My Hokey Ass Wheel Painter, H.A.W.P.

I threw this thing together yesterday to spin my wheels for paint prep, primer, and paint.

I have made it through prep and primer and will paint tomorrow if the wind will chill out some.

This hokey ass device is powered by a craftsman air ratchet.. so far so good. It has been a real labor saver and has allowed me to turn out a more consistent product thus far...



Check out this video of the device in action...

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Yea,, it is hokey, but effective...

 

Very cool!

 

haha thats pretty cool, that'd save alot of time for sure

 

Crude, but effective!

 

Ive thought a few times about making something like that... now I know I should! Nice work!

 

I like it.

 

good idea, little wobbly though lol.

 

Thats talent! Running a video camera AND using a paint gun.

I just love hot rodders....only they can think of stuff like this.

 

Wobbly and noisey, I like it! lol
I imagine you keep it spinning while the paint tacks up, yes?

 

nifty

 

far out i have some spokes to paint... been thinking of something like that. i like the air power use. thanks.

 

I like it. Bet you did not get any runs in the paint!

 

dammn thats cool!!now thats using your head for more than a place to hang your hair!!!

 

Very cool.
How about using an engine stand for a base?

 

Where theres a will theres a way

 

Very nice.

 

The only wheel I put a run in was the one I shot the video of, just a small one,, since I can't walk and chew gum at the same time, I kind of lost track of how much primer I was putting down... (on the back side of the "hub area" on this particular rim centrificul force flung the excess paint onto the rim, but since it was in back it didn't really matter to me.)

This should work great for wire wheels

I do leave it spinning till it sets up a little, and I would have made a better product by getting things a little more straight! I just "eyeballed" all of the alignment and built the thing on the fly with virtually no planning.

If the wind stays down I will post up some pics of the painted wheels this evening.

 

Great piece, good thinking on the ratchet!
The wobbly can easily be eliminated by using a circular mount plate with 3 hole mount, you could actually make up dual pattern plates with bolts sticking out either side, one side with each pattern. And add some triangulation braces from the stand unpright out to the bottom legs.

We've been using a hand powered unit like this made of conduit which holds the wheels steady leaning back slightly. Our rotator plates are simple plywood circles with bolts through either side for different patterns. We have 4.5 and 5, and 4.75 and 5.5.
If we ever do the 37 chevy 2door we'll make up a six-bolt plate combined perhaps with a 4 bolt pattern.

 

Cool! With some stability, would probably work well for grinding white walls, too.

 

That's effed up...how rad.

 

good idea, keep us posted would like to see the painted wheel.. nifty little time saver..

 

Nice! Now that is some true New Mexico engineering there!

 

Thats sure beats teeter-totering the wheel on top of a can and walking round and round the thing and then trying to flip the wheel over before its dry cause your impatient and end up messing up the side you just painted cause you knocked the whole thing over and grabbed it, but I've never done that before.

You probably already thought of this, but if you spin it backwards for a second coat, might get better coverage between the spokes.

 

quality

 

Wicked!

~Jason

 

I was think if you can steady the rotation that would be the "shits" for striping the wheel, eh?

 

Holy shit - that's a GREAT idea!

~Jason

 

Great idea! The air ratchet seems to rotate the wheel at about the right speed.

I feel for your poor compressor having to supply air to the paint gun and the air ratchet at the SAME TIME.


M. McF.

 

Nice! I think I'm gonna try doin this on a wheel balancer instead. I think it'll be alot more faster! I bet the air ratchet is beat from having to turn the heavy ass whell for quite some time.

 

LOL, I keep waiting for the air ratchet to take a dump, but it is still hanging in there! It has spent quite a bit of time working, and some of this time working pretty hard. I am careful to not "waste" the ratchet by making sure it is only running when I need it to run, to give it some cool off time between use, and I have given it a couple of healthy drinks of pneumatic oil...

I did not get as much done as I would have liked today, I kind of got "short timed" due to circumstances. I got the wheels in base coat, but I did not get the cleared, so I guess I will need to scuff them and clear them tomorrow.

The machine worked great for sanding the primer, for most of the sanding I only needed to hold the paper in place while the "machine" did most of the work. I had to sand a little by hand in the "artillery holes", but I would think for smoothies there would be virtually no hand work.

I made a video of me using a scuff pad that I will probably post up tomorrow. I used sandpaper extensively, but I lost my camera for most of the day so I did not get video of that...

The air ratchet surprisingly supplied ample torque to get some serious sanding done. The speed could be adjusted by using a regulator to change the operation pressure. (of course less pressure = less sanding power..)

The only down side I have envisioned with this tool is that if I somehow got my finger stuck in one of those holes, the chances are good that it might twist my finger off before I got it stopped... ouch... but I never even got close to that happening, but I was thinking about it...

My 7.5 HP compressor actually keeps up, which is way cool.

The time and effort I spent on this thing has paid off many times over, and this will hold true even if I end up killing the air ratchet...