My first hand-crafted RC aircraft was a lightweight Cessna 150. I cut wheels out of a ceiling tile, and, even though they looked beautiful, they collapsed during takeoff. The little incident got the rats in my attic to run around for new ideas. I wanted a quick, reliable and aesthetically vivid solution. I realized that manufactured wheels were less than expensive, but I knew the delivery service was slow as hell. What I found online was the technology of crafting wheels from foam rubber or using old sneakers. In my house I found neither.

What I found in a pile of scrap was a 1mm aluminum plate. I cut out four circular plates 40mm in diameter and packed them. Then I drilled a 3mm hole in each of the plates, bolted the little sandwich together and fixed it in a drilling machine to make them perfectly circular (unfortunately, I could not picture the process). I used a construction blade.



A ready pack.Make 20mm polystyrene boards a little bigger than the future wheels. Drill a hole in the middle of each board and glue the aluminum plates to both sides of the boards (I used PUR)



When the glue dries, fix the piece on a drilling machine. I notched it with a needle. I just span the piece, put the needle to it, and made a perfect circle. Finish it using a sanding brick.



And now the most exciting part of it!))) The wheel is almost ready, there’s just one little finishing touch to be done. I wanted a 50mm wheel, so I went to the store and bought a piece of heat shrink tube 50mm in diameter. Then I cut a 35mm-long piece and put it on the wheel base.



Fix the coated wheel in the drilling machine and center it, then slow the machine down and heat up the shrink tube using a blow drier or a soldering station.

That’s it! Here are the wheels you can craft. Next thing you do is a little jazz-up (drill symetric hole patterns, use screws – whatever you like). Each wheel has a diameter of 50mm and a weight of 7-8gr.