Making Rubber Tyres for 3D Printed Wheels

I wanted to make some very grippy 3D printed wheels however the flexible filaments I tried did not provide much grip.
This video shows how to cast custom tyres from polyurethane rubber. You can make wheels of any size, with any tread pattern you like and with a variety of rubber hardnesses depending on the rubber you buy.
Polyurethane Rubber: www.mbfg.co.uk...
This was the softest rubber available although some others are a bit more durable so they might be more suitable for high wear applications.
Silicone: www.mbfg.co.uk...
"Too Cool" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons...

[@PhG1961]

Awesome video and excellent work !

[@pjak2000]

I think this is much more efficient way of making stuff than the multi material prints. Good job!

[@tomsmith3045]

Fantastic work. Great design, very clear and concise explanation. Can't see how anyone could be critical of this technique.

[@keeswassenaar]

that came out great, i should have done the same thing the tires of the Openrc F1 car i 3d printed

[@geoper2]

I was thinking the same thing when I saw this

[@createinspain]

Just incase there is a use for it - you can buy liquid polymer used in stamp making that is very grippy and cured with UV light. (I happen to make videos on how to make stamps). It is worth checking out. Colop sell it (VX55 in most countries); NG7 in Spain. I have a supplier link under my stamp making videos. I don't get anything from that, I just found people were always asking where to buy it! I have used it to make odd things other than stamps from time to time, grippy patches on gloves; grips to keep things still, shallow open top moulds ( need access for the light) ...the advantage is speed of use, very little curing time under a lamp.

[@andreaspersson5673]

Nice to find a video that shows exactly what i will do to make new tires for my Botvac in a few days when i recieve my polyurethane and Silicone...i was not sure how it will work, this video shows it will turn out fine.

[@anchorbait6662]

You should mould a higher concentric line around the outside of the tread. This will reduce friction and make for a smoother ride over even and hard surfaces. Some bicycle tires have this feature

[@jsharris1990]

I'm looking to make some 3d custom 3d printed wheels & this was super helpful. Just put an order in myself :).

[@antonwinter630]

thanks for sharing your technique. i tried printing a tyre mold in one part rather than 2 parts like you did. it was very hard to pull out of the mold. it wasn't very successful

[@filipecamargo5852]

Anton Winter you Have TO put vaseline. 1 part mold is the best way!

[@aydenowens9522]

thank you, I'm try ing to make tires and this is definitely a viable option!

[@LaplacianFourier]

How durable is that PU mix? I am looking for industrial grade Tire PU mix. If anyone has an idea, pls lemme know.

[@chiparooo]

Great idea. Well done. Thanks for sharing!

[@queenidog1]

very nice! good job. I've made products for my railway out of similar materials, but a wheel is much harder.

[@shrekiic6630]

im making a 1:4 scale semi truck can this help me make my tires and also do I have to mold the tires to the wheel?

[@ot4474]

You are a genius sir

[@intocoasters]

Awesome video, thanks for sharing!

[@kentdixon5716]

that is very cool, thanks for posting!

[@yoshmarklund]

Did the tires work out? :)

[@MartinJEngland]

Yes.

[@therealfox]

@@MartinJEngland Have you a follow up video how the tire rolling? Would nice to see. Awesome work btw.

[@jolio81]

@@MartinJEngland ...May we see?

[@mohammadkapadia8447]

This is very cool!

[@AliA-wb2tk]

Great work. I salute you.

[@JoelzombieThomas]

I was looking for a caster wheel manufacturing video, but I realized this is pretty close to how they do that.

[@Mogy336]

Amazing man very clean

[@abates3747]

really excellent idea, you rock.

[@AakaarLab]

Awsome work

[@GMC997]

Does the Polyurethane provide enough grip though? Like for example for a stair-climbing robot?

[@PlatinandoNoPS5]

I would like to see them being used. Do you have the video?

[@jwonderfulsuccess]

Pretty cool stuff🙏

[@TonyRios]

Very cool

[@gilbertodiaz-castro626]

Will this polyurethane rubber stick to metal? If so, can you control how firm is the end product?

[@kevinwarner959]

Don't know if you got an answer but the firmness of the rubber depends on the durometer of rubber you use. Liquid rubber comes in different hardness. The higher the durorometer (D) the stiffer the rubber.

[@thecelt4807]

what rubber would you recommend for scalextric 1/32 scale cheers mate fantastic job

[@MBFibreglass]

👍 These look good !

[@DoRC]

Seems like the tire wanted to pull off the wheel when you were demolding which makes me question how long they would stay on in in use. I wonder if i higher durometer would stay attached better.

[@MartinJEngland]

The tyres have been used a lot now and we haven't had any issues with them coming detached although the soft rubber does wear away a bit on some surfaces. Although the rubber is very flexible it is also very tight fitting around the hub and the hub has ridges on it to prevent the tyre slipping around.

