- This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 9 months ago by
Paul Tomlinson.
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Mark Churchill
Does anyone know when I can buy one from or does any member have one they might be willing to sell?
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John Cutler
I recommend the wheelpress and quartering jig from GW Models, cost £25-£30. Phone 01903 767231 to confirm price and postage. George the proprietor is elderly so there is no website. Expect to pay by cheque. His address was 11 Croshaw Close, Lancing, West Sussex BN15 9LE. I hope he has not moved!
The GW press will only work with finescale wheels (Alan Gibson and Ultrascale). If you re-use RTR wheels (e.g. the Dapol B4 wheel is not available in finescale), then I use the Bill Bedford quartering jig; cost £7.90 from Wizard Models:
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Paul Willis
I’ll second the GW Models wheel press. It’s essential for me, and I value mine so much that I bought a spare.
George has advertised in the MRJ for many years. You can find the details of all of the tools that he offers in the latest advert.
These are handmade, properly engineered, and will last a lifetime. All of them are investments that are well worth making.
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Thank you both for your advice. I have now bought a wheel press and quartering jig from GW Models. It is a quite impressive and solid piece of kit.
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Paul Tomlinson
I too have recently bought a GW wheel press. Over on Western Thunder it has recently been reported that one member has trouble getting a satisfactory result as the press seems to make contact with the wheel boss rather than the wheel rim – a solution being to add plastikard packing pieces. Thinking about it a bit more, I’ve also heard of the GW wheel-puller separating the rim from the centre, so maybe the packing pieces should not bear the weight of the press… Have any EMGS members encountered similar? Cheers.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by Paul Tomlinson.
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This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by
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At one time I used to have thin plasticard packing pieces glued to the GW wheel press. This works fine for wheels with a boss. But some wheels do not have a boss. I now use removable insulating tape to support the wheel rims if there is a boss. The wheel rims should bear on the plasticard/tape spacers and not just the wheel spokes. If you want to try and take some of the stress out of using the GW wheel press, I recommend Alan Sibley’s article in MRJ151 (2004) showing how a simple jig can help.
As for the GW wheel-puller separating the spokes from the wheel rim (tyre), this has happened to me too many times. I use a thick (0.8mm, more would be better) piece of circular brass with a 1/8” slot cut out for the axle (see the image below). Mine is 22mm diameter but should be greater than the diameter of your largest wheel. I still find this a pig to use successfully as the puller hooks tend to slip off. Does anyone have a better solution (do not suggest a lathe!)?
I must admit that I now have an (expensive!) aversion to re-using driving wheels that have been dismantled. At least one chassis required a rebuild after re-used drivers slipped on their axles and made a mess of rods, valve gear and more. The plastic that Alan Gibson and Ultrascale use in their wheels seems to deform slightly on second use.
Avoid wheel re-use. Get it right first time!
Good Luck!
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Paul Tomlinson
John, thank you for your useful pointers. I’d given up buying every MRJ by the time 151 came around (sods law I have 152) so I’ll order a back-number. Now you mention it, I do remember the slotted disc you show as an aid to wheel removal – I found that I had difficulty enough removing mounted wheels as the distance between my frames and wheel-back was less than the jaws on the tool would allow. I was working on a small 7mm scale model, but I can see that if the disc (diameter) overlapped the frames the clearance issue would not occur. Cheers.
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