Since i wont be able to ride over christmas im looking for some technical drawings or detailed photos and specifications for track hubs. Ive got access to a metal lathe and thinking a hub would be an interesting project. So… anyone got anything like that?
Sounds very interesting!
A technical drawing wouldn’t be too complicated- as long as the spoke holes are in the correct configuration.
I was thinking the same thing the other day, it would be an awesome project, seeing as I’ve just inherited a lathe which belonged to my great-grandfather (which used to be in his automotive engineering shop in LaTrobe St Melbourne between Elizabeth and Swanston, I think it’s an IGA now?). I don’t have any detailed drawings at the moment, but I was considering pulling apart a pair of track hubs and taking some measurements. I might draw something up in SolidWorks in the new year if I can get my shit together, so keep reminding me!
I’ve got a copy of SolidWorks too if anyone needs some drafting help.
That’s what I like to hear!
I knew I could find some engineering types on here to help satiate my need to build things. This stuff makes me consider going back to uni again.
I started drafting some really basic plans from the specs part of the phil wool website, but I was focussing on trying to do a bolt-on cog version. Cutting the threads the right size for a cog and lockring seems more difficult than drilling and tapping 6 ISO spaced holes. In the end I chucked my first few drafts. They looked shithouse.
I’m still thinking about whether I would go for a 1-piece design (wasting a lot of alloy for a decent sized billet), or a 3 piece design like the airlites where the alloy ends appear to be press fit onto a steel shaft.
Interesting idea, I have been pretty keen to manufacture my own bike parts for a while now.
Though strength is going to be a major factor, most high quality hubs are forged and a hub built on a lathe or CNC machine is more likely to have the flanges rip off
This is what Sheldon Brown says on his site
Hubs
All modern hubs of decent quality are made of aluminum. Better-quality hubs are usually made by forging, and only forged hubs should be used for radial-spoked front wheels. I would generally advise avoiding overpriced “boutique” hubs which are made by CNC machining, since their flanges are usually weaker than those of forged hubs
Correct. Forging is usually stronger than CNC machining, although if you are careful about aligning the grain of the metal CNC can work too.
this is really interesting, have you thought about ‘re designing’ the hub? or are you mainly keen on just copying what you know works and riding it as your project?
I’ve been curious about running a front hub with a different pull structure like the ‘Eject’ hub from BMX brand Simple Bike Co.
Jimmy Rostlund was the designer behind the hub and there is a really cool Interview with him at this link regarding some of his designs and their process. Definately worth a read.
He is from Sweden but was actually living In Melbourne for some time and working at Strictly BMX too.
I like that guys ideas. The whole “is there a need” question should always pop up when your looking at parts to sell. But for my purposes id be happy making something for the hell of it or modifying stock parts to suit my needs. Maybe if i had a free cad program id play around with it though. They look hard to work with.
i made some hubs for my moto once. started out just machining some stock hubs for style…didn’t look right still, so i cut one in half lengthways and measured up. had the drilling done by a specialist wheelsmith.
Make sure the short transverse grain direction is along the length of the hub. Don’t know about shitty aluminium like 6061 but the wing structure stuff is way different in the ST direction, weaker and much more brittle.
Gotta heap of these hubs lying around, mainly silver that you can muck around with and cut a lockring thread into. Varying spoke holes . 3 pair for $10 post only. I think there is 1 red and 1 black also.
I know on this blog this guy modified a rear to become track hub. Interesting read.
http://akfixed.blogspot.com/2009/04/adams-fetish-part-2-scavenger-hunt.html
Jimmy still lives in Melbourne, but is working nights somewhere so isn’t seen during daylight too often. He has applied for citizenship and looks like he is going to be here for a very long time. I’m fairly sure he has just bought a house, or was looking at it at least in Point Cook.
I copied some old Campag hubs that I had and fitted sealed bearings instead of the cup&cone.I made them out of 6061 Al, that is plenty strong enough.They have had thousands of kilometres of use and dont show any signs of fatigue.
Sounds interesting. How did you cut the threads? At the moment im building up an old road frame instead of machining custom parts. Only just now I shot a blue over the primer. Its such a shithouse job.
There should be a chart on the end of the lathe similar to the one in the pic.This will show you how to set the gears/levers to cut the threads.You will need to set up for 24 TPI.
so i think this thread is tonnes old, and you guys may have gone your own ways with your seperate projects and what not, but i used the search function (like a good boy) and found this forum…
basically, for my major project at my engineering course ive decided to machine some track hubs. got some blueprints/ engineering drawings from the Zipp website for their track hubs, absolutely free! so ill be making them over the next few weeks… has anyone actually gone ahead and made their hubs a reality or could anyone offer some adivce on homemade hubs… might aswell add that we have a Large mill, 2 small CNC mills and a Large HAAS lathe… and all the other nescessary gear to make lots of stuff out of metal…
cheers errybody 
I’ve got a measured CAD drawing of a Zipp axle that I need a new one of, if you want to practice?