Use a Cradle to Clean Your Wheels
For those of you who take cleaning your wheels very seriously, you may be interested in what I’ve made.
I’m getting ready to ceramic coat my wheels and found this idea on the Esoteric website. So, I don’t take credit for the cradle idea.
I can now place the cradle on my truck tailgate or my workbench and place a wheel/tire on the cradle and rotate it as I clean it with no risk of it falling over. When I’m finished cleaning one side, I simply rotate the cradle 180 degrees and clean the other side (without lifting the tire).
While the pictures do a good job of telling the story, here’s a few of the details.
All materials used were what I already had “laying around” so the project cost me absolutely nothing. It took about 4 hours from start to finish.
The base is ¾” plywood.
The white pipes are ¾” Pex plumbing pipes.
The brown pipes are ½” copper plumbing pipes.
The 2x4’s are attached to the base with (4) “L” brackets and (10) 2” drywall screws (screwed in from underneath the base).
I started by removing one rear and one front tire so I could measure and test fit throughout the process. The most critical measurement was the distance between the cross pipes and the height of the two pipes. I had to make sure the tires would not touch the platform/base when placed on the two pipes.
The Pex pipes fit over the copper pipes (like a sleeve) with just enough clearance that allowed me to coat the copper pipes with axle grease. When assembled the Pex pipes easily spin but don’t wobble.
I used my drill press and paddle bits to bore two holes into each 2x4 but did not drill all the way through. The location of the holes was the most critical measurement of the project. The holes in the 2x4’s had to be exactly symmetrical.
To put it all together I attached one 2x4 to the base, then greased up the pipes and the two holes. I then placed the Pex pipes onto the copper pipes and inserted the copper pipe ends into the two holes. Then I placed the other 2x4 onto the other side of the base, inserting the other ends of the copper pipes into the second 2x4 holes and secured that 2x4 with the “L” brackets. After I tested the “fit” with a tire on the pipes, I then screwed the 10 drywall screws into the 2x4’s from the underside of the base.
I’m now ready to thoroughly clean (and ceramic coat) my wheels. I can spin them with minimal effort and because of the width of the tires they don’t tend to tip over. To top it off I cut a slot into one end of the base so I can easily pick it up and carry it.
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