Wooden Big Wheels: New CNC Router/Laser Project Launch!

This project was huge for me at CNCKing.com, it really pushed me in several directions and I learned a lot across the board designing, cutting and building this Wooden Big Wheels. Although I did this with my ShopBot Desktop, you really should use a larger format laser cutter or table router before buying the plans for this project and cutting it, unless you are crazy enough to actually enjoy tiling your projects to be able to cut large parts on a small-format CNC machine.

The completed 265 piece model has dimensions @ 6 mm (1/4 inch) thick material of L: 1400 W: 900 H: 560 (mm) or L: 55-1⁄8 W: 35-7⁄16 H: 22-3⁄64 (in) but in my case, my wood was 10% larger so I had to scale everything up 10%. ALWAYS MEASURE WOOD THICKNESS AND SCALE ACCORDINGLY BEFORE CUTTING OTHERWISE NOTHING WILL FIT! Do not use your eyes, use digital calipers and scale slightly larger if you have any doubts unless you wish to spend a lot of time with your jigsaw and wood rasp.

Now, it comes down to price, this project will require serious investment in time and material… as such, I’ve made this model the most expensive on CNCKing.com – to give people PAUSE before jumping ahead and getting way over their head with a project of this scale. I still think the price is a joke considering how much time and money was invested in making it a reality but I’m hoping the volume of sales will help fill the financial hole. I wouldn’t ever attempt this project unless I had a few of my earlier smaller models complete, had well over a hundred clamps of all sizes and means and two liters of glue hanging around.

Wooden Big Wheels: Proof of Concept

As you saw, I used cheap plywood for this model, it would be far more solid and stronger if you made it out of hardwood or a premium plywood… there is an issue of friction with the back wheels which you have to have the skill to resolve on your own – in the assembly instructions, I give you a few solutions so it isn’t anything overwhelming but I want to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into. Some have suggested a PVC pipe, I think just sanding with a fine grit would solve most of it… it isn’t anything overwhelming and probably more caused by my cheap selection of material than anything else.

Due to the number of large parts in this project, I’ve included a .jpg image showing all the parts for you to cross-reference when you import the AI or EPS files into your favorite vector program – I had an issue where it didn’t import everything (usually cuts off one of the corners but I have older software and my work-around was simply breaking the pieces down into smaller import files – so four instead of one file import. Not a big deal but it caused me some issues as I didn’t notice this at first.

All that being said, if you are in for a challenge – this is THE project for you – it’s great fun to cut and build and can be found under CNC Router/Laser / Vehicles / Specialized on CNCKing.com!