[@DoRC]

@@MartinJEngland cool! What are they on?

[@MartinJEngland]

@@DoRC They are for a robot for a competition called Pi Wars. It is all inside so they don't have to be super durable but it has to get up a 45 degree slope with minimal runup so it needs a lot of grip.

[@Hebdomad7]

@@MartinJEngland I'd love to see the results of any durability tests.

[@battletoys1645]

Can i just use the silicone type for action figure belts?

[@foxtrot1787]

love this

[@enriquecesaracoroni4938]

Buen trabajo!!!

[@gordonendicott5114]

Do they expand at high speeds ?

[@user-pq9ub6kr4g]

Great job 🎉 what type of silicon did you use

[@carloshnunez]

Great video 👍👍👍

[@avejst]

Nice, thanks for sharing👍😀

[@alihho]

Awsome

[@PiefacePete46]

Great and useful video thanks. "Liked".

[@D4rkS7der]

Wheel rum! Yarr. I would consider adding keys to wheel rum, to prevent tyre slipping.

[@nocopyrightmusic5432]

Nice idea

[@davorinrusevljan6440]

so how much one wheel costs in materials?

[@kdrgaming3344]

Why did you color it black? Carbon is added to real tire rubber to stabilize it and it turns the rubber from a white color to black. You didn't need me make this artificially black.

[@MartinJEngland]

Mainly just so that they look more like real tyres. It also helps to hide any dirt that might get on the tyres while they are being used.

[@laytonpratt]

What printer are you using

[@henge3d724]

When the rubber breaks away from the mold 🤤.. Nice vid

[@Kiboz2000]

Bravo

[@user-wk6gr1cs3o]

Possible explain the installation of materials

[@skatchuk]

great video, curious to how well the rubber is bonded to the 3d printed part? thoughts on this working with an aluminum hub as opposed to a 3d printed one?

[@marcoguada42]

They are perfect *_*

[@glauco288]

Hi, nice video! Would you share tyre mould pattern .stl?

[@grapesinnotech]

Nice

[@cmarinv2005]

Excelente, sin embargo el producto es muy costoso.. debe haber un equivalente mas económico

[@Patrik2166]

How was the grip of the tires?

[@caydenmoylan6827]

What is the link for the wheels

[@jb0433628]

How did KZbin read my mind to suggest this video ?

[@VictorHugoRC1111]

Is The Matrix

[@psoon04286]

My thoughts too🤔👍

[@jakobderpelikan1176]

nice vid, keep it up !

[@samuelkatherinediozarago7692]

Fantastic sht

[@coltonsmits2067]

Looks nice! How long do you let the polyurethane sit for before taking it out of the mold?

[@MartinJEngland]

It usually takes between 30 to 60 minutes before you can demould it although it depends a lot on the temperature.

[@DocMicha]

Hi, nice work, Is it worth the money?

[@parkjunsu2545]

best!!!!

[@Footballstories00]

Can it be casted

[@NicksStuff]

Great video, please test it

[@Tyrone-Ward]

Why not print the tires in something like Ninjaflex?

[@hugobracamontesbaltazar]

It takes too much time and a lot of material..., at least for a "mass production"...

[@sato4kaiba]

@0:37 The only thing I would have done differently is to create/print a cross that engaged the top of the outer mold that will allow me to seamlessly center wheel of the inner part of the mold. (Think of a cross with a whole in the middle that matches the center whole for the wheel) My Two Cents

[@2awesome292]

Add some fiberglass for strength?

[@MartinJEngland]

Yes, that would be a good idea for a higher load wheel for something like an RC car. I just decided to 3D print it quite thick to keep everything simpler as this isn't meant for a super rough environment. You could also cast the wheel rim from polyurethane resin as well for even more strength.

[@eross21]

what shore hardness was this tire?

[@MartinJEngland]

This one was shore A 20 I think

[@eross21]

@@MartinJEngland excellent thanks so much

[@gingermanc]

Thanks for skating this - do you know how strong your wheels are please?

[@berlib0102]

Bravo! :-)

[@Yoyo-ug7wt]

What was the tire rubber that you used and the durometer rating?

[@bldjln3158]

I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this.

[@Samtagri]

Niiiiiice

[@joshvellieux8693]

Curious what you used to make the rubber tire?

[@Lenevor]

Where is the diy mk3!!

[@AlexApol]

Will we get to see the finished product?

[@Johnny5Toy]

Ninjaflex?

[@LonganLee]

Cool , dude! Give us more of this good stuff. This PU seems as soft as Silicone

[@tcratius1748]

How much do estimate the entire wheel cost?

