Machining Pipe Trolley Wheels for an Overhead Hoist

[goodfellow]

You guys know that I've been looking for a pipe trolley for my Host rail that I built a few weeks ago. I was going to go with a pipe trolley system, but decided that this may be just the project to design my own trolley.

Here's the link to the Overhead Hoist topic
http://garagehangout.net/index.php?topic=113.0

Here is the Hoist project from a few weeks ago --



The pipe needs a trolley to make the hoist glide. So I chucked up two of these old iron wheels that I used several years ago to make English Wheel anvils with. IIRC I got about 20 of them from Northern Tool at the time because they were on sale for $1.50 each on a closeout.



The plan is to install some good bearings, and then cut the concave radius so that the wheel will track on the pipe.



First I chucked the wheels up and used a small boring bar to cut the bores for the bearings.





After the bores were done, I used my trusty homemade radius cutter to form the 2-1/2" radius that I needed for the rail.







This cast iron cuts very difficult because it flakes, so every now and then I smoothed it out with some emory cloth to make the surface easier for the cutter to traverse.





After about 30 minutes I was able to get my radius completed with one final smooth cut.



The finished trolley wheels with bearings installed --



Next, I'll have to build a frame around those wheels. That's a job for next week.   beerdude