
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Re: Margay Wheels

Post by dean kanocz » Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:55 am

Very Nice work!!

Bob Alexander
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:33 pm
Vintage Karting items owned: 1961 Lancer
1963 Dart GP
1967 Dart "A" Bone
1968 SAE clone
1973 SAE clone
User Agreement: Yes
Location: NW Ohio

Re: Margay Wheels

Post by Bob Alexander » Thu Jan 26, 2023 6:35 pm

R.E.A.R

According to my scale, a 1" rim weighs 3-1/4 oz and mine weigh 3-3/4 oz.

Bob

Terry Bentley
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Re: Margay Wheels

Post by Terry Bentley » Sat Feb 04, 2023 2:39 am

Nice job there, I have some 3/4 plate getting the same transformation.

Are you concerned about the bead holding on such a small contact surface?

Travis_Lawson
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Re: Margay Wheels

Post by Travis_Lawson » Thu Apr 13, 2023 11:45 pm

In the later 90's I attended college in Denver CO for Industrial Design. For 4 hours a day I had access to a full manufacturing type machine shop. One of the obscure tools in the shop was an old industry metal spinning lathe. While most of my fellow classmates used their time on the machine making dog bowls or novel bedside change trays, I was busy spinning 5" and 6" kart rim halves. I made several hardwood rim plugs in various depths and spun about a dozen sets of rims for my Margay and Hartman karts that both ran the Margay 62 wheels.

I like what you have done making those wheels. Pretty cool.

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