[@colinfielder6695]

love it. learnt a few things but i can't help thinking that you would benefit from having a lazy suzan to turn your products while you pour.

[@-_o_o_-]

А готовые колёса не дешевле купить? Ещё и куча личного времени экономится.

[@MartinJEngland]

There were no tyres available that I could find in the dimensions that we needed. This is also cheaper for making many sets of wheels compared to buying many sets of commercial wheels (they generally are about £12+ for 4). The amount of rubber used to make 4 tyres costs about £5 and the 3D printer filament probably costs £1 - 2.

[@-_o_o_-]

@@MartinJEngland ок

[@stjiro]

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEEN?

[@dbxlkevsmith787]

Do you make rims for sale?

[@MartinJEngland]

No not currently, but I could sell them or release the files for them if people want. They are fairly simple to design yourself though and then you can make them whatever size/design you like.

[@dbxlkevsmith787]

Design/Forge Thanks for responding the Actually rim I Would need. Would have to be 175mm in diameter with a rim with of 70mm but with a center thickness where the hub is at 3mm! looking like 2 jar lids back to back. The problem is I don’t know how to navigate through those programs like rhino or fusion 360 but you definitely know how I see! Do you have any Tutorials on something like that for beginners, because I have seen some others and they are talking and navigating to fast. And what program do you use?

[@MartinJEngland]

@@dbxlkevsmith787 I use Solidworks for most things but I have also used Fusion 360 a bit. I don't have any tutorials for CAD but there are some good ones by people such as Makers Muse for beginners. Also, that sounds like quite a thick tyre that you would need. It might be a good idea to cast the tyre hollow using a technique called rotocasting or you might end up usings loads of rubber, although that would require a more complex mould.

[@dbxlkevsmith787]

Design/Forge thanks a lot! I’ll check those guys out and I already have some tires for the project

[@PowerScissor]

Holy crap, the time involved, plus equipment needed. Cool to be able to do this, but not practical for most of us...especially to do them 1 at a time. Unless you're doing some small scale production. I wonder how it would turn out if you just filled the mould with hot glue...it is sort of rubbery after cooling.

[@jonathonto8075]

This music... it reminds me of something...

[@3dezzz149]

Funny how u started with a grey wheel and a red one came out

[@9001greg]

why not just print TPU tires?

[@MartinJEngland]

I tried that initially however the TPU was not very grippy at all even though it was quite flexible. I even tried sanding the surface but it doesn't come anywhere close to the grip level of these tyres.

[@9001greg]

@@MartinJEngland oh, does TPU glue to the other plastics well or does it not do that well either?

[@throplad]

I haven't tried gluing the plastics together, but my experience of TPU is that it's got quite a glossy surface, it has much less grip than I was expecting, despite getting one of the softer TPUs I could find.

[@9001greg]

@@throplad oh yea, I ordered mine a few days ago to try out, I guess it'll have a lot less grip than I am expecting as well lol

[@Keldor314]

@@MartinJEngland That's interesting. TPU is literally the same thing as polyurethane rubber (in fact, it stands for thermopolyurethane, refering to its property of being meltable). Actually, there is a difference - TPU comes in a variety of hardnesses. The flexible filament for printers is actually quite far on the hard side of the spectrum, meaning it's relatively hard and smooth compared to the "rubber" you molded. You'd have better luck with the most flexible filaments you can find, assuming your printer can handle them.

[@adamkendall997]

What's goin oooon in the kitchen, Cuz it don't smell like chicken!

[@magicPrint3d]

круто!

[@albertjosephful]

👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@VictorHugoRC1111]

I used TPU and printed the rubber tyre

[@srmstm1077]

🙏👏

[@Finkaization]

Круто!

[@wesbrackmanthercenthusiast4695]

It looks like it belongs on a foden steam van

[@kampkrieger]

or u print the outer thing with flex and glue it on

[@joeyhillers9460]

Eh, if you had a dual extruder based printer and set it up, you probably could have just printed the whole thing in it’s entirety. I’ve seen several otter box clones done that way

[@MartinJEngland]

I do have a dual extruder printer and I tried that first. However the rubber was not nearly as grippy as this. That might be because of the brand of filament and how soft the TPU was but this gave much better results for me at least

[@user-zr7rc1te5q]

Где у нас купить такое ?

[@arthurmorgan8966]

This is some hardcore DIY. Makes me wonder, why didn’t you print a funnel and poured everything in from cups and jugs like a troglodyte

[@danieltrepuen5247]

Good Work! Just one Thing...Mold. ;)

[@truantray]

Why not just make a tire mold and stretch the tire over the rim like literally how everyone does it.

[@MartinJEngland]

This is actually a bit easier to do and you don't have to worry about the tyre not fitting on the rim properly as it is moulded onto it very precisely. You could do it the way you describe but this also works perfectly well.