Power Tool Racer. Quick & On The Cheap!

Step 2 Harvest Wheel Units From Skates

I like to use the entire wheel unit from each shoe, as it simplifies assembly.

In line skates have been evolving for 2 decades... your skates will likely be different than mine. How easy/hard it is to harvest the wheel unit is something to consider if your going hunting at garage sales.

If you have skates with the wheel unit riveted to the shoe, you'll have to drill out the rivets.

• Use your drill with small bit to make a centered divot in each of the rivet heads.
• Switch to a larger bit to drill the heads off each of the rivets.

My wheel unit had a lower front portion so I had to use a bit of wood to as a riser to make the unit (mostly) flat.

Comments

[Rishnai]

Hey, you used a chunk of wood as a shim! No fair! I recently used the uppers from an old set of skates, bolted to an old shelf, as a sandboard. I didn't think of using wood shims, so I made a metal bracket system out of angle iron, bolts, and blood. Heavy, but effective.

[spacematters]

I was definitely trying to limit my tool set to hand drill and the circular saw itself... sometimes it fun to work within arbitrary constrains. Normally I'm prone to over building ;)

[Rishnai]

I know that feeling, sometimes I'll just toss a paper airplane at the garage and whatever tool(s) it hits, that's the power tool of the day. Of course, there is much that can be done with a hand drill alone....

[spacematters]

I do love the hand drill... I usually suggest the hand drill for folks working with kids, the lower rotation speed reduces the danger factor. Also the chuck makes it easy to stick just about any wheel onto it.