Pinewood Axle Install Remover

Pinewood Axle Install Remover where have you been for the past 50 years? Who knew that hammering axles was bad?  First I simply thought of the car body.  How hammering splits the wood and I can really never get the axles to go in straight.  Then I started realizing I was also BENDING the axles if I didn’t hammer them just right.  I thought to myself there is just has to be a way to push them in.

I came up with a few designs of an axle pusher which was simply a rod with concave head to cup the axle head.  This worked well and I eventually ended up making a weighted handle to push in the pinewood axle.  And it worked…ish.  There are some really tight slots that I felt like I was fighting mother nature.   And I did this for years like this without changing because it worked…ish. Then I was talking to a Orthopedic surgeon (Love you Dr. MAG! ) and she was like don’t be an idiot, you have to drill it before you push the nail in.  Now, I heard about this for screws…but never nails.  And then I was like but it has a slot.  So its already pre-drilled.  She implied….How’s that going for you?

The Axle Install Fix, Part One

So, this is where in 2015 we started adding a #44 drill bit with all wood that we sell and still continue to do this to date.  We came up with some work around to getting the job done with pre-drilling holes.  And this did fix the the whole issue of things being too tight.   So much so that I could push it in with my thumb or a set of pliers.  And to date that is exactly what I do.

Pinewood Axle Install Remover Comes to Life!

I always wanted a axle pusher that I could control.  I have tried different ways of machining things in the past.  Ideas come and go. Then the 3d printer came along and I made exactly what I needed.  An axle pusher that is small enough to hold and manipulate with my fingers, easy enough to push with my thumb, strong enough to not break, gauged to set the axle at a center depth to always have a good gap for tuning.

And…if I messed up, wedge the tool between the body and wheel, so that it completely covers the wheel so that you can pull on it to extract the wheel without causing any additional harm to the wheel.  Even the 1 gram’s!  Simple clean design.  easy to use, easy to print.

#1  Pre-drill with this tool:  

#2  Then push it in with this one.