Back in April, a wheel fell off my trash bin and someone ran it over. Without the wheel, the bin easily tips over and it’s been a pain in the ass getting it out to the road on trash day. So I finally made time to make a new wheel.

I glued and screwed two pieces of 3/4″ plywood together. Then I found the center of the block, center punched it to make drilling easy later, and drew a circle to match the size of the working wheel.

On the band saw I cut close to the line.

Then I took it over to the disc sander and sanded right up to the line.

On the drill press I made a hole the center with a bit slightly larger than the trash bin’s shaft.

Time for a test fit. It was perfect!

Back over to the sander, where I added a chamfer to the edges.

Sprayed a couple of coats of paint.

Then I used epoxy to attach a washer to each side of my wheel, which would sort of act as bearings.

The final step was to find something to hold the wheel on the shaft. In one of my junk boxes I found a plastic piece, which fit on the shaft after using a file to make the hole a little larger. I used more epoxy to attach this to the shaft.

I’m not sure how the plywood will hold up to the rain and snow, but I’m sure I’ll find out over the next few months.