Wheels

I just finished a spinning wheel for my daughter (we do the oddest things for our kids!). You might want to use the technique I used on it. Make the rim of the wheel from four segments, (you could use six or eight, I would recommend 8). Cut the miters on the corners and dry fit the blank for the wheel. With the blank firmly clamped, tack a piece from one outside corner to the other, with shims in the other two corners, and flip the piece over. Take one of the cutoffs from the miter cuts and place it dead center on the piece you tacked across. The, using a tramel on your router, rout out the inside radius of the wheel. Draw a tangent the outside radius, which you have not cut yet, and divide it into four pieces(you will have three marks on the line). Ignore the center line, the other two indicate the location of your spoke holes. Continue the line around to the freshly routed inside and center. Align the table of your drill press with the angle on the rim piece and drill with a fostner bit.

On the hub. IF you have an indexing lathe, turn the piece for the hub and build a jig to fit over the hub, with a hole drilled for your marking awl, which you will then center over the hub piece while it is mounted in the lathe. Set your index and punch a mark with an awl, rotate 90 degrees and make you second mark and continue for the other two. After you have all four marked. Move the jig and the indexing pin, find center between two of your marks and mark it. The replace the jig and center the awl over the freshly marked point. Index and mark the four holes at the 45 degree points. Then remove from lathe and drill with a fostner bit.

It is easier than it sounds. One thing to watch out for is that you get your wheel blank absolutely flat when you are gluing it up. Apply pressure from all four sides (naturally) but also clamp the pieces to a perfectly flat surface also. (I will do this next time :-))

Deb

Sounds like traditional wheelwright technique. My lathe has indexes for six spokes, so that'd be the way I go. Six felloes, center bored.

Thanks, though you _do_ know that wagon wheels are made with a "belly," for tracking, don't you? I watched Roy's show on wheelmaking twice.

George, if you run out of time to make the coach, use a shoe that fits Cinderella. :)

Congratulations to the groom, best wishes to the bride... and courage to her Mom & Dad.

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

"George" (clip) I had the idea to turn a piece round, then, using the index, rest and boring guide, bore through-and-through, assuring alignment of the spokes for rim and hub. Didn't work well at all, as the bit followed the grain, resulting in a visible misalignment. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If I understand you right, you are trying to make disk wheels, with round bored holes through the web, to create "spokes." I can picture these, perhaps painted in a bright red, with fancy pin-striping, kind of like a circus wagon. Very attractive.

The first suggestion I will make is to find some wood that has hardly any grain structure (like pine) so the drill does not have a soft off-center path to follow. I would use a close-fitting drill guide attached to the toolpost, to minimize drift. And, I would use a Forstner bit--they have very little tendency to wander.

Another possibility, if your lathe is big enough, is to make an off-center jam chuck, so you can TURN the holes. By rotating each wheel to six different positions in the chuck, you will create the spoke pattern you are looking for. This also has the advantage that the holes do not have to be straight-sided, so the wheels will look lighter, and more "sophisticated."

If nothing else works, you could just give in to the problem, and make the wheels out-of-round, like a cartoon coach. And never reveal that it was a "cop-out." It was a humorous innovation.

No, I was boring through the disk from the edge, after which I separated first the rim with perforations ready for the spokes, then turned down to, and parted off the hub, also perforated. The wood was cherry, which isn't too hard, but six inch holes at 3/16 don't seem possible without travel.

Second attempt was solids and the scrollsaw, but you pretty much have to leave the spokes broad going across the grain, so not too pretty. Looks like the thing should be rigged as a drozhky, with a troika up front, or something like the tumbrel that took Marie Antoinette to the Guillotine. Come to think of it, maybe Craig would get the humor....

Plan "C" goes to cross-laminated disk and scrollsaw, reserving as "D" jigging the drillpress and standard wheelwright technique in miniature

"George" wrote: No, I was boring through the disk from the edge,(clip) but six inch holes at 3/16 don't seem possible without travel. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I think you are right--6" deep holes 3/16 diameter are going to wander. But why not try me idea--a thin disk wheel with six holes through the web, like a circus or popcorn wagon? Seems fairly easy, and I think it would look elegant if painted and striped.

Or a thicker disk, bore the spoke holes then turn thinner in the mid-portion leaving a thicker hub and rim. I did similar wheels for little red wagons to hold salt and pepper shakers for the table. They turned out well, but I gave them all away so can't send you a picture.