For the wood wheel, I wanted to keep it very basic. All I wanted was the frame and rim, with no buttons or paddles. I went with a 3 spoke design and ran through a couple design iterations using Fusion's sheet metal features. I eventually landed on a 55mm (2") dish and 350mm (13.75") diameter. The wheel thickness is about 30mm (1.125"). It's a nice thick wheel and is REALLY big compared to the G27 wheel. 

I cut the center section from .125" mild steel on the waterjet and then bent it on our finger brake. 

I made the rim by first making two identical octagons using strips of mahogany with angled ends. I glued the strips together to form the octagon, then laser etched the inner and outer profile of the wheel onto each of the octagons. I cut the inner and outer profiles on a jigsaw, using the etched line as a guide. I then used the belt sander to bring the outer profile to the final shape, and used a drum sander to bring the inner profile to shape. I then used the router table with a round-over bit to form inner and outer radii on the wheel halves. I used the laser cutter to etch the shape of the pockets that receive the center section spokes, then cut the pockets using the handheld router. I left extra room in the pockets for final alignment. 

To align the two halves to the center section, I 3D printed a jig to hold the wheel rim centered on the bolt holes of the center section. This helped ensure that any error in the center section or rim wouldn’t really matter for concentricity of the rim. I lined everything up, put some JB weld in the routed pockets, and then glued the two halves of the rim together. I clamped the two halves and let the glue dry over-night. Unfortunately, I didn’t mix the JB weld correctly and it stayed slightly tacky, so I had to add a bunch of extra to the outside where the center sections meet the rim. I’d rather the JB weld be hidden, but it’s functional. 

For a quick release, I found the cheapest new NRG quick release I could find, which I think was discounted because of the color. This brown and gold color goes okay with the wood, so I was fine with it. Finally, I spent some time sanding the rim so that none of the spots where the pieces connect can be felt. There’s more sanding that could be done to get it smoother, but its fine as is. The wheel is fairly concentric with the wheelbase; you can tell if you spin the wheel quickly, but otherwise you can’t really feel it. 

The wheel feels awesome to use and the MOZA’s 9nm of torque is plenty to spin the wheel quickly for drifting.