RE: wooden compressor wheels
Edgeflyer, The junkyard is full of them. Go get a turbo unit off of a Honda and take the compressor out of it. It will do more than anything you could construct out of wood and hold up longer as well. The last one I made out of wood years ago back in the GTBA days I made out of walnut. The first hot start and shutdown I had the nicest little hotdog cooker you would ever see. Now, thats not to say you couldn't get mighty crafty with a mill, a block of wood and a dividing head. but make it easy on yourself.