When speaking of “metal” wheels, what metal is usually used? Also how do I tell if I have metal or plastic wheels?
BB
Usually brass or Nickel/Silver is used for metal wheels. Plastic wheels will be soft and much lighter!
Jim
First the metal wheels cannot be painted because your track will be very dirty with the paint chips that fall off. So the whole wheel will be a silver color. plus on the package of the wheels you buy it will say metal wheel. Almost every model today comes with metal wheels except the cheaper companys.
Plastic wheels are one color and thats black.
Plus Jim is correct on there weight. Plastic is like a feather.
James
Metal wh eels can be painted, they are no more susceptible to paint chips falling off than plastic wheels. One could always use Blacken-It to darken the metal wheels chemically, and not all of them are bright silver in color–the Intermountain wheels I prefer are kind of a dingy metallic color, not bright silver.
Jim answered your question in the first post.
Tap a plastic wheel set and a metal set on a hard surface like glass. You can hear the difference.
But I have to put in my two cents on the paint issue. They can be painted, clean them first to remove oil and don’t paint the tread. After painting, clean off the axle tips.
Sometimes, the only DUMB question is the one that DOESN’T get asked. Yours is not dumb. I plan to convert ALL of my rolling stock to metal wheels, eventually. They make a cooler “clickety-clack” noise, too.[:)]
The metals usually used are nickle-silver or brass with nickle-silver plating.
One way you can’t tell if it’s metal or plastic is by the axles. There are a lot of metal wheels with plastic axles (P2K, Kadee…) and a lot of plastic wheels with metal axles.(Athearn, Roco…) Metal wheels are always brighter and more metallic than plastic wheels, which is pretty easy to see.[:D]
gsetter:
Really cool wheel painting jig!
Just saw your topic. In Europe, we are used to 100% metal wheels (wheels & axle) for a long time. No stock has come with plastic wheels for a long time. Manufacturers like Roco in Europe currently supply their stock with “browned” metal wheels that gives them a more realistic apprearance.
I understand that metal wheels is something of the latest years in the US and it seems that most of the assembled cars come with those shiny metal wheels we used to have here (and still have sometimes). As said before, this will make them easy recognizable from plastic wheels, togehter wth their weight.
Blackening your wheels chemically is an option to make them look more realistic, another option is to apply a metal primer on the sides of the wheels ONLY and then paint them in the colour of your choice, including rust. Painting the whole wheel is not necessary because once on your lay-out, you will only mainly see the sides of the wheels. The surfaces in contact with the rails do not need to be painted, they are usually shiny anyway and it would make your rails dirty too.
I’m not afraid of paint getting on the treads, and different sized wheels means different sized jigs…and your always needing to clean track so your going to get the chips off anyways.
I just clean the treads when done, they get dirty eventually also.
I have cleaned my share of caked up grit on wheel treads…and its a derail issue too…