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Awesome Wheels

More Illegal LEGO Builds

More Illegal LEGO Builds

Jeff Sanders, the builder behind the Brick Bending YouTube channel, is an expert at creating unconventional LEGO structures. This video shows off some large and elaborate wheels he built by layering hundreds of trapezoidal slices together. They look like they should be strong, but they’re quite fragile due to their weight and incomplete connections.

Paper Shredder Car

Paper Shredder Car

Other than bank statements and bills, we don’t find ourselves shredding too much paper these days. Artist Japhy Riddle took a paper shredder and turned it into a vehicle of sorts. Rather than applying power to its wheels, the shredder car moves as it pulls a roll of tractor-feed paper through its shredding teeth.

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A Very Illegal LEGO Build

A Very Illegal LEGO Build

There’s a concept in the LEGO community of an “illegal” build – using construction methods that go against the traditional conventions of LEGO stacking. Brick Bending shows off a challenging but impressive technique that involves carefully combining dozens of 1×3 plates to form a robust, spine-like structure that ultimately gets turned into a wheel.

Ascento Pro Robot

Ascento Pro Robot

Ascento’s agile robot has a pair of articulated legs that roll on bicycle wheels. This design allows it to ride on uneven surfaces, up and down hills, and even climb stairs with ease. It can autonomously drive at speeds up to 12 km/h and 8 hours per charge. Ascento has created a version designed specifically for autonomous security patrolling.

Squirrel-powered Phone Charger

Squirrel-powered Phone Charger

Quiet Nerd wanted to know if a squirrel running in a wheel could generate enough electricity to charge a phone. He built his squirrel-sized wheel using a baking pan and a stepper motor to recharge a battery pack. Once he placed it in the woods, all kinds of animals checked it out, but did they generate enough energy? We bet a hamster would be more effective.

How to Fix Curbed Rims… with a Robot

How to Fix Curbed Rims… with a Robot

If you’ve ever curbed the rims on your car, you know how awful it can look. But with the proper equipment and expertise, it’s possible to repair damaged rims. Wheel Restore USA shows how their diamond cut wheel lathe can make even heavily damaged wheels look as good as new by removing a thin layer of metal. They also have a wheel-painting robot.

Making DIY Airless Tires

Making DIY Airless Tires

Inspired by the expensive airless tires seen on construction equipment and concept vehicles, The Q set out on a mission to make his own shock-absorbing, puncture-proof bike tires using a similar design. What’s even more impressive is that he built them using only PVC pipe, nuts, bolts, and the tread from a standard bike tire.

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Driving a Go-Kart with Concrete Tires

Driving a Go-Kart with Concrete Tires

The cars in The Flintstones rolled on wheels carved from boulders. Chris Rollins took a different approach to making stone tires for his go-kart by casting them from concrete. How fast and far can he drive on these punishing solid tires before something breaks? Watch part two here.

How Aluminum Car Wheels Are Made

How Aluminum Car Wheels Are Made

This factory video from All Process of World takes us inside Hyundai Sungwoo Casting for a look at the machinery used to produce wheels. The process starts by melting aluminum bars, pouring the molten metal into molds, then quenching the wheels for strength before grinding away excess metal and finishing them.

Making a Square-Wheeled Bicycle

Making a Square-Wheeled Bicycle

There’s a good reason that wheels are round: friction. But basic physics are never going to stand in the way of mad builder The Q. His latest creation is a standard bike frame with one major modification – it rolls on custom-made square wheels. It rides pretty smoothly, but it also doesn’t work how we assumed it would.

Formula 1 One Wheel Skateboard

Formula 1 One Wheel Skateboard

The Q has a love for Formula 1 racing. But we’re guessing from his past projects that he can’t afford to own a real F1 race car. He does however have a single F1 wheel and tire, so he got to work building a custom electric skateboard that rolls on it. It works much like the Onewheel, though it’s a bit trickier to straddle.

