Re: 1/2\" Carriage Bolt Loading?
JerryG,
RE: "...one bolt for the weights"
Yeah I have thought about that. It is similar to what "EZ-Weight" does to use weightlifting weights:
http://www.ezweights.com/install.php
There are tradeoffs both ways. I've got a large drill press, so the hole drilling is not a large concern. I could also use the Plasma Cutter that I am going to cut them out with.
Mounting the plates is indeed going to be somewhat more tricky with four loose bolts, but I've given it some thought and believe I may have an approach that could work. The idea is to control the stack with some long alignment pins to give you some leverage, keeping the bulk of the weight up close to the wheel and not letting it slide away from the wheel. I don't know if I can describe this well enough without pictures, but the idea is this:
1) Park the wheel with two mounting holes up and down and two horizontally aligned, in a diamond pattern.
2) Use two "alignment pins." Two 1/2" hardened shafts, maybe something like 2' long and support them at one end in the two horizontally aligned wheel holes, and at the other end by a brace of some kind, maybe just a couple of 2x4s.
3) Slide the weights on the two pins one or two at a time, over the two pins. Perhaps with a pair of support braces, one at half way and one at the end, gradually building up the stack until you have all plates in place temporarily aligned by the two pins.
4) Insert two 1/2" carriage bolts through the top and bottom mounting holes, and tighten their nuts.
5) Remove the two alignment pins, and replace them with the other two carriage bolts.
I think this is a lot harder to say that it would be to do, but the tradeoff between the single pin and four bolts in my mind is, how often are you going to change weights. If I thought I was going to be adjusting the weight often, I would be inclined to use a single threaded rod, but if I am going to pretty much always want this weight, I would rather use four bolts. The single bolt requires a bit more work at first, but makes changes easier, but the four bolts is really not unmanageable.
Another minor concern: If you use the single adapter plate to adapt to one threaded rod, you cannot see the four carriage bolts as easily to know if anything goes wrong with them, but then I'm not very concerned about that.
Another approach occurs to me as I sit here typing. The problem you would have is preventing the carriage bolts from sagging and the weights from falling off the bolts.
1) Figure out the spacing between the inner wheel walls and the weight disks (about 3/8") and put an approriate diameter steel guide pin in the bottom of the wheel opening at the 5 O'clock and 7 O'clock positions, held in place by the weight of the first plate.
2) Insert the carriage bolts, maybe using a couple of extra long ones in two positions at first, just as a precaution to make it harder for the plates to slip off.
3) Proceed to stack the plates one at a time. The bottom rest pins keeping the stack from sagging excessively until all four bolts can be secured.
In both these cases, the key is using something to accomplish the stacking up of the plates in proper alignment until you can get the carriage bolts tightened.
I do agree that the single pin is easier. I just haven't become convinced yet that I will do this more than once per wheel.
