DIY Sugar Glider Wheel Update

So, a few weeks ago, I posted a wheel tutorial but I noticed a couple of days ago that a lid of one of the wheels was cracking a little around the bolt.

That wheel in particular wobbled more compared to the other three. So it’s possible the problem is only with that wheel. <–I substituted the ceiling cover for the acrylic sheet on all but one wheel and the lid on that wheel started cracking as well, so it’s possible it’s a problem with the design. I’m thinking of trying another method with the ceiling cover to see if I’ll still recommend them.
But that motivated my husband and I to make the wheels sturdier. We changed the ceiling cover with an acrylic sheet.

We cut the acrylic sheet into four inch circles. The circles can be a little smaller. The smallest I would go would be three inches.

We went with this sheet. It’s .22 inches thick.

We used this to cut the circles. It’s a little hard to cut but it’s doable.
Not sure what else you could use to cut it.

There are other sheets which are thinner, cheaper and probably easier to cut.
Like this one. This one is .093″ thick. (We didn’t get this sheet so we don’t know what you can use to cut it besides the hole saw.)

Both sheets can be found at Home Depot and Lowe’s.
The thicker one costs about $20. You can make 20 of the 4″ circles using the thicker sheet. But you probably don’t need that many. Haha
The thinner one costs about $5. You can make four 3.5″ circles with this sheet or six 3″ circles. Just use two or three circles on each wheel to reach a similar thickness to the thicker sheet.

Here is a circle with the holes needed for the bolt and rivets/binding posts.

We used rivets because it’s what we had. lol
It didn’t occur to us to use binding posts until later.

Here is how it looks installed. (Remember the plumber’s tape on the bolt. 😉 )

We’re thinking of using 1/4″ binding posts on the other two wheels. If they work, which they most likely will, we’ll replace the rivets. XD

Here are the binding posts we plan on using (you might need shorter or longer ones depending on what you used on the back of the wheel):

http://tinyurl.com/n7cdda8

Here’s a photo with the binding posts:

Obviously, with this method the wheels feel much better. lol
They are sturdier so they’ll probably last longer too. 😛

It doesn’t have to be an acrylic sheet. Another hard plastic can do just the same. The point is for something solid and relatively thick (~1/4″ to ~1/2″) to surround the bolt to distribute the weight.

The solid piece should be attached to the lid so that the weight is distributed better. It should not be just placed there between the bearing system and lid.

Reminder: It’s not very cost effective to make your own wheel if you are only making one! 🙂

I also saw that Home Depot carries (orange) lids with gaskets. I wanted to try them but they are flimsier than the ones from Lowe’s so I didn’t bother.