The Art of Repairing a Wobbly Wheel

Tracy begins by introducing the problem at hand - a wheel that's losing weight due to excessive exercise, courtesy of her mischievous Bengal cat Ziggy. The wheel has been experiencing issues with resistance and wobbliness, which Tracy attributes to one of the kids having tampered with the bearings or axle. Despite its initial functionality, the wheel now requires a repair job.

Tracy takes a closer look at the wheel's components and assesses the situation. She realizes that the wheel is losing its shape and is no longer moving smoothly due to friction introduced by the wobbling motion. To rectify this issue, Tracy decides to swap out the old bearings for new ones. She also intends to machine the axle to fit the original diameter of the wheel.

Before starting the repair process, Tracy acknowledges that she may have been too cautious with her tolerances during machining. She plans to make two more wheels and strengthen them further by bending the axle until it becomes significantly stronger. However, this reveals a mistake made by the previous manufacturer - a machined notch in the axle that makes it even weaker.

To overcome this setback, Tracy resorts to using brass spacers to stabilize the wheel. These are precision-cut pieces of brass that will fit snugly into the wheel's design, providing an added layer of security. With these new components in place, Tracy is confident that she can repair the wheel and return it to its former glory.

As Tracy proceeds with her repairs, she realizes that some parts have been overlooked during the initial assessment. Specifically, the wheels are thicker than expected, which means all of the replacement bearings will be too short for their intended use. Undeterred, Tracy adapts to this new information and starts again, making necessary adjustments along the way.

Once the wheel has been repaired and refitted with its new components, Tracy tests its performance. To her delight, the wheel now spins smoothly and quietly, free from any wobbling or resistance. The improved design and materials have significantly reduced the friction between the bearings and wheels, allowing for a smoother ride.

Tracy also reveals that she has replaced the original bearings with skateboard bearings of high quality and chosen very hard wheels to reduce rolling resistance. Additionally, she opted for hardened steel shafts instead of opening up the existing holes. This decision proved effective in strengthening the wheel's structure and minimizing any potential weaknesses.

As Tracy completes her repairs, she reflects on the experience. She notes that one of the kids could probably ride this modified record on their skateboard, and the improved wheel design makes it suitable for even more rigorous use. With its enhanced performance and durability, the repaired wheel is now capable of withstanding significant stress without compromising its structural integrity.

Finally, Tracy tests the repaired wheel by spinning it for an extended period, watching in awe as it whizzes around smoothly and quietly, no longer prone to wobbling or resistance. She acknowledges that her modifications have proven effective, transforming a flawed design into a functional masterpiece.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi Tracy hi Adam um apparently you'vegot a wheel problem I have a realproblem I have a crazy Bengal cat thatloves to run on this thing at nightwhat's his name his name is Ziggy andhe's like he's big he's big he's like 18pounds oh and this is losing weight he'slosing weight because of his exerciseyeah I think his exercise feels a littleflawed not moving quite smoothly enoughah okay this is incredible this isbeautiful but I hear a lot of resistanceand it seems a bit wobbly yeah it's notI think one of the kids got on it andbeen the--of bearings or somethinghappened I mean it definitely workedbetter in the beginning okay needs alittle repair job all rightIII have some materials I think we mightbe able to apply to this um let's uhlet's take a look at its components andsee what we can see what we can repairall right oh that's about as simple asit getsso let's just pop out of here I thinkthat's that's crazy that amount of noiseum oh wow they're glued in let me get ascrewdriver this is this is the big onethis um that amount of slop that it hasthat's noise and if that's wobblingwhile the thing is wobbling it'sintroducing friction that's notperfectly linear so in preparation Ibought this which is a hard skateboardwheel and a thicker axle so here watchthis pick up that and spin it right sothey didn't even see the wobble on ityeah so go ahead and spin that one ohyeah absolutelyright and this one will spin for like 15seconds right that one stops almostimmediately and times 9 it's a lot ofextra like vibrational rise so there'sthat now this is let the thicker thanthe slot so I think I can machinethis down on my lathe I'll need tomachine it so I need a machine thesethree in the meantime I can have youstart pressing bearings into thesewheels okay cool I'm going to putbearing on top of the wheel like thatand that's it nice and level in bothsides of the wheel okaythe problem with making the holes biggeris that this has been precisely machinedand and it's put together together soeverybody went in anyway that's yeahyeah precise enough but I think I'm alittle bit I think I've gone a littlebit too tight with my tolerances I'mgoing to make two more of these and it'sgoing to make it a lot stronger thanthis I mean I can bend this axle with myhand set and this one is significantlystronger right so this is just going totake me a couple minutessee what they've got here is they'veactually machined a little notch intothe axle which is ridiculous because itmakes it even weaker right and thenthey've put a little circlip on there soinstead of doing that because that'lltake a huge amount of time I'm justgoing to use a little brass spacer okaythat threads over and so what we needare two four six pieces of brass cut toexactly that thickness that width okayright there and I've got this little sawwith a clamp alright then do that andcut it to that we need six of those allright Adamnine of these one two oh whoopswhat we need is actually one two threefour five six little I mean little onesthat looks exactly right so we canrepair the end you want to give that umfirst of all we with a little pair ofpliers we'll take off that little bit offlash and then and countersink bit in itthat'll help clean it up all rightso I think those are I think these areready to go um let's see so it's a sonice oh go ahead and when you startassembling one an awesome one ifeverything goes correctlythat'd be it if everything goescorrectly oh I love how like preciselyeverything fits on stuff okay what dothey get wrongright off the bat over there everythingscrewed up really no no it's alrightit's just that these wheels I forgotthese wheels are thicker by a fair bitwhich means all of these are the wronglength so let's say 0.9 all right againlet's try again it looks oh that looksgreatokay so there it is okay so ladies andgentlemen boy fect added me gonna putmore hot glue in on top of that or is itreally necessary we could put itactually I'd probably put in a littleepoxy mm-hmm I've got some readythat a new sound it is how much maybefilling oh yeah um wait a secondlet's get away smoothergo yeah significantly better mm-hmmall right last thing I'm going to do I'mgoing to throw some oil so the basicgist of it was that their axle was thinI can barely make it bendy which meansthat it's going to move these wheelsactually can turn on the axle there's ahuge I mean that's like 10 right out ofplay and then I can feel that thesewheels are also poorly molded like youknow that's that's a separation lineright and none of that's good so I wentwith skateboard bearings with highquality skateboard wheels I went withvery hard wheels rather than soft wheelsthat's to lower the rolling resistanceafter the wheel the more contact thereis any more friction and then finallyrather than opening up these holes Iwent with some hardened steel shaftwhich I machined down to fit theoriginal diameter these but these aresuper strong and they're not goinganywhereright no I wouldn't say it out loud wellone of the kids could probably get onthis record it and I guess you'll takethe spider back home again yeah I thinkso I think he's good I think he wants tostay all right there we go cool oh it'smuch better wow that's gonna be a muchfaster wheel that's his radicalimprovement isn't that insane oh that'sso cool I did I really didn't know ifthat would be such a good improvementlook at that but he's gonna love thatnow he's gonna get fat againreally not nearly as much effort oh Isee but yeah who's gonna be rang yep Wowso let me see how long it spins forall rightI mean I think it's freewheeling likefive more rotations yeah awesomephenomenal yeah it's I really can'tbelieve they had all of this crazy likeratalie wheels in here it's such a shamecuz it's a beautiful design and Ithought this thing ain't no longer evenwanders the way I am it doesn't it's noteven warbling at all there we gothank you siranytime sweetie anytime at all be happyto help all right let's get it up toyour car all right\n"