Color-Changing Bike Wheels

Color-Changing Bike Wheels

The Q couldn’t decide what color tires to put on his bicycle, so he attached RGB LED light strips and diffusers inside of his wheels, wired them up, then modified his airless bike tires to fit around the lights. after adding a battery pack hub to the wheel, he was all set with his amazing bike tires that can change colors on demand.

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How Train Wheels Are Made

How Train Wheels Are Made

This sped-up video shows how workers produce those big steel wheels for trains. They start with a rod of molten-hot metal, flatten it with a mechanical hammer, work it into a clean round disc, press grooves in the wheel, then punch a hole into its center for an axle. Here’s how a more automated factory does it.

Riding on Wooden Mountain Bike Wheels

Riding on Wooden Mountain Bike Wheels

We already know it’s possible to build an entire bicycle out of wood. But how durable are wood wheels when pushed to their limits? Mountain biker Sam Pilgrim fitted his bike with some custom wood wheels and put them to the test on a forest trail, a pump track, and even a staircase. They held up way better than we expected.

Wheel of Springs

Wheel of Springs

Normally, a vehicle’s suspension sits between the frame and the wheels to absorb shocks. After seeing a vintage photograph of a car wheel with springs built into it, the car hackers at Garage 54 built their own to see how it would affect ride quality. It sounded like a busted shopping cart after the rubber came off.

Making an Omni-Sphere Vehicle

Making an Omni-Sphere Vehicle

Engineer James Bruton is fascinated with omni-directional wheels. For this video, he set out to make a vehicle that rolls on three split-hemisphere balls which can move in any direction. He’s since added a seat to it, resulting in what is basically the world’s most powerful office chair.

LEGO Sunflower Worm

LEGO Sunflower Worm

The Brick Bending channel has made some really creative LEGO builds, often by combining lots of flat bricks into geometric patterns. For this construction, they assembled more than 3100 1×6 plates into star-shaped sections, then layered them together to create a jiggly rolling structure lovingly known as the Sunflower Worm.

Hand-Powered LEGO Speed Experiments

Hand-Powered LEGO Speed Experiments

It’s pretty easy to get a LEGO wheel spinning fast with a motor, but what about with human power? The Brick Experiment Channel set up a LEGO flywheel and gear mechanism which he proceeded to spin using only his fingers and a piece of string. He measured the rotations using a laser and a marker to calculate its speed.

Torque Multiplier Lug Nut Wrench

Torque Multiplier Lug Nut Wrench

Getting lug nuts off of a wheel can be hard work. This ingenious gadget makes easy work of the job using a crank and gearing that amplify your input by a 15:1 ratio to turn stubborn lug nuts without power tools. Just be careful not to overtighten them going the other direction. The set includes 17mm, 19mm, and 21 mm sockets.

Walking Wheels

Walking Wheels

Wheels are good at maneuvering vehicles over most surfaces, but they’re not always great at climbing irregular or rough obstacles. Engineer James Bruton fabricated these unusual “Pedrail” wheels that use a system of articulated “legs” and “feet” to roll and walk over uneven terrain. They look cool, but are they practical?

Brick Bending a LEGO Wheel

Brick Bending a LEGO Wheel

YouTube channel Brick Bending specializes in creating unexpected geometries using LEGO bricks. This satisfying video shows how they built an oversize wheel using three kinds of hinged components in a repeating pattern. We imagine you could use this method to build a wheel as large as you want, given enough bricks.

Omni-Directional Ball Robot

Omni-Directional Ball Robot

Inspired by Goodyear’s concept for a ball-shaped tire, engineer James Bruton created a spherical wheel that can roll in any direction. After validating the design, he built a trio of the wheels and attached them to a robot as a testbed for the technology. We’re impressed with the little fella’s agility.

Making a Stove from Wheel Rims

Making a Stove from Wheel Rims

Wheel rims from a car seem like an odd material for building a wood-burning stove, but that’s exactly what André Göbel of Create Custom Designs did, a set of old steel rims to provide the structure for a cylindrical stove inspired by Bullerjan stoves, which use bent pipes to circulate cold air from the bottom and out of its top.

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