The tires from Northern Hydraulic have a larger bolt pattern and use a slightly larger hub. (At least the one I made is larger.) I got the chunk of aluminum to the left from the salvage yard for $25.00.(A 22xx series alloy which is comparable to the alloy in the plans) The hubs for these wheels are easy to make with a mill and rotary table. An old machinist gave me good advice about projects like mine. He said that when fabricating custom parts you should get all of the pieces before machining to avoid waste. An example of this is found here in this wheel hub. If I had made the hub from my WAR plans I'd have to junk them because the rims wouldn't fit them. As I said in the main page the OD for the hubs is around 5.5".
An industrial bandsaw is a great way to cut all of your steel and aluminum. This one cuts both vertically and horizontally. I got this one used for $200.00. It cuts through anything like butter! (Ok maybe not stainless) Like a mill or lathe this is one of those pieces of equipment that if taken care of can be sold for a high percentage of it's aquisition cost. It is such a time saver and is safer to use than a friction blade on a saw. Always use proper saftey precautions when using any of the aforementioned tools or for that matter any tool used to make this plane.
Here's a gear blank taking shape. This is a spur gear that will mate with a rack in my pneumatic retract system. It will be fairly light after the unecessary material is removed. Besides the gears used in the landing gear there are some for the engine. The engine's gears are custom sizes to keep center to center distances the same. (enlarged pinions/reduced driven gears) Aside from my time there is a lot of money saved by making my own gears.
