Hey Fellows

I have been in this hobby awhile now and something that I just cant seem to get right or maybe its just me, But every time I'm putting wheels on ANY plane for some reason when I'm putting on the collars the little allen wrench that comes with it only tightens the collar just a bit then it strips every single time, Does anyone have a solution for this irritating problem,, I know some of you are going to say use a tad bit bigger allen wrench but that don't work cause it want fit in the little screw, I hate to make a thread over something so little, But if I had to say what gives me the hardest time out of anything to do with RC Kits/Arf and so on, Its the wheel collars, I hope I'm not the only one who has thought this???

Thanks

Randy

The wheel collars today are junk ! I stopped using them. Go to Ace Hardware and buy a couple of the "E" clips. Cut a groove in your axle with your Dremel and snap on the "E" clip. They cost about 5 cents. They work much better than collars.

The allen wrenches that you get from hardware manufacturers are complete crap. You need to either use a good quality one from a full set, but that will likely strip out too because it is so small. There's not a lot of surface area for the wrench to bite with, and the tolerances are not too good when you get that small. I like kingwoodbarney's idea. Never thought of that.

I have the same problem with the set screws in wheel collars. Well, actually the problem is with the cheap allen wrenches as RB said. I have a whole box of them with the corners rounded off. I bought a set of wrenches from Du-Bro and they have been working pretty well so far. I wonder if the 'L' shaped wrenches from Hobbico would be any better?

You might want to sharpen the Allen key on the belt sander or with the dremel cutoff wheel often. The slightest use seems to start rounding the corners of the Allen key. With a sharp key the striping tendency is much less. Also the LHS sells self-locking push on clips similar to E clips. Push on clips work well when the axle is too short for a collar.

Bill

I replace the set screws with 4-40 or 6-32 Allen head bolts, cut to about 1/4" long.

Lots stronger!

File a flat spot on the axle and use loctite on the screw. Then you don't need to tighten the set screw so hard. I agree the allen wrenches that are included are not so good. I just work within the limits of the tool and have no problems.

I lost a wheel in flight just a little over a week ago and it made for a very interesting landing. I would add one thing to those suggestions here. Take a short piece of fuel tubing and put it on the axle outside of the wheel collar. Then if everything else fails, at least the collar will stay on the axle until you get a chance to retighten.

For 1/8'' and larger collars the main thing is to use a good quality allen wrench and file the end at the first hint of rounding. Another thing I have done is to go the hardware store and buy longer set screws. The little short ones that come with the collar just don't have a deep enough socket for the wrench to grab. As others have said, grind a flat spot on the axle and use locktite. For the tiny 1/16 and 3/32 collars there is almost no way to ever get one of those tight. I usually solder a washer on the axle. I don't think I have ever had a wheel fall off using these techniques.

I just tighten the set screw as much as I can with that cheap allen wrench, and then add some Canopy Cement to the outside of the wheel collar to axel... It dries clear, and the collar won't come off unless YOU remove it ! I ain't lost one yet !

Good Luck'
Ugo

Hi!
Why use wheel collars when soldering is so much better...and easy....!

Regards!
Jan K
Sweden

Jaka,

Nice job. I don't think there are many of us left.

John 373786

Dittos to Jaka's suggestion. I discarded collors long ago. You will never loose a wheel using this method and you don't have to file a flat on the axle. Once you do it its very easy to remove or replace the wheel. For plastic wheels, slide the wheel on and cut a small hole in some paper card stock and push this ove the axle then the washer and solder. After cooling cut out the card stock with a #11 blade and this will protect the plastic while soldering and provide the perfect lateral spacing for the wheel on the axle.

The axle can then be ground off much shorter (handy in some retract setups and certainly look a heck off a lot better.

John

What I do is grind flats on the shaft, install the wheel collar, snug it down, add a drop of CA, and then put fuel tubing over the axle. NEver had one come off like that, even when they come loose.

breakdown and buy a good set of Allen wrenches, manf/distributed by Craftsman/Sears or any of the other tool co. you won't strip them before you round out the hex(hole) in the set screw. good tools cost money-- but they last and most of the the time you don't learn new cuss words. the wrench's that come with the collars are not heat treated. dick

Hey John, if we don`t have a MONSTER IRON like you have and have to use collars,I`ve found that if you use a little 5 min. epoxy on the collar and the end of the shaft. It will stay untill you take it off.

Hey Randy,you go to the hardware store get some 4-40 screws and toss the allen wrenches.

I used Jaka's method today and it worked great. I still have the inner wheel collar since its there and seems to be holdin fine, but the outter is no soldered and there is no wheel wobble at all!

Todd

P.S. I don't have a moster iron either, just an eight dollar one.

My suggestion is to get some good wrenches. I use the Dynomite wrenches I found where the RC car guys buy their stuff. They aren't cheap, but they are really, really good. They are made from drill bit blanks with the hex ground on the tip, then hardened. The tips are replaceable in the aluminum handle.

Here are a few Tower links. I have never regretted buying good tools. These wrenches are a 1000% improvement over the yellow & red handled crap.

[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXJTR0&P=0]Associated Wrenches[/link]
[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXFAK6&P=0]Duratrax wrenches[/link]
[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXBN26&P=0]Ofna wrenches[/link]