I actually found mine on eBay. It was a 2'x4' piece and was ~$40 with shipping IIRC. Worked out great.

http://www.widgetworksunlimited.com/0_020_Black_Styrene_12x18_Thermoform_Plastic_Pack_p/vf-24x24-sty-black-020.htm

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Strava

So both your link and the ebay source blueapplepaste found come out to about $40. For $50 my local source can give me enough material to make covers for 13 wheels, so I guess I'll just get it from them and I can sell the extra in the classifieds or something. At least I won't have to worry about making mistakes.

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Your favorite mafia sucks.

If you do, let me know. I'd be in for 1 or 2.

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Strava

Showed up at the local plastic supplier today and told them what I was looking for. They said "Oh, the $50 minimum is only if you want us to cut the stuff for you. If you take a full 4'x8' sheet it'll be $18 plus tax."

So I scored a sheet of 0.030" polystyrene. They rolled it up, taped it closed, and the whole thing rolled up is like 8" in diameter. It's pretty flexible stuff.

The guy told me that it's horrible in UV light, but that I should be totally fine if I spray paint it, which is the plan.

I already messed up the first wheel by cutting the circle too small. I measured to about halfway between the inside of the brake track to the rim, and when the flt disc turns into a cone to compensate for dish, the thing is about 1/8" too small at the edge. I'm going to try going to the very outside of the brake track with the second try.

I went ahead and glued the disc together and painted it just to experiment. Hopefully the second try works out better. At least I have plenty of material to spare.

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Your favorite mafia sucks.

Post pictures of the process.

Also, if you make it too big you can always cut it down after you glue it together.

jaretj

Glad to hear it worked out! That makes me hopeful that the plastics supplier by me will be reasonably priced.

Definitely post pictures when you're done.

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Strava

I basically followed the method outlined in this thread.

Here's the finished product:



I used a rattle can to paint it matte black, and that got a little fucked up when bugs landed on it during the dry time, and also my drop cloth was blown by the wind and landed on it. I can always repaint, but for now I'm happy with it.

Have yet to mount a cassette and ride it. Hope to do that soon.

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Your favorite mafia sucks.

Looks great! Good job!

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Strava

You inadvertently created a boundary layer, nice!

Looks good! Did you have any trouble getting the drive side wobble-free? I never have trouble with the other side but the shallow dish side is always problematic for some reason.

Actually the non-drive side gave me more trouble.

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Your favorite mafia sucks.

Maybe it comes down to luck; which side happens to have the least distortion.

Awesome Job! Are you going to do a write up on this? That would be pretty sweet.

I did it almost exactly like undertheradar did in this thread. I used polystyrene sheet rather than ABS (because the thinnest ABS they had was like 0.060", and that seemed unnecessarily thick to me). The sheet comes in white, so once everything was glued together I painted it black with spray paint. I used a different glue (PVC glue I had from a plumbing project), but otherwise I followed undertheradar's method. I think ABS sheet and ABS cement would work better honestly, but this works good enough.

Lessons learned:

Use strong tape (I have Gorilla Tape) when taping and tracing the overlap.
Use weak tape (blue masking tape) when taping the seam for gluing. The Gorilla Tape was so strong it caused the seam to separate once when I pulled the tape off.
Spend the $4 for a decent utility knife with a good handle.
Cut the center hole on the small side, cut the outside diameter on the big side. You can always make the ID bigger or the OD smaller.
Use 3M 33+ electrical tape to secure the disc to the rim. Go slow, getting the tape as close to the braking surface as you can without actually touching it. After a few times it's easy.
Use about a 1.5" to 2" piece on the inside to glue the seam together. Don't rely on the thin wedge you'll cut out for the cone/dish.

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Your favorite mafia sucks.

Another lighter option (though more expensive) is .010" fiberglass sheet. http://www.acpsales.com/...neStore.php?cat=5089