my new fancy pants wheel painting rig

[cas3]

i made one of these before mainly for painting wire wheels, as they have so much surface area to hit. it was a hastily made thing mounted on a plank, that was mounted to a sawhorse, it worked, but a hassle to move and set up. so, i made a new one. not such a big deal for these solid wheels, but same theory, and that is you can thin the paint all you want so each coat will "burn" into the coat under it, lay it on as heavy as you want, and never any runs, and never any dry spots or orange peel. fact is, anything you want to spend time to figure out a way to mount it, you will get a perfect job every time, no skill required. works really nice on headlight buckets etc. new features for the new machine are, i made it so the arbor that mounts the wheel can be lifted up for ease of removing the belt. that means i can use it to check the wheel for true without having to remove a wheel off a car, my former method. i also stuck the hub and ford axle in my lathe and trued up the face so the wheel true test is accurate. i also found, that the thing spins so freely with the belt off, that really i should balance that arbor, and then be able to atleast rough balance a wheel before mounting the tire! in this case, one wheel was about 50 thou out, so i tried to press it back with little success. 50 thou went to 30 thou and after that it sprung back. i already had a scary amount of press going, so i quit. 30 is pretty good as wheels go, but a different method must be devised for better results. the whole thing was darn near free, some used bearings from the mower deck, scrap iron, but i did have to buy the lovejoy connector.sorry, pics are not in order-best this hillbilly can do ! it runs at 5 rpm, 3 would be better

[RalphM]

Very good idea! I used to make fishing poles, and would have them on a Machine to turn very slowly when putting the final finish on. They always came out perfect when rotating at a slow, but constant speed.
I’ll have to fabricate one of these for my set of 35 wires I intend to paint.

[peewee2you]

Back in my twenties I knew a fine gentleman Ted Crosby he restored model A's did beautiful work, i became his helper and learned a lot, he had rigged a similar wheel machine that rotated all four connected to a motor and belt, so he could paint them, came out sweet everytime.

[DavidG]

As well, BBQ motors are perfect for this purpose.

[hook00pad]

If you were to add a steady rest, like on a wood lathe, you could do pin-striping as well. Nice job, by the way!

A Hook

[Mart]

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I have dread images of those spin art painting toys from the 70s.

Mart.

[GB SISSON]

I love this thread. I have painted many, many wheels and I have spun a lot of work pieces, but never thought about spin painting round parts. In the '60s I made a spin painting machine from an old record player motor. Drizzled on the testors model paint and for a psycedelic ending a dash of paint thinner. I'm gonna try this for my next wheels, and that's soon. Thanks so much!