I am in the process of building a Airworld ME-262 for twin P60 power. I am pretty happy with the kit so far, but I was a little disappointed that I couldn't find a set of tires that were even close to scale for this thing. A 4" tire looked a little small on it, a 4-1/2" tire is too large to fit in the wheel well, and nobody seems to make a 4-1/4" tire. Even if they did, I would seriously doubt I would ever be able to find one that was a wide as it needs to be to look scale (inch and a half).
So after reviewing this old thread from RCU:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_19...tm.htm#1909503
I decided to make my own tires and wheels.
1. I Started with a chunk of aluminum with a slightly larger diameter than the tire needs to be, and about half the width.
2. Turned it on a lathe until it is exactly like you want it (When you screw up fill the offending area with JB Weld and body filler then turn it to the correct size).
3. I didn't get any pictures of it, but I cut the treads by mounting the plug on a rotary table, then rigged a fence at the correct angle and cut a groove every 10 degrees with a hacksaw blade. Once one side was finished I reversed the angle on the fence and repeated the process.
4. Next I mounted the plug on a parting board (formica on plywood in this case) with a centering pin.
5. I added a suitable containment vessel (aka cool whip tub) around the perimeter.
6. Fill with molding RTV silicone and allow cure.
7. Next I mount the rubber mold half (with plug still installed) on another parting board with centering pin and two alignment pins in line with tread design.
8. Then I did a sloppy lay up of fiberglass around the entire thing.
9. Once cured, I removed the entire assembly from parting board, trimmed the excess fiberglass, and removed plug.
10. Repeat steps 4-9 for other half of tire mold.
11. I Filled both halves of mold with Urethane rubber and allowed to partially cure (after several attempts I decided that 1.5-2.0 hours worked best with the rubber I was using), then I joined the two halves with all three locating pins in place, and clamped edges with spring clamps.
12. After curing for 16 hours I separated the mold and had a new tire!